Alvco Plumbing

Susan K.

This company came recommended by Sourcewise, an organization funded to support senior citizens. Unfortunately, I trusted the referral and did not research Alvco. First off, he doubled his quote from the time we spoke on the phone to when he came to our house. He said he never quoted me that and then said, it was his mistake. It took over 3 days to install a grab bar in the shower and the job was done so poorly I had to hire someone to come in and redo it completely. We called to let the owner know about the unacceptable work and he started yelling and swearing at us. Even if he had offered to fix it, which he didn't, I would not have had him return to touch anything else.

Gary K.

Sent teen age son to repair leaking bathroom faucet, could not fix it, older gentleman came, said new part they bought was defective then got it working. Six months later started leaking same area, said their 12 month warranty was labor only and this was a part failure without looking at it or asking questions. Would not recommend at all

Cam W.

Don't use this company! Very unprofessional. Used Timothy at Alvco Plumbing to replace water heater at the Villages. He was 15 minutes late with no call to let me know he's running late. He replaced water heater and everything worked fine but left the old water heater on patio even though removal of heater off of site was quoted on the invoice. Made another appointment for Wednesday at 10am to replace garbage disposal. I had to text him at 10:25 to ask if he was coming and he told me he would be there in 10 minutes. He showed up 30 minutes later without the disposal which he was suppose to bring. I didn't have time to wait for him to go to the store to buy the disposal and install it so we rescheduled for the following Tuesday at 10. He's late again, texting me at 10:16 to say he will be there in 5 minutes, he didn't arrive until 10:30. He comes in the back door and I say you're 30 minutes late and he looks at his watch as if he had no idea he was late. Then proceeded to compare his company to ATT and that they give you a 4 hour window. He never gave me a window for any appointments, instead we had appointment times. He should probably give out appointment windows since he can't seem to make any of his scheduled times. He proceeded to argue with me on why he was late telling me plumbing work is not cut and dry and that he has stuff to do like load the truck before he comes out. That really isn't my concern, if you make an appointment you should keep it, simple as that! Timothy also told me that I should call Eagle Plumbing and see how much more they charge. I told Timothy that I don't mind paying more for better service. He proceeds to tell me that I must be rich to pay more. Absolutely ridiculous! He was combative and very unprofessional! I did call Eagle Plumbing and their prices were cheaper than Alvco. As Timothy was leaving he was swearing and telling me how rich I must be. Don't use Alvco Plumbing, too unreliable and too unprofessional! This is a rental unit and an hour away from where I live so I don't appreciate Timothy wasting my time.

Rad A.

I called this company for getting an estimate on solar install. someone called Timothy called me back . He said if you get the parts it will be $95 for mechanic and $45 his helper . I asked him how much time it takes approx , he replied rudely ""if it is expensive don't call me "" and dropped the phone. Called him again and he said takes week and dropped the phone before I could complete my sentence asking for is it 5 days or 7 days .. how many hours per day etc ..
He is definitely rudest contractor I have spoken to .

Evs C.

Great plumber. We have been here in The Villages for 18 years and Tim and his son Tim Jr. and Chucky have always been there to help us. What we like about Tim is he helps us on weekends and holidays. My husband would not have any other plumber in our house

May D.

