Dempster Plumbing

Jonathan L.

Okay, these guys simply rock! We live in a 35 year old house, which is about 5000 ft.². We had started smelling gas and called PG&E, and long story short, they had to turn it off. I had called two other plumbers and two leak detection companies prior to calling Dempster.

When writing this review, I actually ran out of space. Apparently, Yelp has a character limit. So I'm going to try to shorten some of the details. Evidently, I can't write enough good things about them.
The 1st one was our regular plumber, but he's a small independent guy & didn't have the equipment to really trace the gas. He tried his best, but it's understandable that he couldn't do it. I called another plumbing company, which advertised they were gas specialists & they came down to gave a quote, which seemed expensive. However, they were really nice, & suggested that I contact a leak detection company. So I did.

The guy came in & after about three hours, really couldn't find anything concrete, but did mark some places where it ""could"" be.
So, I called our regular plumber back, & had him poke up in the ceiling where those lines were marked. Nothing. No gas piped anywhere close & now, we had holes in our ceiling, and we could smell the gas in our bedroom. Well, that was $300 bucks down the drain.

Next, I tried to 2nd leak detection company which was recommended by the 1st plumbers & he was better, but still no success from the ""specialists"".

So, I decided to give Dempster a call based on the reviews which had a couple gas leaks mentioned. Valerie answered & she was a joy to speak to every time. When Bill came, he seemed very confident & he was nice too. He assessed the situation for a good 45 min & didn't charge us & was straight up about the fact that he couldn't guarantee how long the work would take ?because understandably finding it could've taken a short time or it could've gone longer. But what he did do, what's quote a per Hr. cost with seemed reasonable, unlike the other plumbing company. So, being without gas for an entire week, we decided to give it a try. We had also had a couple other plumbing problems like a stopped up toilet and a clogged sink. So I had him work up a quote for that as well.

He has a small team, but very capable and considerate team. Santos, the 1st guy that came actually put shoe covers on when he came inside the house. He was very diligent about it and never failed to do so. I even told him that on the 2nd part of the job he was going into an area where we were going to replace the carpets & he didn't need to do it. But he did it anyway! That's a sign of good training and a company that knows how to treat a customers' property right. The work was finished in short order & that was a great start.

Next, the team locating the gas came. Again, they were very good about the shoe covers. Unlike the last company and the leak detection company, how they handled it made more sense. There was one place in the house that hadn't been checked, it was up in the ceiling & required a ladder to get to: The entrance was also where the gas line entered the house. I had mentioned that to the other two companies & they didn't really trace it. You'd think you want to start at the source, right? Well, these guys just dug right in there & we're diligent about finding that leak. Long story short, because I can go on and on, is they found the lines inside the wall and there was actually a portion of the house where we couldn't be sure of where the gas line was... so they called in the big gun: Bill Dempster. They had told me he had a ton of experience, and I found out the leader of the leak detection group was actually his brother, Val. He described how his Dad & family, had been in the plumbing business for years.

When Bill came to assess the situation and gathered all the data & it was decided that one portion of the house was where the leak had to be. The team could find where the gas line went through the house from one room to another, so Bill started poking up in the ceiling & found the gas line! He had used a couple techniques like banging on the pipe from above so that he can hear the line vibrating. Nice move! Although they couldn't pinpoint the leak, they were able to ID a 20 foot section where it most likely was. They couldn't guarantee it, but they were very sure. Based on what I've seen so far that was good enough for me & the plan was to bypass that section with new pipe & it worked! It only took two days work total, but they found a gas leak and we had hot water again. Excellent.

To me, a mark of a good company is how they deal with the unusual circumstances. These guys surpassed my expectations. In fact, they will be coming back to add another gas line & replace a water heater and a couple fittings that were rusted. I'm sure they will do awesome with that too.

Ryan W.

I've used Yelp for years but was never compelled to write a review until today following my experience with Dempster Plumbing.

Long story short, I had a back up with my main line that needed professional attention quickly. After reading some reviews I gave Dempster a call. Valerie answered my early morning call, listened to my problem, and scheduled a visit for 10 AM that morning. About 30 minutes later I got a call back asking me if it would be ok if they could come over earlier since the first job was completed sooner than expected -- already exceeding expectations.

When the owner Bill showed up he was polite and ready to roll. He sized up the situation, gave me a couple options, and quickly got to work. After the first attempt didn't fix the problem, he went to plan B and C. After crawling under the house and isolating the issue, the problem was resolved. He went the extra step to inform me about the plumbing configuration under the house and what I might want to consider changing should the problem reoccur (and included an estimate for the work).

All in all, the experience with Dempster was fantastic. Timely, efficient, informative, and reasonably priced. That's the definition of a great value. Thanks Bill and team.

