Winston's Plumbing

Aaron L.

The crew at Winston's Plumbing did a superb job with our plumbing and bathroom remodel project. Winston did a thorough assessment of our leaky pipes and made some excellent suggestions around re-doing our bathroom for greater comfort, functionality, and beauty. In the days that followed, that vision became an awesome reality!

Winston's crew is top-notch: they're respectful, professional, thorough, and hard-working. We especially appreciated their careful attention to protecting our furniture and floor from scratches or dust during construction. After many long hours, our new bathroom looks first-rate, and everything works perfectly!

I would have given Winston's Plumbing five stars if it weren't for some miscommunication issues around delivery of materials and costs. But even these hiccups were resolved with earnest effort and in a reasonable amount of time.

We highly recommend Winston's Plumbing for your home repairs and improvements!

Shawn S.

Winston's Plumbing created more problems than they fixed. I hired Winston's Plumbing to fix an offset in my sewer lateral that was causing water to come up onto the sidewalk at the corner of my property. Winston recommended replacing a section from the offset all the way to the house in order to make a connection that would not leak. After the problem was ""fixed"" there was still water coming up onto the sidewalk. Winston said it was my irrigation, but turning off the irrigation did not affect the problem. I tried to get Winston to come back to look at the problem but no one returned my call so I called another plumber.

The new plumber began excavating and found that there was a new offset in the sewer lateral at the same place near the sidewalk where the original offset was found. More disturbing, however, was that two cast iron branches near the clean out near the house were not connected. Two pipes from the bathroom were draining directly into the soil. The hillside was completely saturated. The new plumber fixed the offset near the sidewalk and replaced the upper section and made new connections to the house. I was told that in order to replace the upper section I would need to obtain EBMUD and City of Oakland permits and administer a water test to the entire sewer lateral, which was done. This was not done or recommended by Winston's.

Winston said that missing connections ""happens all the time,"" so beware. Winston did not take responsibility for not being thorough and not supervising properly. He blamed it all on his subcontractor who pulled the pipe. Winston's charged $2,500 but it cost $4,000 to fix his work. I tried to recover the $4,000 from Winston's but they refused to cover my costs. They did refund the original $2,500 but I am out $1,500.

Caryn D.

Another overdue review! We initially heard about Winston from neighbors. We have used him over the years for jobs large and small - replacing toilets to re-plumbing the entire house. For the re-plumbing, he spent time helping us decide exactly what portions of the existing plumbing needed to be replaced for maximum benefit for our dollars spent. We ended up spending considerably less than the other quotes we'd gotten and are very happy with the result.

Winston is knowledgeable, super-friendly, always takes the time to explain what's going on, and is sensitive to the unique features of our older home. He also does electrical, remodels, etc. I haven't needed that yet but he'll be my first call when I do.

Mary B.

Winston helped me with a complicated sewer problem by working with the City of Oakland to get them to fix part of it and saving me thousands of dollars over what other plumbers were telling me it would cost. He is honest and smart and really understands his work including stuff about property easements which came into play in my situation. I couldn't get a clear explanation of the work and why the cost was so high from other plumbers. Pipe Spy quoted me $14K for what sounded like more work than I needed. When I asked them to just quote me for the part of the pipe that was installed incorrectly, they came back with $15K! None of the others mentioned Oakland being on the hook for any of this or offered to deal with them. I think Winston's total cost was around $1K--it was spread out over a number of visits and his work with Oakland. It also included installing a back-flow valve.

The only thing I would caution is that it takes a lot of phone calls and emails to keep things moving along but I'm finding that's true with many trades people, even the good ones.

Minger S.

Nothing quite compares to the feeling of getting soaped up in the shower in the middle of the night then discovering you've got no hot water. When this happened, I called Winston the next day. WHAT AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE! They were polite, understanding, very friendly. Winston came the very next morning, apologized for running late even though he was not even late at all (he arrived at about 8:55 for an 8:30-9AM window), fixed my water heater in pretty much no time, and even advised me on putting a cap on another gas line. He didn't even charge me for the repair because it was so quick! Then we hung out and talked about local restaurants.

Best visit by a service professional ever! Will be calling them for all my plumbing repair and home improvement needs.

Arthur H.

I had a Clogged toilet. I called Winston's Plumbing at 9:00 AM. I got a call back shortly after. Set up an appointment for later in the day. I got a call around 1:00 and was told that Winston would arrive between 2 and 2:30. He was on time, snaked the toilet and found a gold loop earring that was causing the clog. He was pleasant, courteous and efficient. Happy day.

Ramo O.

This review is waaaay late. Sorry Winston! Winston's Plumbing Heating & Electric was suggested to us by friends after the sewer main backed up into our basement, flooding our laundry room and art space with the human yuck factor. Winston and his crew came through with the quickness and assessed the situation, explaining to us what was going on and what the options were to move forward. Our situation was pretty major, since it was the line all the way out to the street, backing up out of the floor drain in our laundry room. Thankfully, we have home owner's insurance (USAA rocks!) and we had to get them involved. Winston worked with our insurance guy to see what was covered and what was not, yadayadayada, deal was made and they got to work fixing the mess. Draining, sanitizing, all that required stuff. It only took a few days, and mostly that was because our insurance guy couldn't come out right away (it was a weekend). They replaced the line with minimal floor and landscape disturbance and we were happy flushers in no time. The crew was very cordial and respectful and Winston himself was very very knowledgeable, explains things well, and seems to be a generally happy guy (big smiles). It really was a pleasure meeting and working with him. Situations like these usually end up with a ""we pay, you do"" relationship. With Winston, it's a lot more than that! We highly recommend this company for plumbing needs, and if his heating and electric skills match his plumbing skills, then you're covered.

Sheila B.

I came to this company to get emergency plumbing work done, and ended up getting that satisfied, plus my electrical problems fixed and a tutorial on lighting the pilot to my water heater that seriously came in handy much sooner than I expected.

Long story short is that I got robbed for my copper plumbing and became aware of it the day after I got the key to my new house. Winston Plumbing was recommended to me by the person that put in my security system. I called him and let him know what happened and a seriously beautiful thing happened-- I got a plumber that not only replaced the pipes that got stolen but also helped me to receive full payment when my insurance company balked at paying for the damage and tried to call part of it vandalism.

It gets even better. He is also a certified electrician and was able to fix all the non-working light sockets--plus put in new ones and helped to make an old house become much more livable.

Best--His prices are reasonable. He consults and teaches and the teaching part of his services came in very handy. After my washer and dryer were installed, I discovered that the pilot light had gone off on the water heater Luckily a few days before, Winston had shown me where the pilot light was, then how to light it so I wouldn't have to wait for PG&E, unless I was concerned with something other than a pilot light going out.

To wrap it up---Winston Plumbing got me water when I most needed it to move in at reasonable prices; in addition; the company was certified to met my electrical needs, then me teaches (how to light the pilot which saved me time and worry). Calling him is a win-win when you have plumbing and electrical problems and I found out he builds container gardens. Five Stars

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Robert A.

Winston was prompt, professional and a pleasure to work with. Although he addressed a non-emergency situation for me, he was willing to do the work on a Saturday, less than 24 hrs after I called, without charging me more because of my impatience. His assistant was quick and efficient, and did high quality work. The job was completed as promised, for the price promised. I will call Winston for all my plumbing needs in the future.

David R.

Prompt and expert trenchless sewer line replacement. Best price too. Went to extra mile to take care of everything. The crew was great. Smoothly and expertly took care of whatever came up.