Alvco Plumbing advertises in ""The Villager"" newspaper. I called him (Timothy) and asked how much he charges for the installation of a toilet, that i planned to buy at Lowe's. He said $129 for a basic install. He said it is extra if the toilet is a one-piece toilet, which the one i bought is a two-piece, and he asked if there are any stairs where i live; i told him no. i told him i would buy the supply and line and that it is probably a good time to replace the valve. He said i didn't need to buy a valve because he has all sorts of them. He could not give me a window of time of when he would be at my house.
When he got here, I suggested that he use the front door which is close to the bathroom, because I wanted less traffic on the wood floors. He insisted on going through the house to the garage. He did not turn-off the water and flooded the bathroom floor. He then carried out the old toilet with water dripping on the floors. He continued ranting about cheap toilets from Lowe's and that I could have bought a better one through him. I told him that when I told him I was planning on buying a toilet at Lowe's, he did not tell me I could buy a toilet through him. I did buy a valve and he was upset that I bought the wrong one. He was putting down people that bought items when they should have the contractor do so. I mentioned to him, that he had told me on the phone that he has all sorts of valves. He said he used his last one. I told him I would go buy the valve he needed while he finished another job at The Villages and he could back. He was so demeaning that there is no way I could buy the right valve. While working on the toilet I could here him swearing. He found a valve in his tool box (looks like a used one) and installed the toilet. He said the toilet rocks because the tile person did a bad job. The previous toilet never rocked. Then he said the cheap toilet is probably uneven. He broke the plastic flange to the toilet seat cover, and once again blamed the cheap toilet. He would not remove the toilet seat so I could later buy a new one. When it came to pay the bill, it was not just $129 as he told me. He said to add $25 to install the toilet? I told him we discussed the basic installation (no stairs, 2 piece toilet); he then muttered he had to turn-off the water!!! Unreal. When i questioned him, he became combative. He also said to add $12 for the valve. Timothy is unprofessional, messy, a know-it-all, does not listen and he is very demeaning. There are also other negative things but this is way too long. Based on my experience, I strongly suggest you do not use Alvco Plumbing, Timothy Alvarado.

Chris B.

This is a mixed review, mostly negative. I originally hired Tim (Alvco Plumbing - CSLB#B585720, C-36) to install a grey water system. Before I decided to hire him he did a number of things pretty well: he fixed a sink trap in my bathroom that my handyman could never get to work, he installed a low flow toilet, and a low flow toilet adapter correctly, and finally he fixed my garbage disposal when my regular handyman could not figure out how to do so. I had a significantly worse experience when he tried to correct some leaks under my bathroom flooring. The short story: I had to redo the job and he ended up yelling at me abusively when I informed him of the problems with his work.

DETAILS
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After my initial positive experience with Tim, I gave him the contract to install a grey water reclamation based irrigation system in my house. A couple of weeks into the project we found leaks under the flooring in my two adjoining bathrooms. Over the course of over 2 weeks Tim worked very slowly to correct this problem (on a time and materials basis), and on 9/13/14 he presented me with a bill (which I paid) that included a $425 charge to ""replace leaking cast iron waste line"". He claimed the leaks were fixed and was supposed to start a second phase of our project (installation of grey water system.)
Due to his delay in starting work on my grey water system (which we originally contracted for - the leaks were discovered incidentally), I decided to dismiss him from the project and began to get bids from other contractors, including Mike Council Plumbing. While the Mike Council crew was under the house assessing the grey water project work, they told me that the two bathroom sinks that Alvco plumbing supposedly fixed were still leaking heavily.

It was the plumber from Mike Council's opinion that Tim's repair work suffered from numerous defects. The most critical issue concerned the plastic pipe that was used to 'Replace leaking cast iron waste line' (on Tim's invoice from 9/13, this was billed at 425 dollars.) That plastic pipe was 2"" in diameter, and Alvco connected that pipe downwards on to a lower section of pipe that was 1.5"" in diameter. The coupling was not properly sealed, and water leaked from it. Dave, the Mike Council plumber, told me that that the 1.5"" pipe should have never been connected to; it should have been replaced entirely. . (This was basically a ""plumbing 101"" mistake.)
I took a video walk through of Dave's review of Alvco's work: available here: youtu.be/uxSBcbEyYHI.

On a final note, when I contacted Tim via email and followed up with a phone call he was very abusive, yelling that I should have contacted him to fix the issue, and that I had no right to bring other plumbers to touch ""his work"". I found this to be very odd, given that I paid for the work and the parts (and own the home where they were installed), and so, I think I have every right to call in other contractors if I have no confidence in the original work being done. One other key reason why I did not call him was because even for this one-day-plus leak job (which was completed by Mike Councils' team in 1.5 days) it took him over two weeks to make progress (which turned out to be non-progress), during which time major parts of my bathroom were not usable (except for the toilet.)

Take away: this plumber might be good for small repairs, but I would predict trouble for anyone who hired him for a more involved job.