Sharks Plumbing and Sewer, Inc.

They are fantastic. They could not fix it so recommended another company, they left the area clean as when they found it.

Reached out to provider via Angieslist and included pictures and description. No response for over a month. Followed up with a phone call and it was never returned.

We had a small leak in the connection to one of our faucets. The responsive time between us calling them and them coming out to fix it was super quick. Everything seems to work the way it should.

unknown

unknown

I called and he came the next day.  He fixed it and he was very clean.  The owner actually came and he was a very nice man.

unknown

Did an excellent job from start to finish. Prompt, clean, expert knowledge and the quality was outstanding.

I definitely would use them again.

unknown

John is truly a professional.  He is an excellent example of someone who planned his work, and worked his plan which reflects his skills as a former general manager of a very large Chicago plumbing house.  I call him the Tom Skilling of Plumbing but his previous experience in homebuilding make me think that he is a savant of many other trades. His concrete work was excellent.   From the start, he was the person that took the time to interview me and was trying to understand the whole process of the flooding in the basement.  At first he thought that a flood control system might be something for me to consider and recommended a contractor in the Chicago area who does a lot of them.  However, that evaluation and bid proposal seemed expensive, and I wasn't convinced that the flood control system would stop the water from coming up in the middle of our basement   So I called John and asked if he could returned to my house for a second inspection since I really believed that he could figure out the problem.  He asked for me to seek out details of the home and encouraged me to reach out to the village or historical society to see if I could find any old blueprints or copies of the architectural plans.  He also advised me to reach out to a previous owner that I knew who owned the home before the person that I bought it from.  That research helped him to confirm that we had an abandoned sewer drain under floor patch that was the source of the flood water.  Within a day he had a detailed proposal of the scope of work.  However, his knowledge of older homes is pretty phenomenal.  Everything that he had to presume through deduction came to fruition since we didn't get a lot of intel from old plans.  My flooding issue came from a catch basin that had an opened sewer pipe that led back to the street.  During the 4-5" of rain that came in April, a lot of storm water came back up that pipe and filled up the basin until it reached an open pipe that went to an unknown, abandoned sewer drain pipe in the middle of my basement that was sealed up with an old towel, cement and covered with leveling floor prep.  The old pipe filled up and the hydrostatic pressure led to water seaping out of the old pipe and to cracks in my basement floor.  John had to correct the overhead flood control system that I had inherited and was not done correctly nor was ever done with a permit with inspection.  John and his crew had to dig out around the sewer stack to make the overhead sewer control system meet code and find out where the sewer pipe goes.  He also had to properly seal a sewer pipe that came from the kitchen that was supposed to deposit grease and water into the catch basin.  Grease on top of the water would collect and it used to be sucked out each year by a village service until the EPA laws changed and that practice is no longer done.   John had to hydra-cement those open pipes in the catch basin and under my basement floor, and then used the open sewer pipe in the catch basin to create a clean out pipe for the sewer.  The catch basin was filled with gravel and sealed near the top with concrete and a screw-in sealed the top of the clean-out pipe.  There was a couple adjustments that the inspector wanted done which John accepted and made the modifications at his own expense.  He came back as promised in 5 days to pour the concrete around the catch basin lid in my driveway since he had to break-up the concrete in order to dig out all the rocks that filled the catch-basin.  The rocks were put there naively by me on the recommendation of a home-inspector who worried that my children might try to jump in the catch basin and get stuck.  However, unbeknownst to me the catch basin pit had the open pipes that made flooding in our basement very easy to accomplish.  John and his fellow plumber, Dave, were very respectful.  Cleaned up after themselves each day.  No foul language was heard by me or my children though John and Dave may had moments that could frustrate them during the high heat of that week.   Working with Shark Plumbing and its owner, John Harjung, was one of the best experiences that my wife and I have had in hiring someone to think analytically and create a solution with no surprises or any hints of surprise extra costs.  He truly is a man of integrity.  I will use him soon for replacing a flood damage sink in the basement and any maintenance work in the future.

John and his crew were great!  The house has a crawl space with is quite small.  Most of this plumbing work had to be done there.  They arrived promptly and were very professional.
Would hire them again for any plumbing work I had to have done.

id not jump to any conclusions just kept analyzing the situations of all the facts before he gave me a "forecast" of what was happening. In fact, he asked if I could him a day to think about the situation and if he had a solution that he would call me and give me a diagnosis with an estimate or a referral.  He asked if I could ask an old owner or look at architectural plans to figure out if there was once a drain tile in the middle of the basement where flood water had risen in the basement and damaged all my pad and carpet. I did make a call and confirmed his suspicion which was confirmed by Ken at Family Waterproofing later that night with his estimate and analysis.   John felt that our best option is not to get drain tiles since there is no evidence of water leaking through the wall or at seam of where the foundation walls and floors meet.  He suggested that I call Jose Roque Plumbing who he used to be a colleague as a plumber in the past and ask him for an estimate for work on developing a flood control system.  He discussed that there would be two options but to refer to Jose to see what the costs might be and what option may be the best for my situation.  While they were there, I asked Dave if he would know why the disposal seemed locked up and the reset button was no working.  He asked me for an allen's wrench tool that was provided with the disposal.  He pointed out that if I unlock the blade at the bottom and then retighten, I might solve my issue.  That did solve the issue immediately and was an appreciated tip that I had forgotten to do.  As this project unfolds or for any plumbing work, I would definitely call Shark's.