MCRAE PLUMBING COMPANY

McRae Plumbing is the name listed on my septic permit with Jefferson County; however, they’ve supposedly never heard of the actual person who did the excavation and installation work. I ended up with a septic system that wasn’t installed correctly, so within a year I had a septic tank overflowing, black water in my front yard, drains that can’t drain and no one willing to take responsibility for the inferior work that was done. I’ve been in my new home since September 2020, and I’m looking at having to have serious rework done on the septic system. There will be legal action taken if they don’t step up and fix this!

I bought a tankless water heater through Home Depot. They removed my old tank on the second floor but did not cap off the supply line and the floor below was soaked. They stole the job lead from Home Depot who had no record of my job (they honored my intentions and filed a damage claim, from which McRae promised to pay me directly for dehumidifier rental fees but never did) Further, the county inspector found ~ 7 code violations and commented off record on the unprofessional workmanship. After “JR” with McRae spoke to my wife with a condescension and distain, he would only communicate with me via text message dispute my desire to discuss this repair professionally. His installer had told him I was wanting to fuss. Not true. I refused to let them back on my property. Home Depot could not have another company repair their mess. I’ll eat the $900 repair rather than having McRae on my property again.

This company has the plumbing contract with Home Depot in the Knoxville area. This visit was terrible. I bought a kitchen sink and faucet at Home Depot and this is who they sent out. It was a guy and his apprentice. The sink I bought was a $250 Kohler that had one pre-drilled hole and could have 3 more holes drilled. I bought a faucet with 3 knobs and a sprayer, requiring 4 holes. The guy told me I got the wrong faucet and he couldn't use it with the sink. He said I needed the large curved spigot type. Believing what he said, as he is the plumber, and I'm just a dumb lawyer, I ran over to Home Depot and got that faucet. When he was done, he admitted he made a mistake and he could have used the original faucet I bought because the sink had places to drill out 3 more holes. I'm pretty unhappy because I like the original faucet I bought much better. I'm going to report this to corporate Home Depot because they need to screen better who they contract with to take on these services. So BUYER BEWARE IF YOU ARE GETTING PLUMBING INSTALLATION FROM HOME DEPOT!!

$100 down the drain on a service call. Had banging pipes and said water pressure was fine I had a loose pipe inside my wall. Called a different company for second opinion.... water pressure was not fine....it was WAY TOO HIGH ! BAD pressure reducing valve. Problem fixed. McRae can't even manage to properly check water pressure???????!!!!!!!!

Chase and Jacob came to my home to do the install. It was very professional and they made sure to protect my rugs, etc. I had noticed it was taking a little long, but they ran into a problem. My house is on a slab and apparently the concrete had cracked or something and they couldn't get it to attach on one side. They were great, even making a phone call to their boss for advice. After a little work, they had made the installation work. I know that at some point, I will have to address this issue, but for know it's working. I'll be calling them for any further work in the plumbing department.

Arrived on time. Friendly and professional. Installed quickly.

