The Plumbing Ministry

Tracee C.

The Plumbing Ministry was great. They came to my house right on time on the first day of the appointment. Needed to have the lateral sewer line replaced on my house I am selling. They kept true to the estimate even though it took them more time than anticipated. The guys were polite and professional always keeping me informed. I would highly recommend them

Don D. H.

The Plumbing Ministry (TPM) did an excellent job replacing two sewer laterals for members of our HOA. They were the most reasonable of three bids. Our need was urgent, as one of the sewers backed up. TPM was very responsive to all communications, and showed up on time to the job site. Jose, the lead foreman, was knowledgeable and competent, and his crew lively and productive. The job was done within the estimated time. The actual work, materials and assembly, was a vast improvement over the original connection made over 30 years ago. All third party involvement such as the marking of underground cables, irrigation lines, etc. was arranged and carried out in a timely manner. Inspection was done on time and certification from EBMUD received (good for 20 years). Thank you!

Emy D.

The Plumbing Ministry was great. Salvatore came to my house right on time on the first day of the appointment. Needed to have the lateral sewer line replaced on the house I just purchased. I'm not in the property yet, but gave them access to the back through the yard. Salvatore texted me with updates on their progress whenever I asked, and everything went very smoothly. The exterior work they did on the concrete they had to replace was great. Matches the rest of the patio they were working around nicely.

Only small issue was that the communication prior to and after the project was a little lacking. It would have been nice to get a confirmation call or email on the project the day before (or at any point) confirming the project. I wrote it on my calendar, forgot about it until the night before, then had to call them about an hour prior to the appointment to confirm they were going to show (to be fair, they were already en route and showed up right on time).

Also, I haven't yet seen the final bill with the statement of exactly what was done. I'm not sure if that's because I had a firm understanding of what they were doing (only in that I have a fair bit of experience with renovations and plumbing), or because they just forgot. I'll follow up, but need them for my records, obvi.

All that said, these guys definitely knew what they were doing. I had my dad come out and inspect the work, and everything looks great in the scope. You can hardly even tell in the yard where they had to dig (they did trenchless replacement, so it wasn't super disruptive, but still, they did a really good job of getting the yard back to where it was before they came).

Karin S.

If only it were possible to find words eloquent enough to dissuade you from calling the Plumbing Ministry!

If you want to pay someone thousands of dollars for a job that's destined to fail because the underlying problem wasn't addressed, go ahead and call the Plumbing Ministry. If you want to wait around all day for someone to show who comes late or doesn't come at all, call the Plumbing Ministry. If you want to be told several days in a row (on the days that the plumber actually DOES come) that your sewage problem is now fixed and then have sewage under your house within a minute of turning on your water, then call the plumbing ministry. If you want someone who refuses to answer phone calls or emails or text messages to try to remedy the problem unless it's convenient, call the Plumbing Ministry. But of course, it's all worth it since he is there to tell you that ""Jesus loves you.""

I actually was foolish enough to have recommended Louis and The Plumbing Ministry to friends and neighbors after he did work for me a few years ago. I regret that decision terribly. I was surprised to read the negative reviews on Yelp when I went to find his phone number again; I was foolish enough to have ignored those reviews and trusted that my initial experiences were a testament to a solid work ethic and professional expertise. Wrong on both counts. I'll give some of the details below for those of you who are still inclined to trust the positive reviews.

1. He failed to determine that the reason I've had to repeatedly repair my sewage pump (and replace it several times at a cost of thousands of dollars per pump) is because the waste line from the pump to the city sewer line wasn't installed properly in the first place. This was in spite of my asking him why I was having such frequent problems when my neighbors never had to replace or repair their pumps.

2. When my pump failed again (and the alarm he installed never went off- I discovered it because of the smell of raw sewage under the house), his team of plumbers did determine that the cause of the problem was the sewage line to the sewer main. As one of them said, ""If I had put the pump in myself, I would have checked the line and recommended this be fixed. It should have been done before."" Remember, the Plumbing Ministry plumbers were the ones who DID install the pump.

3. That first day, the plumber said he got everything working again, that I could use the plumbing normally but that the lines would need to be fixed soon but not emergently. After he left, I turned on the water, and the sewage tank promptly overflowed. I called and left urgent voicemails. No response, I called the office mid-morning. I was assured that someone would go out that day to fix it.

