Repipe1

Katya V.

To say that I am disappointed with Repipe 1 would be a huge understatement.
The short story is: We hired Repipe1 to replace the pipes and drains in our house. They didn't finish the job and did serious damage to the house.
Here is the long story:
Since the problems are so numerous I am putting them in a list form:
1. Floods and leaks
The first leak/flood in the basement closest to the street due to improper connection. Fixed within 24h but did not clean. We had to clean up the water.
The second leak/flood in the basement close to the back stairs. Never figured out the reason. Again, minor but it did get out camping gear wet.
The third flood was under the house and this time quite a bit of water accumulated. The reason was that there was debris from the old pipes not cleared out that created blockage. It took a while to soak up all the water. A lot of our tools and winter sports gear got wet.
The forth leak/flood was pretty major. Around dinner time on Mother's day water started to rain from the boards on the celling coming from the 2nd floor toilet. It lasted hours. There was damage to a cabinet and it's contents, floors, walls and it leaked all the way to the basement. There was a lot of water everywhere and it got us worried about mold. It is also hard to watch so much water go to waste. The explanation was that it had something to do with a pressure valve on a toilet on the second floor that they forgot to bring/install. When we called Ramiro, the project manager, to report the leak he refused to come saying ""What do you want me to do? Leave my family and deal with you?"" We were shocked by such a rude response.2. Damage to the house and appliances:
The workers broke one of the antique windows in the hallway.
While cutting the celling a wire was accidently cut, which is no big deal it took about 10 minutes to fix it when they finally got to it, but we were left without a light in the kitchen for almost two weeks.
After the work on the kitchen pipes was done and we were told all is good to go we ran the dishwasher. After some time I smelled something burning. I checked the dishwasher and saw that there was no water coming in and it was running on dry. Thankfully I was home and caught it before a it caught fire. Again, the explanation was that there was some debris left unchecked in the pipes that prevented water flow.
Initially when they started drilling nothing got covered for protection. Only after I pointed out the thick layer of dust they threw some plastic on the beds, but by then all the bedding had to be washed and we spent hours wiping the dust, vacuuming and mopping.
When work was done on the toilets on the 3rd floor, the floors, again, were not covered and the pieces of drywall were nor cleaned up after the workers left, which resulted in scratches on the floor from opening the door.
For some reason the water heater on the second floor was disconnected, the copper pipes leading to were cut and taken without our knowledge or permission, leaving us without hot water.
Our pleadings for taking care and respecting our home were ether completely ignored, or rudely answered with: ""Don't worry, we'll clean it/fix it latter"". There are scratches on the floors, dings on the doors and window sills and trim, scrapes, pint, palm and finger prints everywhere on the walls and celling. On occasion they didn't even bother cleaning up their food leftovers(we try to keep mice away). When they finally put up some plastic to cover the walls it was so sloppy with the wrong tape(white) used, it created more damage. By trying to ""fix it"" by smearing some paint over it they made it look even worse.
Then there was the issue with the sidewalk in front of the house. They made two large holes, loosely covered them with sand and left like this for weeks. The city inspector came and told us that that's a code violation and they have to be covered with something hard, like a board.
Now Repipe 1 is telling us that the work is complete and demand the final payment. The Senior City plumbing inspector was here yesterday and assured us that there was no final inspection and the job is not completed.
We were very patient and understanding as Ramiro and Carlos gave us explanations for all the problems that came up. We listened to all the excuses and promises as they didn't show up on time, or didn't show up at all, or come unannounced and told us they are about to shut the water off for the day.
This project was to be completed before the end of May 2015, almost a year ago, and the Inspector is telling us that the permit is about to expire. When I call the Repipe 1 I either get a ""We'll look into it and call you back"" and no call back, or and get yelled at by some guy named Sam.
We are left with unfinished and questionable work, extensive damage to the house and pretty shaken by the whole experience.
Don't do the same mistake we made, hire someone else!

Fred W.

Absolutely outstanding in what they do: repiping. Their bid was fair. The work was quick and of excellent quality. They bypassed the four unit building's horrible, leaking and thoroughly clogged galvanized supply lines in just two days. They worked to minimize disruption of the tenant's apartments. Even the plaster and drywall patch guys worked lightning fast and did excellent work.

