McMahon's Plumbing

Gary T.

Had a toilet that developed a valve leak and contacted Sean McMahon who had done previous outstanding work at my residence. Received a call early the next morning and explained the problem. He walked me through a solution that enabled me to do the repair myself. Can't say enough good things about Sean. These days it's hard to find service personnel who actually return your call.

Nancy T.

Sean was very helpful with our plumbing problems in Truckee. He's very honest and reliable.

Beverly M.

7/29/2023

I called for inspection and flush of our Bradford White 24 year old hot water heater, left a message. That afternoon I received a call from owner Sean who asked questions about the heater and turning on and off water outdoors. Said I wanted a professional to do the flush. He came next am (Sat. ) at appointed time and performed the flush and inspection. He also gave me good information about the heater because of its age, but assured me it is a good brand and is performing well. Very satisfied with visit, information and I will surely call him for next flush or any plumbing needs we may have.

LeeAnn C.

I've known Sean for at least 15 years and he has saved the day every time. It's always urgent and he doesn't waste time! This time I got a new gas range for Thanksgiving and tried to install it myself, my first mistake. When Sean arrived he found some of the parts installed upside down, by me! With a quick turn around we we on track for turkey. Thanks Sean, you're the man!

Joshua M.

Sean at McMahon's Plumbing is knowledgeable, honest, and eager to help. We've used him for many repairs in Glenshire and highly recommend his services.

Luke O.

McMahon was very knowledgeable and fixed the plumbing issues we had fair priced as well.

Nancy M.

Upon arrival at our cabin in Tahoe Donner for 4th of July, we saw that our expansion tank on our water heater was leaking with water all over the garage. I contacted McMahon's Plumbing and received a prompt callback. Sean asked that I send pictures by text and after receiving them he promptly called me back and said he would be out later that morning. Sean came and replaced the expansion tank and a faulty pressure release valve on the water heater. Sean was responsive, professional, and friendly. Because of the holiday, I was afraid I would not be able to get service. In fact I tried another company and got no answer and mailbox was full. I highly recommend McMahon's Plumbing for any plumbing issues. His number is now in my contact list if I ever have another plumbing issue

George K.

Sean McMahon did a great job to replace and install a new toilet. Using a picture of the old hardware, Sean knew what needed replacing and fully explained the scope of the job before any commitments. He came on time as promised and arranged to have a trusted helper stop by to help carry the heavier new toilet upstairs saving some time/cost. Sean's work was clean, neat, knowledgeable, and he was nice to work with. One way of connecting the water risked opening up the wall for pipe soldering, potentially costing more. Sean instead used a fitting that avoided any soldering. Overnight I found a very slow leak on that connection. Sean came out the day after I texted him, fixed that leak, and didn't charge more. I highly recommend Sean and plan to use him on other future plumbing work.

G B.

My wife and I have been a continuing customer of Sean's for over 10 years. For starters, I endorse every review I see posted here on this Sat. Feb. 20, 2021, everyone of which is unsurprisingly positive. In particular, be sure to read the reviews of MhC, DaveL, Bill G, Nacny D, David W, Jeanett W, and Joyce Y.

Because of a decade of experience working with Sean, I can say without reservation or hesitation his work during several phases of remodeling our 3-story cabin in the high Sierras (gutting each floor back to studs; floors removed, etc.), plus his on-going coaching and oversight and fixes here and there has earned him the highest possible score as a long-term track record for performance and value.

Hard to believe: he's never made a mistake. He's never failed to solve a problem. He's never ""not cared."" He's done MAJOR work for us and little mundane jobs too, plus coached me over the phone to solve some issues within 90 seconds! This has been critical for us, as we use our cabin part-time, so we're not there all the time during winter.

So, why did we first start using Sean? We went through 2 other plumbers beforehand. The first one had a drinking problem and thanks to 4 years of shop courses way back in high school I could see his soldering jobs were mediocre. Then, under our first general contractor we gutted the top floor and moved the location of the bathroom, which required opening up the entire ceiling to all exposed pipes in our master bathroom immediately below, which the contractor's plumber re-piped completely. But he was not reliable. Chris Barrett of Barrett Builders (who I highly recommend), who became our next and ""permanent"" go-to general contractor, recommended Sean.

So Sean arrives, walks into our master bathroom, stands there looking up at all the new exposed piping and starts pointing and counting ""There's one, there's another, that's a 3rd one, and there's a 4th. Yea, you have 4 traps, see? The water cannot drain, so each one of these will have water left in these sections and when it freezes the pipes will burst.""

The second plumber was from the Bay Area and had not thought about the snow OR THE CODE, that of course requires a specific angle of decline of all pipes so they can be fully drained and that prohibits the very faulty ""traps"" (acting like traps under your sink) the 2nd plumber had installed. Then Sean tells me that the whole thing is wrong and the guy even violated the code and common sense about where the main sewage outflow pipe was from the new toilet upstairs and how it was not properly vented! And then he tells me I would have to rip up the brand new porcelain floor upstairs and relocate the toilet or replace and move the main sewage pipe that was running up through new finished walls upstairs. I thought I was going to have a heart attack after spending thousands and thousands of dollars already. There he was, our ""new"" plumber, telling me we had to gut much of which we'd just rebuilt upstairs. Like, ""Who IS this guy?""

But he stood there thinking. Then he asks ""What county are you in?"" (We are almost on the line between Placer and Nevada counties.) When I told him Nevada, he told me I'm in luck, for Nevada County (unlike Placer) allows the use of a special vent/valve (can't recall the name of it) that would be easy to install in the master bathroom and would completely eliminate the need to re-do the entire bathroom plumbing upstairs and wreck our new floor! All he'd have to do is re-pipe all the ceiling pipes in our master bathroom! His knowledge of the differing codes of two counties pertaining to a rather arcane and not common piece of plumbing impressed me (and Chris Barrett who himself is an expert contractor, which is why he uses Sean too).

That same second plumber was supposed to have installed and hooked up our two new big electric water heaters to have the capability to shut down either of them to use the remaining one in case one of them went out. In walking around the rest of the cabin at my request, Sean observed the waer heSo Sean rebuilt the whole quite complex labyrinth of pipes and valves so we can bypass either tank in the even of a problem with either. In short, you're talking about a real professional plumber here, who has saved us far more than we have ever invested in him. That's true value. And that stems from a couple of things: the guy is smart! He thinks before he opens his mouth. He's ""people smart"" too. He's totally customer-centric. He defines great service and the term ""rapid response."" He is not ""transactional"" -- he's focused on establishing a good long term business relationship for repeat business. Totally honest. Completely fair and practical. He will not try and ""oversell you"". And he's a nice guy with a good sense of humor. There's only one problem: some day he's going to retire.

Jan N.

We came up to our place Friday night and turned on the water. Was greeted by an unwelcome gushing sound. Went into the basement and saw water gushing out of a pipe. Turned off the water and started calling for service Saturday AM. Sean called back immediately and even though he had the day off walked me through the steps to replace the failed auto drains (yes two of them). Sean was amazingly patient and talked me through the process in laymen's terms. He saved our weekend. Thanks Sean!