Nelson Plumbing

Albert H.

I heard the leakage of water sound during midnight and cannot fix it myself, then I decided to have a whole house copper re-pipe. After some internet search, I hired Nelson Plumbing to do the work. My house is fifty four years old and has lots of old house problem. Richard did a great job on bypassing existing old pipe, reroute new copper plumbing in better paths, moving water heater from kitchen to garage, correct drain pipe connection in laundry sink. Now after weeks of using the new water system, I feel very comfortable.

Richard S.

Re: Nelson Plumber's
Last year, after reviewing their two story work across the street, I contacted Nelson Plumber's to replace my plumbing. Several items came up during the work which I liked the way Nelson handled them.
Main Water Line: the connections at the curb were all rusted and leaking. They were replaced with no charge. Nelson arranged my sprinkler lines with new connectors with no charge.
Garage: Nelson bought a new metal hot water heater stand and charged me one half the cost.
Two Showers and tub room: Nelson replaced all water fixtures no charge.
Kitchen sink: Inspector found dishwasher/disposal and sink had been improperly plumbed. Nelson charged me one half the price to fix it right.
Under House: One air duct made it impossible to get to some water pipes. Nelson charged me one half their cost to dig a hole under it for access.
All the work was professional and for a good price. My two story house included copper toilets 4, Sinks 7;, tile showers 2, tile tub 1, outside outlets 3, Garage 1.

They cleverly sawed out sheet rock. Copper replaced and refinished the sheet rock including texturing. I now have enough water pressure to run showers at the same time and my outside sprinklers now cover my lawns like they did many years ago. The work was done over 6 months ago and I have had no problems or reason to have the back.

I highly recommend Nelson Plumber's. You will get a good price, great work and they will work with you to solve unexpected problems at minimum charge, if any.
Dick

Irene L.

I think Carrie and PJ were amazing. They came on time and finished on time. I read Lara F's and Jeff G's reviews and wholeheartedly agree with their comments.

Pamela H.

I was at my whits end with plumbing/piping problems in our house.

I first went to ""Bay Area Checkbook"" at the library for local plumbers. I wanted to repipe my 60 year old, 1400 square foot house, from original galvanized metal to copper piping. I selected 4 top recommended plumbers in our area and talked to them over the phone.

One of the plumbers I called did not do repiping, and highly recommended ""NELSON PLUMBING"". So, Nelson Plumbing was one of 3 companies I decided on, to come out and give me a bid.

What I liked best about Carrie from Nelson Plumbing, was when she came out to meet with me, was her ""can do"" attitude. If I asked her, ""Can you recess this pipe back into this wall?"", she said ""Yes"". With the other two companies, it was either ""no"" or ""maybe"". I got the feeling with the other two larger companies, they would ""get in"" and ""get out"" quickly. While, with Carrie, I got the impression, they would do the job, to my satisfaction, until the job was done. And that is exactly what they did.

For the cost of the project: Nelson Plumbing came in with the lowest bid. And the larger, well known company met their bid. Nelson Plumbing was a long time, family owned business. I like supporting family businesses. I thought the job, may take a bit longer, rather than a larger work crew. But, that was OK with me. Their estimate of time for the job would have been right on, if they hadn't run into so many obstacles. Obstacles were: outdoor junipers that seemed to worry the other companies, rocky creek bed soil to bore through, working with a converted garage/family room, and the list goes on. What can I say, it is an old house. But, they would readjust with each obstacle they ran into. They worked longer than normal hours. They cleaned up after EVERY DAY of work. They arranged their work to maximize our use of water needs. And, they remained professional through it all.

Carrie was patient with my questions. She communicated through words, diagrams, showing me hardware, whatever it took to get the information across. I ask a lot of questions and she always had complete answers.

They attempted to exceed my expectations, which are high, and succeeded time and again.

It has been a few months since they completed the job, and I wonder, why we didn't do this years ago. The original pipes had corroded to where you could barely get a pencil through the center of the pipe's opening. We could only run one appliance at a time. The shower had become almost nonoperational, because bits of corroded material had fallen off within the pipes, and were now lodged somewhere you couldn't get at. NOW, we can run the outside irrigation, while running the dishwasher, while taking a shower and so on. NICE!!!

Carrie called back to see if we were having any problems. And, I am confident, if we did, they would be back to fix it. Everything is great. I would highly recommend them.

