Donald Halcom Plumbing

Don and Chris are great! I needed some galvanized plumbing replaced in my 100+ year old house. The first plumber I got a quote from said it was a tricky job and he needed a day to complete the work. Don and Chris came in, said no problem, we do this stuff all the time, and that it’s an easy job that will only take a few hours. Sold!
They arrived to do the work as promised, finished in 3 hours, and everything looks great! The work was done exactly as described, and they cleaned up everything after they were done. I couldn’t be happier with their work.
When they came to do the estimate, Don was very honest and didn’t upsell me on any unnecessary plumbing work. I also love the fact that they are a father /​son team.

Don went out of his way to help us when we were out of options for our clogged kitchen sink in our new home (and by now mountains of dirty dishes everywhere). He came out the same day, and was very quick to fix the problem. He helped explain what he was doing, as well as what to do to help prevent this issue again.
I would 100% recommend Don and his apprentice, Chris, for any plumbing issues you may have. They are personable, knowledgeable, and passionate about their customers. Best customer service we have experienced!

I can’t speak highly enough of Don and his son Christopher’s work.
Situation: Friday morning 7am, getting ready to go to work. I found out from a courteous neighbor that water was gushing out from our yard onto the sidewalk by the street. Long story short: I learned that the galvanized water supply line to our house was leaking water. I figured out how to shut off the water meter to the house, which stopped the leaking, but left us without any water going to the house. Not a fun way to start the weekend!
I called our regular plumber (who I like) but they were booked up a week. They gave me a few other names, but when I called them, they were also booked for a while. Not good. I went to Unilocal to quickly try to find a reputable plumber who might be able to come out sooner to take a look at the situation. Fortunately, Don was one of the first I stumbled on and I would soon be on the path to restored water service.
Don answered just before he was heading out for the day (you get Don, not a receptionist when you call), and stated that while he was pretty booked for the day, he would be in the area and given the urgent situation, he would try to stop by to check it out. He gave me a ring early in the afternoon saying he was on his way, so I headed home to meet him.
He quickly assessed the situation, and said that he could try to patch the galvanized line, but given how old it was, he’d recommend replacing it outright. This advice was consistent with the research I had done in the intervening hours. I was worried that this meant he’d have to come back in a few days or weeks given the magnitude of the job, and that it would cost a ton. But he said they could start right then — given the urgent nature, he ended up calling his next job (with a contractor) to reschedule that. As for cost — it wasn’t cheap, but it was several thousand less than I was expecting to pay based on what I had heard, and as will be pretty clear, I think it was extremely fair for the amount of work that Don and Chris did. Excited that I might be on the path to having water again, I gave him the go ahead to start.
As soon as I gave him the go, Don and Chris started to work middle of Friday afternoon, digging up a three foot deep trench in my yard. He concurrently called the city water team to come in and replace their old connection line as well (which the city likes to do and will do for free if a plumber is replacing the homeowner portion of the line). They worked non-​stop, minus a quick dinner break and a trip to Home Depot, in 95 °F weather for about six hours till about 8:30pm. The digging was slower than they anticipated due to the dry/​rocky soil. They had most of the trench dug but didn’t yet dig underneath to connect to the house. But, they were able to create a temporary water line by connecting the new PEX line as an intake into our outdoor hose faucet, which I had no idea you could do, but it meant that, except for the short period of time the following morning when they finalized the job, we now had restored water service!
Don and Chris came back early the next day (8am on Seafair Saturday). Over the next five hours, they finished digging the trench, and drilled underneath our sidewalk into our house to have a new copper line connect from our main water inlet to the new PEX water main. At that point, the job was pretty much finished, except he left the trench open over the weekend and called the city to come in for an inspection on Monday (not required, but a nice thing to do). After the city OK’d the work, Don and Chris came back late on Monday afternoon to fill in the hole. Job done!
I knew the work had gone over the original estimate Don had given, but he stuck to his original price. I topped it off a few hundred because I was grateful that they took on this work despite having a very full schedule and worked overtime to get it done quickly. Throughout the entire process, Don was taking great care to make sure he was doing the job right, and doing it without being disruptive to our house. The only leftover work we had was to mud up the drywall that was cut out to do the inside pipe connection work, but that was very easy since the piece that Don had cut off was cleanly cut/​replaced. I chatted with Don a bit throughout the project, and you could tell based on how he selected materials and how he approached jobs that he took a lot of pride in his work and didn’t cut corners (and you could see him instilling that discipline in Chris!).
So, within 36 hours, on a Friday during the heart of busy plumbing season, we went from having a leaking water main line (and the threat of no water, or a high water bill) to having a brand new PEX water line replacement, and a new city connection as well. If you’re looking for a hard working, honest, professional, friendly, highly skilled plumber for a reasonable price, you’d be hard pressed to beat Don and Chris. He’ll be the first I turn to in the future if I have a plumbing problem.

Thanks Don and Chris
You guys did a great job, fast and at a fair price
We will use you again
Lee

Don came out a couple of times to address issues in our home and troubleshoot. I found him to be timely, professional, and friendly. I’d recommend him any day.

Recently purchased a home with a reoccurring sewer problem. I had another local plumber come by to snake the thing out and about a month later the thing backed up again.
This time, I called the plumber with the guy waving to you on the back of a bus to come out and take a peak. They started giving me quotes about $ 4000 to dig up my back yard and replace my sewer drain line. My wife sent them packing.
Slightly dismayed and fearful, I called Don up on chance after reading his Unilocal reviews. I called and talked to Don directly, not some receptionist or desk jockey. I told him my situation. He told me he would be out to take a look at it the next day.
That afternoon I found myself in my back yard digging up the line. About 2:30 Don calls me up and says he is done with his job early. He told me he’ll be by to take a look.
About a half hour later, Don pulls up with his son Chris, who is his apprentice. Chris and Don hop out with a shovels in hand and start digging as well. An hour later we uncover the problem. Broken sewer drain. Don runs down to the hardware store (while Chris uncovers the rest of the pipe) — grabs the necessary parts and has my sewer pipe working by 6:30 that night.
Don, Chris and I discussed what happened in detail while digging and looking at the problem. They quickly identified what was going on and gave me educated answers and sound advice.
The price was more than reasonable. Believe me, I shop around. Just think of much, much less than the $ 4000 for the waving guy.
They came back the next day and buttoned everything up very nicely. Even put a clean out where it comes out of the house so we don’t have to lift the toilet off to snake it again.
Wife is happy. I was happy. Don and Chris were happy. Guy with the waving hand — not so happy.

I have hired Donald Halcom Plumbing five or six times over the past year to work on rental properties and my own home. They have repeatedly provided top rate service with honesty, integrity, accountability and most importantly good communication. Their quality of work is top notch and I have found their pricing to be fair. I have told many friends and family to call them when needing plumbing work done and strongly suggest anybody with a plumbing situation to call them.