Fred M.

I had an entire house copper repiping done after one of our hot water pipes bursts. Bill was extremely prompt, thorough, and candid in his estimate. He gave me a bid higher than his competitor but included a water heater in his estimate and he examined the house pretty closely to get a good idea of what needed to be done. His crew came promptly the next day at 9 AM and they rock and rolled. He told me it would take at least two days but he finished by 3 PM the same day. I'm very happy with the work. Bill personally oversaw it and did the water heater installation himself. He is loud and yells. If you don't like that, you shouldn't hire him. I was thrilled with how fast it was and he even gave me a discount because there was more copper than he thought from our 2 year ago kitchen remodel. Go eagles!

MJ B.

Santos and team did a sewer lateral replacement and installed a new clean out.

They did a great job. I had a few quotes and the price for the job was competitive. Chose Dempster based on past Yelp reviews and because Santos did a good job checking everything out and asking the right questions when he came out to do the quote.

Replacing the sewer line was big job, lots of digging due to massive quantities of tree roots in the yard. They kept the area clean and did a good job. They pulled the permit and arranged for the city to come out and clean out the section of line between the new clean out and the street

Would highly recommend Dempster to anyone and would hire them again.

B N.

I discovered my water pipe was leaking between the water meter and the house after I got a huge water bill. Unfortunately, the pipe is under my drive way. Bill came out and talked to me about possible ways to replace the pipe with minimal damage to my driveway. He said his crew can drill under the concrete by attaching a bit to the end of the copper pipe and the other end to a drill. He explained they've done this before and if it doesn't work he showed me how he would cut up the concrete in a way to minimize the damage and change in appearance.

I was amazed his crew was able to drill the pipe under the driveway let alone reaching target (the meter) within a foot. This was about 20 feet away from the edge of the driveway so it was no easy task. They finished the job in a day and they only had to turn the water off briefly while they attached the new pipe.

Bill was very professional and credible. I also considered using a trenchless company that would pull new pipe through the existing pipe but there was no guarantee this would work and the cost was much higher than everyone else. The decision got easy after Bill gave me a competitive quote on the spot and said he was able to schedule his crew to come out a day after I gave him the go ahead. I'm still in awe they were able to accomplish this!

Joe M.

Fixed our plumbing emergency in an extremely timely manner. Quality plumbing service to repair and replace my sink and faucet. Clean professional shop.

Highly recommended!!!! Trustworthy honest plumber in the San Jose Area that completed the job as promised. THANK YOU

Chris A.

Alright first of all. Santiago is awesome. He really is dedicated to getting the job done right. I wasted money and time with Water Quality Plumbing who gave me a crap diagnosis. I was having low water pressure and cold water from the master shower. I had them come out first based on yelp reviews and all they did was clean my screens and tell me that I naturally have low water pressure. Ugh.. thanks. but guess what I'm not looking for someone to tell me that. I'm looking for a plumber to fix the plumbing problem.

Anyway-- at the end of the day. I had to call Dempster Plumbing and in the end they got the job done. It was an expensive job but ultimately I am now taking the hottest showers with the most pressure I've had in a long time. Woo Hoo! So frankly... you can spend time having the other company come out and do nothing but clean your screens and then misdiagnose you and then never call you back to even attempt to fix the misdiagnosis or you can call Dempster who will fix your problem. Up to you. But my money is with fixing the problem! Only rant would be it took longer to fix than expected but hey at least it's fixed.

Ann W.

I cannot recommend Dempster plumbing highly enough. I purchased a short sale property in mid-2012. Since then, these talented, fabulous people have been out to replace every single shut off valve, every faucet, and piping in various walls. I've had pipes burst in the walls, the water heater give out and pretty much every plumbing catastrophe occur. Through it all, Dempster Plumbing has been incredibly responsive, efficient, cost-effective and just wonderful to work with. I will never use another plumbing company as long as I'm in the Bay Area, and I have no plans to leave. Many thanks to Bill, Valerie, Santos and everyone else I've been fortunate enough to work with at Dempster. Love you guys!

Jill B.

TOTAL WASTE OF MY Time. I called to get service on 2 existing tankless water heaters. Bill came out the next day which was great. But 'the office' never sent me a quote. I called a week later and they said they would call me back. NEVER got a call. 3 weeks and NO QUOTE! Guess they don't want business.

Sima D.

I have known Dempster plumbing for over 5 years when they first came to my house for work. They are very courteous and always on time which matters to me a lot. They have done an excellent job and have very knowledgeable staff. I would highly recommend them for any plumbing job. Santos has been to my house few times and he always does a thorough job. I am very happy with their service.