Why the four-star review then? I also had them do some plumbing things that where out of their core-competancy such as adding a drain and vents. That part of the job did not go very well. For example, they left raw cast iron drain (it should be threaded) sticking way too far out and very much in the wrong place. I ended up having to bring in a different plumber to resolve the drain hookup. But if you stick to just repiping, they can't be beat.

dan s.

My original review left out something. I did not mention that , as the job neared completion, the installer and his boss both said that they could not finish the job without replacing the main, at a cost of another $1,800. Both the installer and the salesmen had agreed before starting the job that the main did not need replacing. I had no choice but to agree to have them dig up the old main, which they assured me was galvanized from the street to the house.

As I was looking at the mess they made of my lawn and landscaping, I noticed a 4 foot length of old looking 3/4 inch COPPER pipe on the ground next to the trench. Upon inquiry, I was told that it was the old main. The worker pointed to where the end of the old pipe projected from the side of the trench they had dug. It turns out that the galvanized pipe only went a foot or so into the ground, and was copper to the street. It was too late to stop them, since they had cut both ends of the pipe and laid their own. I took pictures so that I could show the management.

Sam, the manage,r had a hard time believing me, until he saw the pictures. He begrudgingly voided the $1800 charge for the unnecessary work. He made a point of saying that there was no warranty on the work because I was not paying for it.

HERE'S the kicker. I got a call from Sam after I posted the review, asking why I was so negative. I explained that I had gotten tired of calling his crew chief over and over and still ending up with things that were not fixed properly, so I finished things up myself (crawlspace vents, holes in the garage drywall, etc).

Today I got a bill for $1,800. When I call their billing department, I got Spartac, who reviewed the whole list notes on the account, and informed me that Sam had reinstated the charge because of the negative review. If this is business as normal, you probably can't trust the reviews here and on Angies list. Spartac then claimed that the reason the charge was reinstated was the pipe they took out was obviously faked as it was too small to be a main. In short, they were claiming fraud on my part.

I did not mention this part originally because Sam blamed everything on the salesman and crew chief, and said the responsible people would be dismissed. Today I was told the crew chief is still on the job, so obviously the same thing can happen to others.

D F.

Repipe1 was fast, neat and clean. They promised and delivered. I would suggest them to anyone.

Brian S.

5 or so years ago, Repipe1 did a complete repipe of our house using Uponor PEX. I called Repipe1 on July 10th to inquire about changing 1 line (~20') that supplies the Refrigerator icemaker. The original line had a shutoff valve (at my request), that was no longer needed and I wanted to eliminate the access door in the ceiling. I understood this was a SMALL job, but thought since Repipe1 did the original work, it seemed logical to ask them first. I explained the entire situation on the phone. The response from Repipe1 was: ""We only do complete house repiping. You need to call your neighborhood Plumber"". Say what? You call this 'Customer Service'? Wow, if I knew this company cared so little about their past customers, I certainly would have selected a different repiping company 5 odd years ago. Beware.

2015-7-13 Update. Sam the Account Mgr contacted me a couple days after my above posting to explain Repipe does not have a Service Crew to handle the small jobs. He explained that they would need to pull someone off of their normal installation crews in order to handle my job. With a company the size of Repipe1, it seems logical they should have 1-3 Plumbers on call for these little jobs and Service call, but that is my opinion. I was happy that Sam contacted me and even offered to send me $100 to cover more than half the $175 cost. For this responsiveness, I have updated my above rating from 2 start to 5 star as Sam went the extra mile to address my concern. It is not easy to find Plumbers to do small jobs on PEX tubing, which made this situation more of an issue for me. Thank you Sam for being very customer focused even to this customer from the past!

2015-7-18 Update. My attempts to contact other Plumbers to replace my small PEX refrigerator waterline were unsuccessful. So I contacted Sam the Account Manager at Repipe1 and asked him again about doing my small job. Sam got his crew of 3 guys there on time and did the job for cheaper than anyone else. I can say that Sam went above and beyond to make this customer satisfied. I would not hesitate to recommend Repipe1 to anyone needing a PEX pipe job.

