J Carrillo Plumbing and Drains

Anthony W.

First I have to say this guy is awesome!
Family run and family owned business that stands by what they say.
We had a shower problem last minute on a Sunday night, broke the faucet and no water coming out!!!
Dun.... Dun.... Dun...... Fun begins!
I have a family of 5 mainly kids who all play sports and had games that day.
School in morning and only one bathroom!
I try to watch you tube videos on how to fix it no luck just a lot of mess.
So after I face the fact I'm not a plumber I yelped plumbers and found a few but this was the only one who answered directly.
He told me no problem he be there by 8p this was around 615p
No doubt 8 rolls around he came walking up the street because he had to park down the street due to no parking, he came in assesses the problem went to work as he explained what the problem was and making small talk about kids and family. Fixed it plus checked out couple other issues we had within the hour. He had us all back with shower working great.
I highly recommend this company it is a family ran business husband and wife who are dedicated to their business and family.
Good people and very comfortable with using them and referring them to everyone we know!

Richard H.

Please ignore the one negative review that I've seen so far.

I started to replace my kitchen sink faucet on a Friday afternoon, and I got stuck because I didn't have a basin wrench and couldn't remove the old one. The first plumber from East Palo Alto never showed up on Saturday, both in the morning and when we rescheduled in the late afternoon. It was difficult to find others to come on the weekend, except Roto Rooter, who refused to give any type of estimate and seemed expensive. There were a couple of highly rated plumbers in the Peninsula but they wanted to charge $275-300.

Then I hit the lottery in calling J Carrillo. He was coming from Hayward and quoted me $135, readily available, super flexible, and could come right away the next morning. My test for a good repair person is how much they seem to enjoy what they do and how willing they are to help you figure it out yourself. Jeff has off the chart marks on both.

I have also had a couple toilets that have had minor issues that I never felt like paying $100 just to have a guy""check it out"". One regurgitates in the morning when you flush, and the other has a pump that gets stuck. Jeff mentioned a part that I could get that would help, but I asked him to help pick it up for me instead when he came out.

When he came out, Jeff was so helpful. He ended up fixing both of those toilets for free very quickly, replacing the kitchen sink faucet as advertised, and doing his standard 30 point inspection to see where you may have issues down the road.

I have also had a dishwasher that floods water on to my countertop. He decided to look into why it wasn't working. He found the clog and fixed it, but it still wasn't working, so he looked for more clogs and found it in the large plastic hosing. He spend an extra 45 minutes to an hour fixing my dishwasher, and didn't charge me for it! What a Godsend!

Lastly, I had him look at some of the work I had done recently in installing carbon monoxide detectors and ballasts for fluorescent lighting and he went out of his way, spending another 30-45 minutes to give me some helpful advice.

All of this $135. EASILY THE BEST REPAIR PERSON I'VE EVER WORKED BY FAR. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND. UNBELIEVABLE PRICING, SUPER HELPFUL, AND WANTS TO TEACH YOU WHAT'S GOING ON. GREAT WORK TOO. NOT A CLOCK WATCHER, SPENDS EXTRA TIME TO DO THINGS THE RIGHT WAY WITHOUT CHARGING YOU FOR IT.

He's coming again right away. I figure I might as well have him fix a few other things related to plumbing, given that he is too good to be true!

Michelle F.

Our kitchen sink (garbage disposal side) was plugged and would not drain, we searched and called all around looking for a decent estimate... We even called Roto Rooter. Roto Rooter quoted us over $250 for the first 75 minutes of work, and even tried to make it sound like a deal with adding the notion that the price included drive time, and the job doesn't start till the technician(s) arrive. Um DUH shouldn't all the jobs start once they arrive, and unless they are flying plumbers in from NY I would hope that I was not charged for any drive time to a paying job.

Anyway, we found J Carrillo on yelp and read their reviews, explained problem, asked for a quote, and he was VERY reasonably priced considering the job. He arrived same day within 10-15 minutes with his partner (wife or sister, I assume) of the call and was able to fix out problem within 30 minutes.

I will use this business again should I ever need a pipe cleaned, unplugged!

Gem B.

Our water pressure stopped and orange stuff was coming out of our faucets. I had called around to a few different places in the area and Jeff was quick to respond and came by the same day to make an inspection. As soon as he told us what he thought the problem was, him & his wife scheduled an appointment to come in the next day.

The couple was right on time and went straight to work. They were very quick and explained exactly what they were doing and what was going on with the water. Our water softener filter broke and all the orange stuff that was coming out of the faucets were the gels from the filter. (ew). Then he explained that the toilets had to be replaced but he gave us a great price and it was done so fast. THANK YOU!

Helen O.

