The Pipe Doctor

David G.

My recommendation: Do NOT call The Pipe Doctor. They were at my home in NVa recently to repair a small copper water pipe, broken due to the extreme freeze. I called on a Tuesday evening, but received no call back until the following morning. They arrived that Wednesday morning after 8:00 during regular business hours, and did resolve the problem, at least temporarily. First, their website states they provide free estimates, but I later discovered they actually don't - and when a company starts out lying to you, it's obviously a bad sign. Only one pipe had been damaged, but according to their plumbers, 2 pipes needed to be worked on because of their positioning; this seemed strange to me, but I accepted their assessment due to the need to get the job done and into work. The pipes were located in an odd place, and from their description of the difficulty of the job, I expected it would take several hours, require special parts, tools, etc., so I also accepted their estimate of $600. They finished in about an hour, with 45 minutes of time actually working on the repair, and did not re-fit the original copper pipes with new copper, but only applied some type of adaptor fittings and non-copper material. The water did function properly afterwards, so I paid the fee and requested an itemized invoice. I was told I'd be sent one by email, but the invoice I received did not provide any details on the parts, labor, additional charges for the service call and estimate, etc., and it was only upon receiving that invoice that I was informed there was no warranty on the job. I emailed this company 12 (twelve) times for additional information and a detailed invoice, with no response whatsoever. I later found what appear to be similar adaptor kits online for much less than $50; but even if both kits cost $50 each for a total of $100, that leaves $500 labor for a 45 minute job - over $500 an hour in labor costs alone.

A similar issue on a different pipe occurred about 10 days later, and I of course did NOT call The Pipe doctor this time. I called another local company (Kinnett), after-hours on a Saturday afternoon. They returned the call, arrived and fixed the problem only a few hours later. They replaced the original copper pipe with new copper, in an area that required outside work and access under the floor. They responded more quickly, performed a much more extensive and difficult job on an after-hours emergency basis, provided all the billing details up front, and charged less than half the price of The Pipe Doctor. Again - Do NOT call The Pipe Doctor for any type of plumbing job - you will likely be grossly overcharged for what is at best average work, and there are many, much better local alternatives. D.G., NVa.

Kimberly F.

Overpriced. I called Pipe Doctor to fix a loose kitchen faucet handle that was leaking, because my usual plumber was unavailable. I knew it was a most a few parts in the handle. They were on time. The plumber said I needed a whole new faucet, he had one, and it would be $600. I said no. So he said he'd have to order the part but it would take 6 weeks. Again, no. Then he said he had to get an Allen wrench from the truck to check it out further. He comes back, flips off the cover, literally tightens a screw, and is done in 5 minutes. The leak was indeed fixed, and now a month later it is still great. However, I was charged $300 for the 10 minute privilege. The plumber gave me an uneasy feeling, so I didn't even try to argue; I just wanted him out of my house. Also it took an entire month for the check to clear. Call them if no one else is around.

Christine R.

We have had excellent service with The Pipe Doctor! They arrive on time & are very helpful and professional. They have fixed many of our plumbing issues in our house - clogged drains, replaced a toilet, installed a new faucet, removed a laundry room sink & fixed a leaking pipe. Wayne and Gary are great!

Mike S.

Needed to replace an aging 40-gallon electric water heater and they did excellent work on a challenging project. I knew the width of the door area was too narrow for even an 18"" heater, so they were required to remove a portion of the adjacent wall to perform the replacement.

The team arrived on time and were friendly throughout the process, answering a variety of questions I had. They were careful with their work and left my home in the same condition as when they arrived.

Additionally, they provided a very competitive price with the number of other plumbers I contacted before selecting them.

Natalie T.

We had Pipe Doctor come out after our kitchen sink started backing up over the weekend. Gary called us back during the weekend and offered to come on Sunday, but we said Monday was fine and they came Monday morning. Shawn and his assistant texted us when they were on their way, and once they arrived they were able to quickly get rid of the blockage. We also had a leaking faucet and water pressure issues in the master bathroom. Shawn gave us great advice on how to get the parts from the manufacturer under a lifetime warranty, and how he could fix the issues once we had the parts. They were very courteous, helpful and informative - we will definitely use them again.

Coleen A.

Oh my, I'm absolutely shocked to see Gary responding to my initial review of 3 stars! Not only did I think he handled the whole situation poorly I'm now actually seeing that he's unable to be completely honest. I was sympathetic the loss of his grandfather, as I myself have just lost 2 son's in the last 5 year's. With that being said, all I said to Gary was you didn't leave any way of notifying your customers that you had a family emergency. Because he DID NOT tell me prior to leaving town. As a matter of fact he didn't even tell his own crew! Had he left someone to take calls, or even a message on his phone I'd have known! After reading my first review he called me and at first asked me to remove it. When I told him I would update it (which I thought I had) after the work was completed he demanded I take it down and even threatened not to come out and fix the mistake! At that point I will not be bullied or threatened and I told him that was up to him but the update would reflect that. His only saving grace in this matter was Lewis, who is the workmen that came out. I told Lewis that although I felt sorry for Gary's loss, his behavior was completely unacceptable and I would give them a update of only one additional star only because of his professionalism. Having owned my own small business, I do know that a simple phone message stating that you will not be available or due to a family emergency I will be out of town keeps your clients in the loop and your business running smoothly or if you have a trusted employee to run things while you're dealing with private matters. All this was preventable.

J. Z.

Luis, a master plumber, gave us A+ service when he fixed our garbage disposal after we requested The Pipe Doctor from AHS, our home warranty company! He was prompt, courteous, knowledgeable, friendly, and professional, and he communicated very well as he explained the work. Full of integrity, he enjoys the challenge of finding a solution and making customers happy. We were very impressed also with how soon he got here after our initial call. We called around 5 pm, and Gary called us back in a few hours to set up an appointment early the next morning! We had been happy in the past with this company's service, and that is why we requested them. We highly recommend The Pipe Doctor!

Neal G.

So a simple kitchen faucet replacement doesn't sound like a big deal, but the way the previous owner of my home had the cabinet, counter, and sink installed, there was so much interference that a contractor I had doing other work wouldn't even attempt a faucet replacement without ripping out the whole sink.

The guys at the Pipe Doctor were able to remove some of the interference and replace the faucet in just a couple of hours without otherwise tearing everything out. Definitely a huge improvement!

Ali S.

Wayne came out to our place because we were having a weird whistling noise in our pipes. He was great! He walked through the potential problems and explained what he was going to do and then what he was doing along the way. Within an hour everything was good to go and no more whistling! Couldn't be happier! Wayne was professional and courteous and one heck of a plumber.

Andrea C.

We had two issues - a sink where the hot water had stopped coming out at all (gradually), and our gas water heater, which while functional was very old, not up to code, and needed to be replaced.

I had several plumbers come out to look at the issues and give estimates. Shawn's estimate was very competitive (another company quoted $1000 more!), and he was great at explaining what needed to be done to bring things up to code (our pipes are pretty old, and some previous work that was done was ... interesting).

Shawn and his assistant arrived promptly, worked efficiently, and within a couple hours the new heater was installed (they noticed that the heater they'd brought had dents in it, so they returned it and got a new one before I even said anything) and everything brought up to code (finally!).

Next, the sink. They had to tear into the drywall a bit to get at the corroded fittings, but did so neatly and with as small a hole as they could. Everything works again, woohoo! I plan to call Shawn again next time we have a plumbing issue.

Note that while they do take credit cards, they have to charge a service fee, so I wound up paying by check to avoid that.