M. W.

I had my house in Los Gatos repiped last week. The job was especially challenging because my house was built in 1950, the bathrooms have no crawl space, the pipes are in the attic, and most of my exterior and interior walls are made of concrete blocks.

I received 4 bids for the work and Repipe1 provided the best price. The salesman, Bill Landers, was totally professional and patiently addressed all my questions and concerns. The guys showed up at 8 am as promised and completed the job by 9 pm. The project manager Ramiro and his crew were very pleasant, neat, professional, and knowledgeable. The copper pipes were installed in one day. Ramiro promptly followed up on a few things that needed to be addressed, and scheduled the inspection and the walls to be patched. The work easily passed inspection and the wills were nicely patched.. The entire process went well. I am very happy with their work and would recommend Ramiro and the company to anyone needing repiping.

Y b.

I recently had a hot water pipe in my slab start leaking.....a week before Xmas. I talked to Bill on the Thursday the 18th and on Sunday the 21st Ramiro and his crew showed up at my townhouse at 9am, walked through my place explaining everything that they were going to do, covering up furniture, protecting valuables, masking off areas from dust, etc...I had my whole bottom floor repiped and running hot and cold water by 4pm. At 8:30 monday morning Juan and George showed up to repair all of the holes in the sheetrock, and they also explained everything to me and made sure everything was masked off. By Tuesday the 23rd at noon everything was done, all holes patched, taped and textured. As they promised I was not able to tell it had been patched as they were able to match the texture to the rest of my house, all that's left is for me to repaint which I expected. They even repaired a few places that needed it, that had nothing to do with their work. I'm not saying this whole process was not an inconvenience , because it was big time, but between Bill, Ramiro, juan, George, and the other workers, they made it possible for me to have a decent Xmas thanks to them following through!!!
Thx!!

Jess W.

The bottom line:

These guys are great at repiping and I would highly recommend them for that.

They are only okay plumbers though, and I would not recommend them for other tasks outside repiping. The salesperson, Bill, will promise you the world, and you will be disappointed. Also angry, because you will spend a lot of time on the phone straightening it out.

The details:

We repiped our whole (tiny) house from the original 1920's steel to copper. When we got the quote, Bill swore it would be a piece of cake to replace a leaky shower valve, install a laundry box for a washer and a gas line for a new dryer. When the guys showed up, they were ready for the repipe but they knew NOTHING about the other work that Bill had promised. In the end, after a few frantic phone calls and a 7am trip to the plumbing store, the plumbing and gas were installed. However, despite Bill's promise that the washer/dryer would be installed, we had to hire a third party to do the installation. In addition, the Repipe1 guys did not do a leak test on the gas line, and we found a gas leak later that had to be fixed. We're not completely sure it was the result of this work, but we did find it shortly afterward. On the plus side, the copper pipes are great so far, and the price was good too.

Miles K.

Had a washer line leak. Francisco and Bernie came out on time, figured out the problem (ok, a loose connector) and had it done in minutes. Both guys were very courteous, friendly, and professional. They told me what to watch for and to call them if the problem came back. Repipe1 is my plumber of record from now on!

Sandra M.

I had my main water pipe replaced yesterday. I initially had it scheduled for Monday the 13th, but was asked if it could be done sooner--over the weekend. I consented and they arrived on time Saturday A.M.. The guys worked hard and they were nice enough, but I expected more. For example, they did not post the permit to replace the water pipe and when I asked, they didn't know whether a permit had been pulled. Also they provided no safety barriers to cover the trenches that must remain open until the job is inspected-two days from today if we can get the inspection on Monday. This leaves me liable if someone falls into the hole and injuries themselves. This is totally unprofessional surely they had this issue on previous jobs. Lastly, they did not install a pressure regulator on my new water pipe although it was included in the price along with shut off valves. Interestingly, the only time I could not reach someone was when I needed to discuss my concerns. Haven't heard from anyone yet:(

Called Repipe1 first thing Monday morning after checking with the city to see if permits had been pulled. Permit was NOT pulled prior to starting the job. Also I found water leak where plumber had joined new pipe to the main. Rather than do the job correctly the leak was buried under a pile of dirt! Concerned about other buried leaks!




Sandra M.
Vacaville, CA