Wow, this guy is rude! I called to ask for a quote and he called back asking me if I had any other estimates from other companies then smirked sarcastically over the phone. Then he said he charges for quotes and it was going to cost me $40 for him to come over to give an estimate.

Don't bother with asking him a quote, I guess that's what he's saying.

Peter L.

If you go to the CA contractors website and put in Jeff's name it comes up ""no license"", if you put in J. Carrillo, there it is...
Anyways, more to the quality of work he does is being reported now that I found out he has a license to tag onto my plumbing issue.
Vandals stole my copper lines going from 2 separate wells to my irrigation system and the house system. Jeff was supposed to call me to get the layout correct to connect the system back together, he stated he did not need to and had it all figured out. He disconnected my deep water well to the house, could not find the pipe to the house, connected pipes to the water softener system running the system backwards and sending that water through the irrigation lines, spliced into them to pipe water into the house. When the main shut off was opened on the house line a nice pond started to develop next to the pump/well house, where he was supposed to connect to the house line, not cut a new one.
I have been running water into the house with his connection job over the last week and the ENTIRE HOUSE HAS ROCKS, SAND, DEBRIS, DIRT in all the valves, faucets, and just everywhere. Due to the incompetent and thoughtless methods, I have had to hire a plumber just to remove every faucet handle, every aerator, every shut off valve and have all the debris flushed out of the system.
Jeff and his incompetent crew connected irrigation grade water lines into my home. They did not even flush the lines of debris when they connected all the lines up.
They forced the debris into the entire house system.

BEWARE OF THIS INCOMPETENT MORON.

Steve K.

I saw the good reviews on Yelp for this plumbing company and decided to give him a call for our clogged drain. First call, voice mailbox was full. Next call later in the day got a hold of him. I told him the problem and that it probably needed to be snaked. He said he would see if one of the guys in the area was available. Got a call from a guy that confirmed my address and told me he was on his way. He pulled up in a generic van and said his name was so and so, not Jeff. I was hoping it wouldn't cost more than $120 to snake the drain but it was $150, fine. When I go to write the check I'm told to write it to another company. I asked if J Carrillo changed names or something. The guy says no, Jeff hands the jobs off to other plumbers when he's busy. It would have been nice if he told me he was doing this right away on the phone. It wasn't an emergency and I could have waited until he was available. I think this is a sneaky practice. If I wanted another plumbing company I would have called it and not Jeff's.

The reason for the plugged drain was that small roots were getting into the main drain pipe under the front yard that goes from the house to the county sewer. The recommended fix was to replace the old cracked pipe at a cost of more than $2,000. However, for these kinds of small roots that aren't breaking the pipe you can flush a root killer down your toilet every so often and it kills them. Of course most plumbers won't tell you that because they want the job of replacing the pipe. Perhaps if Jeff would have come out himself or someone from his company, that would have been the recommendation. Anyway, I'm left with a sour taste in my mouth.



P.S. I'm changing my rating to 3 stars from 1. I talked to Jeff today(1/25) and he apologized for not telling me that he would be sending a new guy. The guy he sent was a new plumber they took on recently on a recommendation. Jeff was surprised that he charged me anything because the guy told Jeff I declined the job because it was too expensive and he left. He was supposed to charge me $95 and give me an invoice with Jeff's letterhead. Instead he charged $150, used his own generic invoice and lied to Jeff. Jeff said the guy was also unauthorized to do piping work and had no business giving me an estimate or a recommendation like that. Jeff gave me a partial refund(actually more than I wanted) and will be firing the guy.

Larry Q.

Incredible service and true to his word. We had a mess when we came home last night. The toilet overflowed on its own (mysterious) and flooded the bathroom and dripped through to the ceiling below. We did not get home until about 9:45 PM. and called Jeff right away (thanks Yelp!). Jeff arrived within 20 minutes, after promising the diagnosis would be at no cost. He spent well over 45 minutes checking everything out. He showed me how to take care of it on my own, gave me referrals for the advanced type work AND he did not charge anything. Not only that, he would not accept a tip.

Peggy K.

We had a leak in our kitchen. Jeff came out quickly and determined that our dishwasher tub had a crack and we needed a new dishwasher. Jeff would not charge us for his diagnosis and house call. Are you kidding me? Jeff! You are the man and we will call you for our plumbing needs and recommend you to friends and family.

Guru S.

Jeff was referred to me by my regular plumber when my water heater went bust. Jeff was able to identify the problem quickly (a faulty sensor) and worked with the company to get spare parts (at no cost to me since it was still under warranty) and install them. While he went about his work, I asked plenty of questions (being an engineer, I was curious to know how the electricals, sensors and safety system of the heater worked) and Jeff went out of his way to explain this to me in great detail. Clearly, this guy knows what he does and I'd recommend him in a heartbeat to anyone who wants great service at a reasonable cost.