Return-Path: Received: from SELDON.PRODIGY.CS.CMU.EDU by K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU id aa01434; 19 Dec 96 8:54:23 EST Received: from [127.0.0.1] by seldon.prodigy.cs.cmu.edu id aa13532; 19 Dec 96 8:54 EST To: bovik@cs.cmu.edu cc: mkb@cs.cmu.edu, cl+@andrew.cmu.edu, rickr+@cmu.edu, ssingh@ri.cmu.edu, Chris_McGlone@cs.cmu.edu, lowekamp+@cs.cmu.edu, mjc+@andrew.cmu.edu Subject: Plumbers Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 08:54:01 -0500 Message-ID: <13530.851003641@seldon.prodigy.cs.cmu.edu> From: Karen Zita Haigh I need a few pipes cleaned out (snaked) and Bovik's plumber recommendations are old. Any suggestions? [ I called Sullivan since only the Stock & Sullivan comments had come in, and they were a larger group so I figured they might have someone to come y'day while I was at home. They showed up an hour later & quoted $150/drain to have each of the two drains snaked... one was a basement drain that was clogged with rubble from pulling out a chimney, and the other a bathroom drain that wasn't responding to draino or my own mini-snake. The downstairs drain cleared quickly. Upstairs, however, they spent 4 hours trying to clear it before conceding defeat. The previous owner had done a poor construction job, including making poor connections, leaving old pipes, and most of all, leaving the trap completely inaccessible. Sullivan pulled out the old pipes & replaced them. The clog was 100% rock, all the way through. It was amazing ANY water was EVER getting through. It's no wonder the snake couldn't. Took all day, but each time I looked in, it looked like they were doing a very good job. $950 total (quoted in advance). They didn't charge for snaking the upstairs drain. Water runs wonderfully now! ] ------- Forwarded Messages From: Mike Blackwell Subject: Re: Plumbers We've had good luck with Sulivan Plumbing. They've done a few minor repairs, and we had them remodel our bathroom. They always show up on time, and seem to have reasonable rates. -mike- ------- Message 2 From: Christian J Lebiere Subject: Re: Plumbers I have used Tom Stock, one of Bovik's old favorites, for some major snaking of storm drains and household pipes (as well as some other plumbing work such as replacing parts of drains and pipes). He has always showed up promptly and on time, did excellent work, and charged fair prices. If you decide to use him, let him know that I recommended him. You can always use some goodwill from your plumber :) Christian ------- Message 3 From: Richard Romero Subject: Re: Plumbers The only interaction I've had with plumbers was with Sullivan, and, of course, it was a weekend type job in which my newly acquired house suddenly needed bathroom pipes to be cleaned. The person who came was fast, courteous, and friendly. He gave me a price up front and cleaned the pipes. After he was done, he explained what had happened and gave me instructions for keeping them clean and some stuff to use (one of those bio-based pipe junk eaters.) I have no idea what a standard price should be for that job, but I think I paid about 150 for it, and he was there about an hour or an hour and a half. I felt that to be a reasonable price given the service he provided. - -rick ------- Message 4 From: Monica J Cellio Subject: Re: Plumbers I've had Tom Stock (856-1077) do this sort of thing for me a couple times and he seemed to do a good job. In one case, I called him for a second opinion after some sleaze (Stahl Plumbing -- stay away!) told me I had a collapsed pipe and he'd have to dig up the yard and replace it ($3500). Tom's conclusion was that this guy hadn't used a big enough snake and it doubled back on itself; he solved my problem for $85. (Quite a difference. :-) ) Except for the most recent time (~1.5 years ago), Tom has always been on time and done a good job. In that most recent case he was late and seemed to be in a hurry; maybe he was just having a bad day. The problem hasn't recurred, so I haven't called him more recently. Monica ------- Message 5 Subject: Re: Plumbers From: Sanjiv Singh Try Joe Vanyo (884-1587). We works at CMU as a plumber and does work on the side. He seems to have lower prices than most plumbers I called. The exception was when we wanted a gardbage disposal installed. He offered to sell us one that he had but his price was about $30 higher than the price at Hechinger so I bought it myself and had him install it. He wasn't too happy about this but did the job. - -Sanjiv ------- Message 6 Subject: Re: Plumbers From: lowekamp+@symphony.mc.cs.cmu.edu I've used Bartolomeo Plumbing whenever I've hired a plumber. All the work I've had them do has been done well, they're reliable, and they were very reasonably priced when I compared them with other contractors for the big job I had done on my house before I moved in. If all you want to have cleaned out are a few small drain lines (not the main sewer line), that's actually pretty easy to do. You can clean out the traps with few or no tools. A 15' manual drum snake is frequently all you need to get hair out of a line, and it costs somewhere around $15. Bruce ------- Message 7 Subject: Re: plumbers From: Chris McGlone We've had good experiences with Tom Stock, 856-1077, including snaking an outside drain line. Chris ------- End of Forwarded Messages