12/8/2011 I just wanted to add, everything is still working perfectly that Nelson Plumbing worked on. It has been several years. Their work is very, very good.

S.S S.

I have my fellow Yelp reviewers to thank very much for helping me find Nelson Plumbing. This husband and wife team, PJ and Carrie, live up to every word of the rave reviews they have received. They are a real gem that is so hard to find in today's plumbing business.

In today's world full of big companies hiring technicians with little regard on experience, quality, or personality, I was very apprehensive about my copper-repiping project. I was very reluctant to use a big company, knowing too well that I would have to depend solely on luck to get a good technician working on my job. Based on my past experiences, contracted technicians are under the company's pressure to get jobs done as quickly as possible so that they can move on and collect more money somewhere else. Copper-repiping is not something to rush to the finish line. It is too expensive and too big of a job to risk your house with companies that do things in a hurry.

My house was not an easy project. My crawl space was very difficult to work in. PJ and Carrie were in my house for two weeks and finished the job right on time. Yes, copper repiping job is messy, dusty, noisy, and involves lots of big holes in walls and ceilings. But every night when I came home, PJ and Carrie left the house in a clean shape as if they were never there. Every single night, they closed all the holes in walls and ceilings, they vacuumed and mopped the floor to minimize my distress of living in the middle of a construction. They never walked around in my house outside of the drop cloth they put down to protect my floor. They treat my house the way I treat it myself.

PJ is very meticulous with everything. I chose him over another positively-reviewed company because he was so meticulous when he came to do the estimate. He pays attention to every detail all the way to the finish line. I can't believe that I am saying this but my new plumbing is not only well-planned and well-executed, it is also beautiful!!. And last but certainly not least, PJ and Carrie are good people, kind-hearted, conscientious, and take pride in what they do. They even helped me with a few extra plumbing things without charging me for the work. Thank you, PJ and Carrie. It was my great pleasure doing business with you.

Greg M.

Nelson Plumbing is the most professional and honest plumber I have encountered. My water shut off valve to the house started leaking one evening and the only way to stop it from flooding the area was to shut off the water valve at the meter on the street. Since it was after 6 in the evening I called one of the standard drain stoppage plumbing companies. They came out within their 45 minute response time, assessed the situation and provided several quotes depending on what it may take to fix the problem. The quotes started at just under $300 to over $600. I had an uneasy feeling regarding whether they knew what they were doing so I sent them away. Facing the possibility of no water in the house until it was fixed, I contacted several friends and someone recommended Nelson Plumbing. I called and left a message with a person at an answering service. A while later Richard called and I explained the leaking valve situation. If I was willing, he suggested I try something before he came out. Based on my description of the problem he suggested I try tightening a bolt on the shut off valve. He stayed on the phone while I got my tools and went outside to the valve. He walked me through what the valve looked like and which bolt to tighten. I did what he said, turned on the water at the meter and sure enough, the leak stopped. The whole process took a while but Richard stayed on the phone, walked me though it and saved me the cost of a plumber. He even called me the next morning to make sure that everything was still OK and the problem was truly fixed. What Richard did is one of the most honest and nicest things someone has done for me. Rather than charge me for an easy fix he just told me how to do it. I would definitely use and recommend Nelson Plumbing for any plumbing job.

Jeff G.

I hired Nelson Plumbing to do a complete copper repiping at our house, and my wife and I couldn't be more pleased with the result. We also used this opportunity to upgrade the whole plumbing system, having them replace all of our fixtures, faucets, and toilets. The quality of their work is top-notch, and they were courteous, thoughtful, professional, and thorough ... extremely thorough! The entire job took a little over a week, exactly as Richard had estimated, and, having retired recently, I was able to be at home nearly all of the time and observe them in action. Richard, Carrie, and P.J. are outstanding people and it was a pleasure getting to know them and watching them work. (And I appreciated the fact that it didn't bother them to let me watch and learn things, as long as I stayed out of the way and didn't pester them.) It was clear that they are all very experienced and knowledgeable.
They patiently answered all my questions and gave me a lot of helpful advice.

I chose Nelson over another competitor who also got very favorable Yelp reviews. Richard gave me a very competitive bid, but my decision wasn't based on the price alone. I called the references both plumbers gave me; those people all said both did high-quality work. What set Richard's company apart was that his customers went on to describe the personal touches and great service they received, giving anecdotes and specific examples. I was also persuaded by the fact that Richard seemed to really WANT the job more and I felt he would perhaps be more motivated to do a really great job for us. It also helped that they were available right away and would be solely devoted to our project, versus the other guy who might be running back and forth between several jobs going on at once.

