Evenflow Plumbing Co

The sewer lateral was fine- the crew completed the work in a timely manner. However, when we experience plumbing problems right after the sewer lateral was completed, Gary and his staff have been very unresponsive. Two delays, three times I was told he or his staffperson would come by, to just leave our locked gate open, and no show. The toilet on the other side of the wall from the sewer lateral started to clog right after the sewer lateral was completed. Gary and Andrew have been difficult to hold to their commitments and promises to fix the problem. They've come, dispatched other workers, promised to call when work is complete, and have left those promises unfulfilled. A month later, our problem is still not fixed and I have two big holes in my back yard.

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They initially completed the service in 2002. In 2005 the odor started to come back again. My tenants were constantly putting drain cleaner and deodorizer down the drains to eliminate the odor. I had contacted them in October of 2013 to come out and look at the sewer line again. They never showed up when they were supposed to. They were constantly giving me excuses as to why they couldn't show up. They failed to fix the issue the first time, and I had to pay for another company to remedy the situation. I even had to pay for one of my tenants to move out of the property.

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I had a great positive experience. It was a big job and it was an old house. He hit some stumbling box along the way because you never know what you are going to get when you start digging, but he stayed with it and it was great. The interaction was good. It's a job that nobody wants to do, but actually he made it very easy and considering the amount of work he did my yard was left really nice. He kept me informed as to what was going on the whole time. He got in and got done in probably three days, I think it was. He has a very competitive price. He may not have been the cheapest, but I didn't really want the cheapest I just want a good job. It's expensive to do this. The quality was very good. Actually I think I am going to have him replace my water lines coming into the house.

We had a mixed experience.

As for the work I couldn't ask for an easier solution to my problem. Had to have the sewer line from the house to the city's main sewer replaced. I got tired of having Roto-Rooter or some such company come out to clear the lines. The owner of the company (Gary Dimodana) came out on a Saturday and gave us an estimate after running a TV camera down the line. He said it was not necessary to dig up the street but just to replace it to the edge of the tree lawn. (I had had another company come out and he wanted to dig up the street to replace the sewer line for a cost of $6800.00. He did not run a camera down the line.) Gary's crew showed up early on the appointed morning and then it was hips, lips and arm pits from then until the job was done. There was a 1hr. and 40 minute wait for the city inspector to show up and authorize the burial of the new plastic sewer line. I was totally pleased and satisfied with the workmanship and the price.

However, Mr. Dimodana stated that he would provide us with a copy of the completed city permit for the work, but never did so. We paid on the day this work was completed. Once paid, he did not return our phone calls or emails concerning the permit. After waiting a month for it, we visited the Department of Public Works. Their investigation revealed that Mr. Dimodana had never called the inspector to arrange for the final inspection. Fortunately, the staff at Public Works was able to arrange the final inspection for us and provided us a copy of the signed-off permit - because we have never heard from Mr. Dimodana again. Moral of this story: Withhold the last 10% of payment until you have a completed and signed off copy of your permit. Once he has your money, this guy is done with you.

I called Gary for an estimate to replace our sewer lateral. He let me know that to get a proper estimate he would need to send a camera down a line and our house had no clean out so he would need to first install one. His crew came out and got the clean out installed right away and scoped the line. The pipe was clay and sagging so it definitely needed to be replaced to meet the city standards. Crew came back the next week and got the job done. Overall Evenflow is great. If you need sewer work done - and in Oakland if you are buying/selling you do, I would definitely recommend these guys. Gary has been replacing sewers for like 20 years and he told me that he personally trains every member of the crew. The only issue I had was that there was a bit of a communication breakdown with the scheduling of the job. I got a call Monday morning from their office letting me know that there had been an emergency and they would not be able to do my job that day. No problem except that no one told us they would be coming that day and we have tenants that need 24 hours notice. It was not big deal and the job was rescheduled for later in the week. The crew showed up on time and got right to work. They did not want me to give them a check so I had to go home on my lunch to meet Gary to pay him which would have been fine because I wanted him to look at some other pipes but he never showed. I had to go back to work so I left the check for him. It was just a little annoying but all in all they were quick, new what they were doing and got the certificate filed right away. Definitely worth the mild flakiness if you need sewer work done. Also I got 2 other estimates and they were right in the middle.

I was referred by someone from Angie's List and they were the nicest guys ever. They did more than they thought they would have to do and did not charge me any more. They were really good and I was impressed. They put all new 4-inch cast iron pipes. They cleaned up under my house and put in new pipe where it was needed. I think their price was excellent for what they did and I will use them again in the future. I will recommend them anytime.

We recently bought an old house built in the late '50s. We had to replace all the old cast iron under the house. We got estimates from 3 different companies before we went with Evenflow.

One company was way too high right off the bat. It seems they charged based on our zip (there are a lot of wealthy people in our town; unfortunately for us, we are not in that group) rather than the job. They started out and quot;astronomically high,and quot; and came down to and quot;high.and quot;

Evenflow and the other company were both contenders. They both gave free estimates.

My friend met Gary from Evenflow at the house and was very impressed with him. Gary called me the night the work estimate was delivered. I spoke to him at length. He patiently explained things to me (ABS vs. cast iron; good ABS installation vs. shortcuts) which I appreciated. We talked about the pros and cons of doing a and quot;repairand quot; vs. replacing the whole system. He included the cost of all permits in his pricing. This fix was not cheap (in my book), and writing a check for the whole thing was pretty cost prohibitive for me. Gary accepted my credit card. (phew!)

While on the job site, the day of the work, Gary realized the 4and quot; pipe quoted would not fit easily under all parts of the house (due to other ducting and the 18and quot; crawl space). He had to go with 3and quot; pipe (which was the size of the pre-existing cast iron pipe). He told me my cost would now be LESS than the quote because his costs were now less. YAY!!

I was very happy with the the entire transaction. It has only been 2 days since the piping was replaced - but no problems so far ... and I'm not anticipating any.

I highly recommend Gary and Evenflow.

I have used them about 8 times in the last 3 months. He does an excellent job and I will continue to use him in the future.

Excellent.

When Evenflow's plumber arrived, he was in an unmarked vehicle and he did not identify himself at the door. I had to ask who he was (not a good practice with female clients). Upon arrival, he said he would assess the job and give me a written estimate. When I told him what the job was, he gave a verbal estimate of $250. Upon opening the packages of new merchandise he was to install, he realized that the shower hardware was inappropriate and recommended an alternative. I took his advice. However, he then began working on the installation of the toilet, and when I asked about the written estimate he said, "Oh, it's the same, $250", without putting it on paper. He kept to that figure, but it's troublesome that he did not put the estimate in writing or reduce it when he realized that it would be one installation instead of two. Worst of all, he did not assemble the tank securely and it wobbled and leaked when flushed, requiring me to call the company and have him return to fix it.