Return-Path: <J.S.Singh@CIVE.RI.CMU.EDU>
Received: from CIVE.RI.CMU.EDU by K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU; 10 Sep 88 15:56:38 EDT
Date: Sat, 10 Sep 1988 15:41-EDT 
From: J.S.Singh@CIVE.RI.CMU.EDU
To: bovik@k
Subject: plumber
Message-Id: <589923699/jsingh@CIVE.RI.CMU.EDU>

I looked up a couple of the people reccomended in the Bovik database
and found nothing recent so here is some advice from a recent
experience:

1. If you have a drain blockage do not use Drano crystals.  Liquid
Plummer works much better.  I was out of Liquid Plummer so I put some
drano crystals down the pipe.  Within a minute, the crystals had
settled at the bottom of the P Trap and burned a hole in the bottom
of the trap.  The contents of the kitchen sink came gushing out onto
the kitchen floor.

2.  We had had a similar problem before so I decided that it was time
to get professional help.  But first I decided to wait till the next
morning.  Big mistake- don't wait till the next morning.  Call ASAP if
you have decided to call.  Plumbers these days have answering services.
Best thing to do is to say when you'd like to have service.  I waited
till the next morning and called at 7:30 am.  I didn't get a plumber
till 2:30 in the afternoon.

3. If you haven't heard from the plumber for a couple of hours and you
call another don't tell the second one that you have already spoken to
one.  Tell them to simply call before they come to mae sure youre at
home.

4. I gave up on Stahl Plumbing and Mark Puharic Plumbing because they
didn't call me back for 4 hours.  Finally I called Roto Rooter and
they came out within 20 minutes.  All three should be in the white
pages.

5.  Roto Rooter charged me $70 for about 45 minutes of work. The guy
was professional and I reccomend them if you can afford that much.
It is interesting that when I asked the woman on the telephone
what an average charge was, she said it was impossible to say.  But
when the guy showed up, he said the standard charge was $70.   They
don't worked by the hour but by the job.


Jeff