Athens Plumbing & Heating

Bob C.

Water heater pilot wouldn't light. I called Chris at Athens and he was at our house in 45 min. He had estimated 30 min but called to say he'd be late (which is rare these days). He is professional, sticks to his word, and takes the time to explain what the problems are and fixes required.

Will use Athens again!

Miles S.

Great job!

The pipe feeding my lawn irrigation system had a crack and was leaking badly -- spraying water from the crack. Chris came over, looked at it and told me the guy who installed it did it wrong. He was able to replace the faulty pipe connection and this time do it correctly. He charged me a very reasonable rate.

Chris is a competent plumber and I'd recommend him to anyone.

Cat K.

This review is just for a service call - no work done.

I called Chris around 7pm, even though I knew his hours were closed. I left a message, and amazingly (as other Yelpers have noted) he called me back that same evening! He scheduled a time with me for the next day, but we were unable to meet (no one was at fault here -our time just didn't work out.)

Thank you Chris for calling me back. I will call you again the next time I need a plumber!

Mitch E.

The Good- very detail oriented, works on weekends,friendly, reasonable price
The Bad- juggles multiple jobs, left my job to take care of others - resulting in job taking 2 days and keeping me waiting around and didn't fully complete job.

He made promises he'd be right back, multiple trips to pick up supplies (he first offered to pick up supplies and arrive 10:30 Saturday am, then to save time I picked up supplies he ordered, he arrives Saturday am and says some supplies missing and will be back in 2 hours, returns over 5 hours later, stays 30 min. longer and has emergency yet says for me not to go with another plumber, then comes back Sunday late morning and doesn't finish until about 5 PM again with breaks to help other clients and pick up supplies, and at end leaves job without draining gas water heater as agreed for maintenance & and did not turn gas water heater back on. Said he would call Monday after another job to come back for water heater and never called or texted.) This job was to replace pipes and faucet for laundry tub and install new laundry tub.

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. :)