Montclair Rooter Plumbing & Heating

Michael S.

Came to our rescue on Sunday afternoon, Father's Day! Couldn't even get a return call from 2 other 24/7 plumbers. Josh answered his own phone, arrived in under 2 hours, and cleared our lines in about 45 minutes. He goes the extra mile for local homeowners. Recommended.

Zachary G.

Josh came out on a Saturday, same day as I called, to fix a busted pipe on my water heater and a few other things that he noticed while in my crawlspace. Josh know's what he's doing. He was fast and communicates well. Josh is fun guy to chat with. I will definitely be calling him again next time.

Josue O.

Josh provided us with excellent customer service and work on our house. I phoned him and he immediately answered the call. He's available through text and makes sure its as easy on his customers as possible. Speaking to him over the phone and explaining the situation, his mind was already focused on the best possible outcome. He replaced my water heater just as easy as if he was swapping out a battery on a car. Knew every little detail to make it most effective. He was thorough and to the point; he also made sure his work area was spotless. He triple checked everything before he left and made sure I knew it was okay to call him should anything pop up. We're very happy to have chosen Josh as our plumber.

Barbara S.

Best plumbing experience. Good price, came right on time. Unclogged the bath sink quickly. Then moved to ceiling light fixture and fixed that, too. Very experienced, very good. Did more than one job within the hour, didn't charge extra for the second task. So glad I found them

Katherine B.

Of course our heat goes out on the weekend and then I need to find someone to come to our house on Saturday. That is not an easy task! It is Josh who came to our house (a few hours after I called him) and was able to help us out.
I know nothing about HVAC but I do know about good customer service, knowledgeable people, and people I can trust. Josh is all of those things. He came to our house diagnosed the problem and set up a time to come and fix it on Monday, which he did (Please note this was Saturday afternoon so Monday was when he could get the part he needed).
Our heat is now working great and I have already talked about working with Josh on a new project...he's also an electrician!

Andrew G.

Josh came to our rescue and saved our water heater which became submerged in two feet of water following one of our recent California monster storms. Blind luck lead me to go down into the basement that afternoon quickly before I left to pick up my boys from their respective after-school programs. Instead of a quick task, I found myself staring at 2-3 feet of standing water in my basement and with the rain pounding with little indication of stopping I realized that 2-3 feet would quickly give way to several more inches/feet within hours. Our sump pump had picked a poor time to surrender.

I called my wife who was out of town on travel (in a particular application of Murphy's Law whereby home disasters seem to only occur when one or the other of us is hundreds of miles away) who gave me a few numbers including Josh's who as recommended by a friend of ours. Josh was my second call and I got his voicemail (the first to-be unnamed plumber told me they wouldn't be able to come over for a couple of days). I left a message and headed for the door to pick up my boys as quickly as possible in order to get back quickly in case he called back and was available to fix the pump, resolved to try calling a couple more plumbers from the car. Josh called back before I reached the front door. I explained the situation and he agreed to come over as soon as returned home with the boys (""text me when you are 10 minutes away and I will meet you there."").

Josh arrived promptly and after spending some time assessing the situation and gathering information from me, Josh waded into the basement to start pumping water out with a portable pump while he checked out the outlet for the sump pump. As it turned out, a recent power outage had surged the circuit the pump was plugged into and he merely had to reset the outlet and voila! the pump engaged and pumped the remaining water efficiently out. Problem #1 solved (though I felt silly since Josh charges a $50 fee to come assess the problem and provide a quote if needed).

Feeling like I had dodged a bullet, Problem #2 soon emerged as the water drained way: the water heater, set on the floor, had been submerged in the flood and the pilot light which sits at the base of the unit was extinguished. Josh tried resetting the pilot several times with no success. He suggested that the igniter might just need time to dry and suggested that I wake up early the next morning to try to reignite the switch (before leaving Josh made sure I knew what I was doing by making me demonstrate how I would relight the switch without blowing the house up). When the igniter still wouldn't light the next morning, Josh returned to determine whether the heater could be salvaged though he suspected a new heater would be required given the circumstances.

After trial and error and after essentially dismantling and reassembling the entire water heater igniter (while also ordering a new igniter as a back up option), the pilot light lit up and stayed lit (after some effort the pilot had previously lit but would quickly die out). Many other providers would have given up and recommended purchasing a new heater - which seemed unfortunate but reasonable given the amount of water that had soaked the bottom of the unit. But Josh seemed to take the challenge personally and would not give up until he had exhausted every possible way to save the equipment. And it worked. More impressively, Josh called me back several hours later that day to confirm the pilot was still lit (he insisted I go back to the basement while he stayed on the line to double-check even though hot water was coming out of the sink) as he was leaving another customer and could swing back by on the way home if needed.

Josh can be an acquired taste - he is gregarious and talks with a stream-of-consciousness that some could find annoying or others might find helpful. I fall into the latter category as I appreciated hearing the thought process of watching someone good at their craft walk down the issues one by one until reaching resolution. Further, Josh was fantastic with my two young boys who watched fascinated as he worked the night before in the sludge. He even gave my older son a task of wearing a headlamp and having him point it where he was working, then allowed my son to keep the headlamp as ""payment"" for his fine services. Way to build a clientele of the future! Josh's services aren't the cheapest, though he was certainly more affordable then having to buy a whole new water heater and then having to pay someone to install it. And along the way, Josh found himself some loyalty and into my contact list. Hopefully I won't need to see him any time soon, but if I do I feel like I am in good hands.

Ira K.

Josh fixed our sink problem in no time! It definitely wasn't as straight forward as I had thought. Good thing I didn't try and fix it myself (original plan)! Thank you Josh!!

Wendy H.

Complete lifesaver today - Friday afternoon and the heater stopped working. Called at least five other companies in addition to Josh and he returned my call immediately and was able to come by in the afternoon. Spent time to figure out the exact problem and made sure that he fixed it before walking out the door. Super personable as well as reasonable priced - will definitely use him again for all heating, electric, plumbing, etc. needs.

s d.

Josh is competent and charges roughly up to $300+/hour for flushing and routing drains. The extremely talkative bedside manner, trying to create value, was ultimately not for me.

Bee T.

Josh was our LIFESAVER tonight. After being jerked around by our landlord for a month we finally began calling heating companies ourselves to get our heater fixed before friends visiting from out of town arrive this weekend. When I called, Josh answered almost immediately and when I explained the problem and the urgency, he said he could come the same night. He asked a ton of questions that my husband was able to describe and answer and we sent him pictures by text so he could fully see what he was getting into. When every guy before him was telling our landlord it would have to be fully replaced at quotes of $1200 and up, he came in wayyyyy under that and was able to repair the unit for us. He was also so kind to deal with our crazy and extremely difficult landlord by phone. He even ran to Home Depot to get a part when he realized the last guy had damaged a valve when trying to fix another part. All in all he was a godsend tonight and we are so grateful for the heat, just in the nick of time!
The only thing I would note is that he has a bold and vibrant personality that we found endearing, hilarious, and honest while some people might find it off the cuff. He runs his business like a local Mom and Pop shop, but he clearly has many years of experience. And he will definitely ask you periodically to look at things - he wants you to understand the processes and see the honest work he's doing, some might find this disruptive, so don't call him over if you can't make time for him to do a thorough job. He is honest, hardworking, and extremely thorough - we are so thankful and will be calling Josh for any future heating or plumbing needs!