About 3 years ago, I contacted McRae Plumbing Company because we had  very low water pressure at our home and wanted a solution to fix it.  We live on top of a hill about 400 feet from the meter. They recommended putting a booster pump inline in the garage to increase the pressure.  I was initially very pleased with the service and the water pressure was much improved.  After about a year, however, the pump started leaking and so I contacted them and they came out and replaced it with another pump, free of charge, as it was still under warranty. They said that there were some seals at the bottom of the pump that had failed. At this point, I was still fine with the service but after that, things started to go down-hill. Approximately nine months later, it started leaking again and progressively got worse. I called and left a message explaining the problem, but never got a call back.  Several months went by, and it got to the point that there was a large puddle of water in the garage and I was concerned about it affecting the walls, causing mold to grow.   I contacted them again and they said they could not find any record of prior work done.After multiple phone calls, I finally got a time set for them to come out and ***** the problem.  They came and looked at it during the day and could not see where it was leaking from. Due to it being during the day and my family not being home using the water, it didn't leak much.  The leak was much more pronounced when the water was being used.  I explained this to them but they were adamant that the water we were seeing was not coming from the pump but from a leak in the wall.  They said they would not come back out unless I cut a hole in my drywall exposing the plumbing behind it so they could find the leak.  Even though I knew that it was the seals again (This being the second time it had happened) I cut a hole in the wall and scheduled for them to come back out.  When they came out a second time, there was a lot of water on the floor so they knew something was leaking somewhere.  After not being able to find the leak in the plumbing that was visible close to where the water leak was, they cut the hole bigger (without asking anyone for permission!). Still no leaks!  They still did not believe the pump was what was leaking and could not figure out how to find out where the water was coming from. My wife had the idea to slide a cookie sheet underneath the pump so the leak would be evident. It didn't show up immediately so they told my wife to sop up the water around the pump and see what happened.  They left and within minutes the cookie sheet had water in it.  She called them and told them it was leaking and since they were just down the road they came back and verified that it was indeed coming from the pump. At this point, they told us it would not be under warranty. Knowing that we had not had it long, we knew it had to be under warranty. We found the serial # on the pump, called the manufacturer and they verified that it was still under warranty.  We had to constantly call them to get anything done.  I finally called the owner, Steve, explained to him what was going on and asked him how much it would be to get the pump replaced and the drywall fixed.  He told me he would check into it and get back with me.  After 6 days, I called his cell and left him a message asking for a call back.  His secretary called and said that they were going to have someone come out and fix it.  When I asked her about the cost, she didn't know and had to call me back.  She said it would cost $200 to replace the pump (that's still under warranty) and fix the drywall.  My main problem is this.  I hired a professional to do a job, went with their suggestion and it didn't work.  I have already had two pumps replaced and they want to put a third one in.  What makes them think the same thing won't happen again?  So, I did some investigation.  I contacted the pump company and explained the issues I was having and asked them for suggestions.  They explained to me that this pump was made for people who have extremely low pressure, 25-30 psi, and if it is used in an application where the pressure fluctuates and goes above 40 psi, it will eventually blow the seals out.  No one had ever checked the water pressure coming into the house and my house does not have a pressure reducer valve on it.  When I explained this to Steve McRae, he said that was incorrect.  He had installed many of these pumps and never had a problem. Now I am sure that he normally knows what he's talking about but I do have two failed pumps following his recommendations and the pump company is telling me the fluctuating water pressure is the issue.  With Steve's response to the situation, I decided to go with a different provider.  I found out that during the day, our water pressure was about 42 psi coming into the pump and at night went to a little over 50 psi, more than enough to blow the seals.  The pump company ( Grundfos) informed me that they are going to be coming out with a pump in the next few months that will be suitable for my situation so we are going to wait until then to replace it with the proper pump. As a side note, after McRae's crew had been in my garage, I had a $200 dewalt drill go missing.  We had used the drill just a few days prior and it was sitting out on a work table. After looking everywhere for it, I had to come to the conclusion it was taken and go buy another one.  So, I have a huge hole in my garage that should not have been cut, a drill that had to be replaced and $600 spent on a recommendation that did not work long-term.  I'm not a happy camper and would not recommend doing business with this company! I have never left a negative review but I could not in good conscience not say anything about this. If you decide to use them, I recommend being with them at all times and be prepared to call multiple times to get things done.  

Very, very impressed with this company and will use them again for additional plumbing issues.  I am also letting the 100+ people I work with know that they were prompt, knowledgeable, and very reasonably priced.

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Randy did a GREAT job! He arrived on time, was friendly, knowledgeable, professional and left everything clean and tidy. I would definitely use McRae Plumbing again and would suggest to friends!

.Two men arrived on time with all required materials.. The work was performed in a very professional and timely manor. The
quality of workmanship was perfect. Twenty or so sweated joints with perfect flow and no run over of solder. These two men are truely pros!!! I would certainly call McRae again.

He did a fantastic job. I would use his service in the future too.

McRae Plumbing changed our bathtub, which took care of the leaking. I was pleased with their service. They always do great work. We have used their services many times. They are a dependable and honest company. I would recommend them to others.