P.J. and Carrie have a tremendous work ethic -- they just went at it zealously from start to finish -- and they are meticulous about cleanliness. Same routine every single day -- layed down tarps over every work area (shaking all the dust out of them at the beginning and end of each day) and vacuuming and sweeping everywhere. They made sure the house was left clean and tidy, and the water turned back on and working properly every night. And whatever portions of drywall had been cut out were temporarily screwed back in place so that we didn't feel like we were living in a construction zone with open walls everywhere.

I worked in craft jobs for the phone company during my career, so I appreciated these folk's attention to details and the obvious pride in their work that they demonstrated, making sure everything was done right. I was even more impressed by the way that they handled the more difficult situations and unexpected challenges that arose. They didn't try to cut corners or take an easy way out; instead they buckled down, persevered, came up with creative solutions, and did what it took to get the job done.

I also liked the fact that whenever they discovered an existing deficiency (something hazardous or not to code or done in a sloppy way by someone else previously), they brought it to my attention and offered to correct it. So there were a few add-ons (extra costs) at the end but nothing that I hadn't agreed to and authorized beforehand. They ALWAYS made sure and asked first.

They ran new copper pipe (ALL type ""L"" by the way, outside AND inside, which exceeds minimum code, at no extra cost) from the water meter out in front, to the house and throughout the entire interior, also replacing the regulator. The trench in the front yard was dug carefully and the lawn restored perfectly afterward. I was already convinced of the benefits and advantages of replacing all the old galvanized pipes with copper, but felt even better about it when P.J. showed me a section of badly corroded pipe which he brought up from underneath the house. I should also mention that the drywall repairman that they used did a fantastic job as well. All areas that had been cut were restored to perfect paint-ready condition as they had promised.

To sum it up, it was not only the big things but also all the little things they did, that added up to a great job expertly done, and we are just thrilled. Our water pressure is so much better, we have nothing leaking or dripping anymore, and we now get hot water within seconds rather than minutes since Richard suggested and installed a recirculating pump on the water heater. We have beautiful and reliable new fixtures and toilets, the satisfaction of having added great value to our house, and the peace of mind knowing that we'll likely have no more plumbing problems ... but if we do, we know we can call Richard and count on him and his family to fix them promptly.

To all homeowners with old, galvanized and plastic pipes, I urge you to replace them with copper -- it's a great investment -- and I highly recommend Nelson Plumbing. You will be pleased.

dawn d.

Rich, owner of Nelson Plumbing, installed our beautiful new toilet. I did NOT want to try a do-it-yourself job !

Rich showed up cheerful and ready to roll. In a very short time, he took out our nasty old toilet, cleaned up the accumulated (over many years) gunk around it, and installed the new one. He was kind enough to give us instructions on how it's done as he proceeded. (Not that I would ever do this on my own if he's around) The seat I had purchased was a very fancy European model that Rich had not seen before, but he figured out the IKEA-like instructions (drawings only) and it is a work of art. (Closes by itself, lifts completely off for cleaning!)
His price was very fair; I would call him again in a hot second.

Moshi M.

I called Nelson Plumbing and spoke to Richard. Although they weren't able to help me with my particular problem, I appreciated the gesture of referring me to Alfred Williams Plumbing. It was a small gesture to refer me, rather than take the job up that may have been costly and unnecessary. Honest and worth giving them a call.

Charles H.

In August, 2009, I returned from a trip to discover than an underground leak had developed in the main water line from the street meter to my house in the Almaden Valley. I chose to call Nelson Plumbing based on their ad in the yellow pages, and spoke with the owner, Richard.

That same afternoon, Richard came to my house to provide a free estimate. After discussing the options with him, I decided to go with his recommendation to replace the entire length of a 30-year-old plastic supply line with a new copper line, which involved tunneling under landscaping and a concrete walkway.

Richard and an assistant showed up bright and early the next morning, and worked steadily through the day to complete the task on time as promised.

I am very happy with the way the job was handled, and quite impressed with the way the job site was cleaned up when the job was completed. As promised, the final cost for the job was exactly what we had agreed upon, with no additional charges whatever.

I heartily recommend you call Nelson Plumbing the next time you have a plumbing problem.

Eva P.
San Jose