4. The first day, the plumber was two hours late in arriving. The second day he didn't come at all. No phone calls about it either.

5. I called that night and actually reached Louis, who promised me someone would fix it the next day. I made a HUGE deal about wanting someone to call me since I couldn't be on site and let me know if the problem wasn't completely fixed. I came home the next day. No one called. No notes, messages, voicemails, or emails and nothing in the mailbox. I turned on the water, and the tank overflowed immediately. Again.

6. I sent a bunch of urgent texts and emails to Louis, who said ""it was working when he left yesterday."" He said he'd send someone out before 9 the next morning.

7. After unanswered calls, texts, and emails starting at 9, the plumber arrived after 9:30. He said he was ""doing me a favor by coming since he wasn't even supposed to be working"" and that he wasn't here to fix the problem, just to figure out what was wrong. He was rude and disrespectful. He tried to tell me that the pump had been unplugged (which it wasn't but I didn't say anything to contradict him) and that was why it wasn't working. He said it was working now and tried to leave. I told to wait, turned on the water, and the tank overflowed. Then he said he ""jiggled it"" to get it working but now it was working. The tank overflowed again. Then he said it was failing because I wasn't giving the tank time to empty (but a working pump with an open drainage line can empty the tank in well under a minute, and he completely disregarded the fact that the tank was allegedly empty when I turned on the water in the first place). Then he said that the reason that the tank was overflowing was because the line was backed up (duh) but that he wasn't going to fix it since he had somewhere else to be. He said someone else would come later that day to fix it.

It has been days since I was told that my problem was fixed. Louis hasn't returned calls, texts, or emails. Yes, he has sent someone back out several times, but each person told everything was working when it failed as soon as I turned on the water. Save yourself money, time, and frustration. Call someone with a work ethic.

Justin T.

I had them do a bunch of work (install, re-pipe - upwards f $1,500) and then had them back out to unblock a toilet. On the second job (toilet) they were there less than 3 minutes and charged me $145 for a blocked toilet that took 30 seconds to unblock. There are better and less expensive people out there. Shop around, these guys are a rip with no sense of loyalty.

Alison H.

Louis is a true professional.

He did my sewer lateral quickly and efficiently and best of all, he cleaned up after himself.

When I had a major, inexplicable, flood in my basement, he came right over (no charge) and ran his camera down the pipe to show me what was going on. (It wasn't his fault.)

His billing is easy to understand and he filed the paperwork with the city of Berkeley.

Tess B.

I am a Real Estate agent and use Plumbing Ministry for all my clients' sewer lateral certification and repairs including my personal home. They are professional, on time, and provide the best customer service. I also applaud the owner, Louis Ray for utilizing young men in training them in the workforce. Good for you and thank you for serving us with a smile!

V W.

Just had my sewer lateral done by the Plumbing Ministry. Scheduling happened very quickly - within a few days of my call. The team who did it, led by a guy named Sergio, did the work as scheduled and did a beautiful job of restoring the work site to its former state, including providing a close match to the red-tinted concrete in my driveway. They showed up as scheduled and came around 8:30 am (not too early, not too late) each day (it took 2.5 days). I didn't have to be home and had access to water each day. I heard they also notified my neighbors of the work they were doing (at some point they brought in heavy equipment to dig a hole in the street). The work was a little more complicated than usual because the sewer line goes all the way around my house, but the work was completed as estimated and on time. I was happy to learn that work only entailed digging holes at the entry and exit points and not a whole trench! Thank you, Plumbing Ministry!

Alex K.

Fantastic to work with! We had to get our sewer lateral replaced and we purchased our home 4 months ago. They had given a quote to the previous owner 6 months ago which they honored, started the work right away, and finished it quickly. They answered all the questions I had and made sure it was done right. The crew showed up on time and left everything tidy (even coiled up my extension cord I left out!). Would definitely recommend and use again. Thanks Plumbing Ministry!

Larry S.

Plumbing MInistry has done work on our sewer lateral twice and have done a good jobs both times. The crew that did work at our house this past week was great. They were very careful excavating around our tree roots, and called me a number of times to discuss what they were doing before proceeding. You have a good crew.