SunnyMex Septic & Drain

This is our second experience with SunnyMex plumbers. This time, the faucets of our jetted tub needed repair, they were leaking and not shutting off completely. I made an appointment for a weekday morning and they said they'd be there by between 9 and 10am. At 10am the plumber called and asked if later today would still work for me. I said I had to go back to work, so his boss came to the house and looked at what the job would be and we agreed on a Saturday time for the work to be done. The Saturday work did not cost more since we were able to schedule in advance. They came on Saturday a little past 10am (again, they said they'd be there between 9 and 10am).  It turned out to be a kind of difficult repair, custom faucet handles on a jetted tub that weren't standard size,  but they kept after it (including a couple of trips for the right tool) and when all was finished, they did a good job at what I thought was a reasonable price. I don't feel like they were late or put us off unnecessarily, we just had a minor repair that wasn't an emergency and I think it's understandable that the people with "roto-rooter" emergencies (like we had last year when we called them for help) need to come first. They are definitely our plumbers of choice and we know we'll get reasonable rates and good service when we call them.

The bathtub wouldn't drain on a Friday night. We called SunnyMex because they advertised in the yellow pages as a plumber that could be called 24/7. They offered to come that night, but we were going out and it wasn't an emergency so we all agreed the plumber should come then next morning ( I think it was 9am). The plumber arrived between 9 and 9:15 and listened to our story but the water had seeped out of the tub by then. We filled the tub back up and he could see it wouldn't drain. He tried snaking the drain with no effect. He tried a larger snake which required the removal of the toilet, again with no effect. He went under the house to follow the pipes, trying to find another access to the sewer pipe. There was no other vent or access in or around our house. He called his boss (the company owner, I think) who quickly joined him at our house and they consulted and agreed the best course was to dig access to the sewer pipe in the backyard and snake it there to finally try to remove the obstruction. We were a bit alarmed at this plan ( I was alarmed at the toilet removal thing) and we were freaking out that what appeared a simple problem was escalating. The boss (sorry I don't recall the gentleman's name now) patiently explained that this sort of problem was their specialty, this was the best course of action, and waiting to get a second opinion was something we could do but they were very good at this sort of thing. He said he didn't think it would go over $500, and we took deep breaths and said, "Go ahead". At this point I feel the need to mention that my husband and I are anglo and the SunnyMex men are hispanic. In Sunnyside, hispanic/anglo relations are still a bit tentative and I think there may have been some discomfort on both sides of the discussion because of it, but the SunnyMex plumbers were totally professional, helpful, confident, businesslike, and we were very impressed. The plumber's boss used an electronic pipe sensor to find where the sewer pipe went in the back yard, and he found an unobtrusive spot in a corner of a flower bed to dig down and install an access ventpipe. A third man was brought in to dig the hole down to the pipe and he was very careful not to disturb too many plants and keep the dirt contained on a tarp to not damage the lawn. The pipe was finally accessed, snaked and the obstruction removed. The plumber said the problem stemmed from the fact that our sewer pipe has a bend/elbow in it so the snake had trouble making the corner. Now we have a capped access ventpipe so if this happens again in the future we're set. All of this activity happened on a Saturday morning. By early Saturday afternoon the third man had refilled the hole, any mess was cleaned up and the service was completed. The plumbers had left by then so the final invoicing took place over the phone. We agreed that we would leave the payment taped to the screen door (which I thought was trusting of them) and they picked it up later in the day because we wanted to go out shopping. Overall, I was very impressed that they didn't drag it out, didn't have to leave to take another call and then come back, they perservered until the problem was fixed, and everyone was very businesslike. I strongly recommend calling SunnyMex for any home plumbing problem, they're professionals.