Athens Plumbing & Heating

Janis O.

I called Chris for a plumbing issue at my rental property. Chris was available when my tenant could be home. I thought the garbage disposal would need to be replaced much to my delight the disposal just needed to be cleared and use the reset button. I will call Chris for any of my plumbing or heating issues in my condo in San Mateo.

Kristin G.

Yesterday I called another plumber for a slowly draining toilet. He quoted me quite a bit to come look and more if he had to snake it from outside. Not appreciating his attitude, I went to Home Depot, bought an auger and drain cleaner. Went home, tried multiple things to fix it to no avail.

Normally I can fix things myself so I was a little irritated and pretty sure I wasn't using the auger correctly.

So this morning, I've had enough of the stupid toilet and am perusing Yelp. After reading Chris' reviews I decided to call him. I called, it rang once and I had to hang up because a business call I was waiting for came in. He promptly called me back. WHAT!?! So glad he did.

I explained the problem, and what I had tried. Then I told him where I live and the two ball park times that would work well for me today, but I was willing to do it over the weekend or next week. I have two toilets so it was more of an annoyance than an emergency. He said he could come by at lunch time today. He called me when he was 10 minutes away, I headed home.

When he arrived, he was friendly and helpful. He had offered to show me how to properly use my auger which I completely appreciated. So he did. He showed me how to use the auger and he fixed the toilet, all VERY quickly. He also showed me using my own auger so I'd see exactly. He asked me if I wanted to try it, I declined (light pink shirt and going back to work). After he finished he took the auger outside and hosed it off.

The price he charged me was MUCH cheaper than the other plumber who wanted to talk money before coming out. He was kind to my dog too.

I would use him again anytime, he was friendly, helpful and wanted to show me how to do it myself going forward. So, for those of you who appreciate someone who will share their skills and knowledge - Chris is your guy!

While I hope I don't have a plumbing issue anytime soon, I'm thrilled that I found him.

Thanks Chris!!!

GA H.

Excellent service and advice. Helped reduce the cost of the installation with a local purchase (and relationship), and started working on a long-term plan to fix the ""real"" problem.

Francis D.

*Fast, efficient, flexible, personable, knowledgeable, clean, fair, and honest!*

My background: I always prefer DIY, but I always draw the line when it comes to electrical, plumbing, and roofing work.

Saturday morning: We had a lingering clog in our main sewer drain that backed up the first floor toilet to a c-r-a-w-l, so I decided to make calls to several companies based on their Yelp reviews. Since we preferred to have someone come in that morning, I hung up whenever I reached a recording or voice mail. Athens was next on my list and I hung up after reaching voice mail. I was about to dial the next plumber when Chris calls me back saying he received a missed call from my number (who needs a phone service when you have this fast of a response...from the owner himself?)
Chris said he was doing a few jobs that day, but that he would rearrange his schedule to accommodate me and call me back. He called me back to confirm 5 minutes later.

I was busy the entire weekend, but since he had easy access to the clean out, Chris said I didn't need to be present and that we could easily work out a way to forward my payment method since he was in the area almost every day (how cool is that?).

Fast forward to service: Chris and his assistant, Johnny, determine that the source of the blockage is tree roots and spend most of the afternoon snaking the main sewer line (~100 ft) 7 or 8 times until they're positive that the drain is clear. Chris also recommended picking up tree root removal solution and continue treating every 3 months to keep roots at bay. He even offered to pick some up for us at the local HD, but I didn't want to keep them any longer since they were already ~4 hours into it (all that snaking takes a lot of time).

Summary: I will not hesitate to contact Chris again for any plumbing work I need done. No doubt. He's reliable, down to earth, and trustworthy. Thanks!!!

Raghu N.

Moved into a house with badly done kitchen sink plumbing, a garbage disposal unit that was falling apart, and a few other items that needed some upkeep. Chris was great, returning our call promptly, being extremely communicative and reachable, diligent with the service, very cost efficient, and making sure that whatever new issues we discovered after the initial work was done were remedied. Chris maintains accountability for his work, is reasonably priced, and is available late for those of us that are occupied 9 to 6.

