Discount Plumbing

unknown

Had to purchase another tap for kitchen as he had put new one in backward and then it would not stay in position
Hall toilet , would not flush without holding handle down, with new kit, still had to hold handle down to flush as he had not adjusted correctly.
Bedroom bath toilet, water was leaking from shut off. I noticed when he left water was still leaking from shut off and he had put a towel on the floor. I checked after he left. The floor was very wet and still leaking water.
I notified him the next morning. He said he would return later but I decided to try some else.

I have tried other plumbing companies in the area, but I keep coming back to Eddie Hamrick at Discount Plumbing. He has always come through for me, despite my tendency to call at bad times, like weekends. He always answers his phone, or at least gets back to you quickly after you leave him a message.
This was the fourth time he has come to my rescue. Nine years ago, one of the water lines to my shower stall broke and made a mess on my carpet. Eddie came over promptly and fixed the problem quickly, and with reasonable cost. Since then, he has replaced the "guts" in two toilet tanks. The originals were obsolete, and we went together to Lowes and he showed me the various ones available, and recommended a particular model for mine (they have an unusual height requirement, so the choices were limited) and said it had proven to be very reliable in his experience. He even showed me how to do it myself, at least for that model, if I ever wanted to give it a try. A couple of years later, he replaced the faucet fixtures in the master bathroom and the kitchen. The fixtures were rather expensive, but that was just my own taste, but his labor costs were reasonable. He even added some cut-offs into the cabinets and in the access compartment in the large tub in the bathroom. I hadn't thought of that, but I was very glad he had suggested it.
On his most recent visit, I had already assumed I would need to have the water heater replaced, not repaired. It was already ten years old, and had been set at a slightly higher-than-normal temperature, which I knew would probably reduce its expected life. Before he came over, I had already been online, checking brands, ratings, and pricing, and I expected the unit alone to cost between $250 - $275. I printed out a copy of the one I had selected, and showed it to Eddie when he came over. Oddly enough, he agreed with my choice, but he knew one thing that I didn't. He told me that the big box stores that sell them (where I had gotten my info) only sell "hardware" grade, as he put it. He suggested that he could get a "commercial" grade version that would be much more reliable, in his experience, and would be about the same cost, and possibly slightly less. I agreed with him, of course, so he put it on his account there, and just added it to my bill instead. Because of his advice, I got a better unit than I would have on my own.
I'll admit that he made a mess getting the old unit out of its assigned place, but it was a very cramped, narrow closet he was working in, making it difficult to see what he was doing, and hard to get leverage. Once he managed to get it out, we found that the unit had "busted the seam" at the back and actually had a small gash opening to the inside, allowing all the water to drain out. I had suspected something like that, so I had had to shut off all the water, the entire supply, in order to stop the wet area from growing larger in my bedroom carpet. I didn't have a cut-off specifically for the hot water heater (I do now, thanks to him), so I didn't even have cold water until his work was done. While the unit was out of place, I asked him if it was likely to have mold and mildew starting to grow in that area, since I could see a large swath of black and an even larger one of dark brick-red. He said that wasn't what that was; that was the sludge from the tank that had been slowly accumulating over the years, and had now leaked out along with the rest of the water. I have to admit that it was very similar to the stuff that has come out of the pipes when the neighborhood system had a leak and air got in the lines during the repair, and the next water sprayed colorful splatters that matched those colors. He said I had called him nice and early after the thing had died, and the short time-frame should also help prevent bio-contamination as well, as long as the area stayed open and well ventilated after he finished and until it was completely dry (I did. Left it open for over a week, with a fan in there the whole time).
When he brought the new one in, he found that it was slightly larger diameter than the old unit, and he had to cut away the last narrow strip of the sheet-rock wall that was now in the way. The small remnants of the sheet-rock that fell onto and in to the soggy carpet were the worst of the mess that I had to clean up later, and he couldn't have done it anyway, so I can't fault him for that. The smears from the sludge where the bottom of the unit scraped the back wall of the closet was easily removed with some scrubbing, and the wall itself was not damaged, other than the part he had had to remove to put the new unit in place.
He had realized before going to buy the new one that I would also like a cut-off for it (he didn't mention it, but he knew I would want it, which I did). He had taken care of the whole thing for me in a couple of hours, and I don't know why I even bothered calling anyone else. He has always been reliable, responsive, and reasonable with everything he has done for me over the years, and I am pleased to be the one to enter his small, but dependable business as a new listing for Angieslist.com. He does good work and I would like to see his business grow.