Central Plumbing & Sewers

Devon P.

We had a slow sewer leak and Paul was able to get to us within an hour. He quoted a fair price and stuck to it. Really good work and pretty good communication. I would use them again for sure!

Nicole P.

I give Paul and his crew 5++ stars. They have done sewer lateral repair work for my clients for a number of years now, but more recently for me. I am happy to report that he has gone the extra mile to communicate details and execute on doing excellent work.

Carol B.

Paul has been my plumber for years and I can't say enough good things about him. He is prompt, honest, and fair. He takes time to explain things and doesn't leave until the job is complete. I've recommended him to many friends and they all have been happy with him. Being a realtor, I am very careful when it comes to recommending someone, since it reflects on me if it doesn't work out. I don't hesitate to give out Paul's name for any plumbing work.
Carol Bild

J B.

Not sure about these other reviews, but I had a great experience with Paul and his crew. He was attending to sewer lateral work. Although it had to be done in stages, it was not his fault, and actually his approach was the most reasonable way to do it, since we wanted to not go overboard with replacement until we knew exactly what was needed. I found Paul attentive and careful in his approach.

D C.

I had a sink hole in my yard that rodents were coming out of. Central Plumbing came out in the next week and replaced a cracked sewer pipe. A few months later I found another sink hole in a different location. Paul said the best solution would be to replace the whole lateral with a trenchless pipe repair. Paul's bid was reasonable and he was very knowledgeable about getting the permits and sewer lateral certificate.

Ray L.

I had an emergency sewage breakage at my mother's house on Sunday. My handyman called in a 24 hour plumbing service and they ""rootered"" the interior pipes but said the exterior pipes were collapsed. Their estimate for the exterior work was staggering. I called up Paul at Central Plumbing because he replaced the lateral sewage at my house several years ago and did an excellent job. When I called Paul on Wednesday, he accessed the situation that day and had a crew out there today, Thursday. The job was thorough, professional, and they cleaned up so well that it's not easy to tell where they dug. They installed two new access points and they were significantly less expensive than the 24 hour service.

Greg R.

My neighbor's general contractor hired Central for a Sewer lateral replacement. I lived 9 months with a street hole in front of my house created by Central Plumbing. F grade work. When I met him, he was defensive and argumentative just like a narcissist.

Late one evening, I saw Central fill the last two inches of the sewer lateral hole with dirt and step on it to compact it and toss on the asphalt. The asphalt started to sink daily as cars ran over it. The asphalt patch sunk about 1-1/2 inches when the middle thin part was displaced to the dirt. Then the rains started and the dirt hole got deep enough for me to put in 3 inch cobble and 1-1/2 inch block in another hole.

The next spring, after the City called Central, he came out to fix the hole and insinuated it was my fault for not calling him. Neither the owner nor I knew who did the work.

For my lateral replacement, I hired an excellent lateral plumber Challenger Rooter.

Yordy L.

My wife and I recently bought a house in Oakland. We didn't want to be rushed to get the sewer lateral compliant before closing, so we filed the extension with the city. After livin there for about 3 months, we decided we should probably get it done before we got to close to the time limit on the extension.

kathy a.

Here is my story of working with Paul Croxton in 2008 for my house in Berkeley. I have removed one person's name which was the person who finally fixed what Paul and crew did wrong.

Anyone can have a bad day. Or maybe even a bad year. How do I remember so many details now, 8 years later? Because I wrote this all down at the time. Take my advice regardless of who is doing your sewer lateral work: Understand how water drains from your house. Then understand how those drains should connect to the street, and make sure your contractor connects all of these properly. If they miss it, and if the inspector misses it when checking their work (::COUGH!!::) then you'll probably have the giant hassle I had to go through.

This is my experience:

Approximately December of 2007, I experienced the first of the plumbing problems. When the washing machine drained, it backed up, flooding the laundry area. I called Roto-Rooter, they came and snaked the pipe. It cleared the blockage for the time-being.

In May of 2008, the same plumbing problem reoccured. This time I called Pacific Drain and Rooter Service. Nasir from Pacific Drain came to snake the pipe, but was not successful. He suggested I contact Chris from Chris's Quality Sewer and Drain Service. So I did.

Chris came out and tried to snake the pipe. His snake got caught on whatever was clogging the pipe, and he could not get it out. He had to cut part of my drain pipe underneath the house in order to salvage most of his snake. He was not happy... At that point under the house, we could not tell if the ""clog"" was inside the foundation, or just on the other side of it, outside the foundation. Chris recommended I call XXX YYYY of ZZZZZZ Plumbing.

I called XXX and scheduled an appointment. Prior to his arrival, I dug out a large hole on the north side of my house to expose the area where the clog was. I had to negotiate with my neighbors to let me leave large piles of dirt on their driveway. I dug much of it out, but not enough to identify what was going on.

XXX arrived, dug it out a bit more, and discovered the problem: the drain pipe which originates from the kitchen/washer area on the south side of the house, which runs along underneath the house, to drain at the north side of the house was not connected to anything! It was draining into the ground, and a large root had grown up into the pipe, causing my water backups. I knew the sewer lateral had been replaced prior to me purchasing the house, so I called my real estate agent to get information from them as to who did the work to replace the sewer lateral. I found the information:

In March of 2007, three months before I purchased the house, the previous owners had the sewer lateral replaced, which is the north side of the house. This work was done by Central Plumbing and Rooter. Central Plumbing and Rooter failed to connect the kitchen/washer drain to the sewer lateral.

I called Paul Croxton who runs Central Plumbing and Rooter, and explained the situation to him. He said he would address the situation. A couple days later, one of his employees arrived to view the hole and the drain. He said he would have to have to discuss it with Paul to get the job scheduled. He also said they would have to bust out some of the concrete in the drive way to make the connection between the drain and the sewer lateral. In the meantime, my neighbors had to live with very large piles of dirt in their driveway for many days. After the employee of Central left, I called Paul to discuss scheduling the job. Paul was very defensive with me, and we had a very unpleasant conversation. He became short-tempered and said he would rather have XXX of ZZZZZZ come do the work, and that he would pay XXX for the work. Fine, I decided I would rather deal with XXX, as my dealings with Paul were unpleasant.

XXX came out in the next day or so to do the work. Working with XXX was a joy. He's very good-natured and humorous. The work was done in a day, and he did not even have to bust out any concrete in the driveway! I recall XXX saying the job would cost about $900, and he would bill Paul at Central Plumbing and Rooter.

A little later I spoke with Paul again from Central Plumbing and Rooter to ask him if he would reimburse me for the prior plumbing charges I incurred when I had to get the pipes snaked. He said he would, so I sent him the receipts I could find. To my surprise, Paul sent me a check for those charges. I've happily never had to hear from him again.

Jonathan O.

Paul and his crew did a wonderful job on our sewer lateral work. You can hardly tell they were there at all. Would highly recommend.