SpaAddict K.

We woke up to find, right before a holiday weekend, that our kitchen floor was wet! It turned out there was a leak under the kitchen sink. I think we must have called just about every plumber on yelp in the San Mateo area. Not only was Athens one of the few plumbers that picked up our call, he re-arranged his schedule to come to us earlier the same day so that our leak would be fixed before we left town. What a great guy! He showed up right on time, did a great job, cleaned up our gunky pipes to boot, and he charged us a fair rate. Can't ask for more. :)

Weyman W.

It was a nightmare come true! My water detector alarm started to blare Friday evening at the beginning of the Labor Day weekend. OMG! A quick search in Yelp yielded Athen's Plumbing and Chris' name. Within seconds he returned my call with a promise to show up promptly at 8 AM. However, during this holiday weekend the usual plumbing supply houses were all closed saved for Home Depot, which offered a GE product that was both expensive and too large for my '73 home built when heaters didn't come with thick insulation. Chris assured me Bradford White is the MBZ of the business, offering me this gem at his price, not with the usual plumber's markup. This morning he and assistant Corey somehow managed to replace my old heater with this new state of the art 150 lb heater. The very tight fit and need for heavy grunting led me to render a loud applause when it was finally put in place--and without damage to walls and pipes. It's a good thing Chris is built like a Frank Gore, stocky and strong. I pride myself as a good observer, and I watched how Chris worked with Corey. There were repeated ""please,"" ""thank you,"" and ""you're welcome"" exchanges. From such conversation it's easy to learn folks' true nature. From such conversation it was easy to place my entire trust in the two. I would not hesitate to put my trust in these two trustworthy guys again. Besides, the price for the nearly 4-hr job was less than Costco's or Home Depot's. No markup for the Bradford White heater? No extra charge for redoing the existing pipes? Wow! I don't know of another plumber who would show and give me the receipts for all the parts he paid for. While it was an unlucky day that caused me to discover Chris and Corey, it was a lucky day for me that I did! Thank you, Chris and Corey.

Renee W.

Called due to a leaking outdoor spigot right before closing. Chris called back within a half-hour (but I wasn't available to answer the phone). We played phone tag for a bit and I caught him the next morning. He came over after he finished what he had been doing, checked the spigot, replaced it, helped me locate the whole-house water shut-off, didn't charge me an arm and a leg for it, and was fabulous (my toddler was also interested in what he was doing). If we ever have trouble again, I will call this place!

Shan L.

Chris came over for a leaky faucet at our place and quickly found that the water heater needed to be drained based upon the color of the water in the pipes. He fixed the leaky faucet and threw in the hot water heater drain for free since I am a repeat customer. He also tightened the loose kitchen faucet that had a very hard to reach access point.

Overall Chris never fails to deliver and always gets the job done on time. I keep him as the ""Plumber"" contact on my phone.

Shannon S.

My water heater had sprung a leak in the evening the day prior, and nobody in the building had hot water. My landlord not jumping on the issue, I decided to get it handled myself.

My sister works at Ferguson so I was able to get all the materials for the job myself and at a great price. The next morning in a panic I called a couple recommended plumbers from Yelp. Non of the other plumbers that called back that morning wanted to do the job if they weren't able to get the parts themselves. I found that odd. They were going to have to pick them up from the Ferguson warehouse. So its not like they weren't going to be able to tell if it was or was not a quality product.

Athens got back to me within 20 minutes after leaving a message. I informed Chris of the issue and he was at my house within the hour. There are a total of four units that share the water heater and the way they are piped is not normal. So what he had to work with was very confusing and difficult. But they hung in there and got the job done. The old plumber trying to make a buck did a bunch of unnecessary crazy piping. Chris installed the water heater and also fixed the air hammering that had been going on and driving people in the building crazy for the longest time. And as a very kind favor to me he also installed a shower head I wanted instead of the current one. He was punctual and kind. He is also VERY fair with his prices.

I kept his card so if I am ever to have a problem again I don't have to worry about it, I can just call Athens!