Recommend your emergency plumbing company

Hi - when emergencies happen (and they do, especially in the winter with frozen pipes and steam heat boilers), I find it frustrating to dial many different plumbers to get emergency, same day service.  My regular plumber is great and reasonable, but not on call at all hours (nor should he be).  I've found that many plumbing companies advertising "24 hour" and "emergency" service while they may answer the phone, they may say they can't get to you until a day or two later (even in relatively "slow" times - times when there would appear to be no collective crisis happening / people aren't having the same issues).  Looking for recommendation for a reliable, often same-day (same-night?) service that hopefully doesn't charge egregious rates (happy to pay more than usual, but there are be degrees of reasonableness).  


lanky said:

Hi - when emergencies happen (and they do, especially in the winter with frozen pipes and steam heat boilers), I find it frustrating to dial many different plumbers to get emergency, same day service.  My regular plumber is great and reasonable, but not on call at all hours (nor should he be).  I've found that many plumbing companies advertising "24 hour" and "emergency" service while they may answer the phone, they may say they can't get to you until a day or two later (even in relatively "slow" times - times when there would appear to be no collective crisis happening / people aren't having the same issues).  Looking for recommendation for a reliable, often same-day (same-night?) service that hopefully doesn't charge egregious rates (happy to pay more than usual, but there are be degrees of reasonableness).  

that’s been my problem since 1990 when I moved to maplewood. That’s why I started educating myself about plumbing and electrical work. In an emergency I can get the situation under control. I won’t replace the furnace myself though. As for frozen pipes, there’s plenty of discussion on this site on how to prevent that from happening. 
ETA:

My first emergency was when my furnace wouldn’t start up, I called Weltman plumbing who were around the corner on Springfield Ave at the time, they came pretty quick and it cost me a pretty penny also, but I was just happy to get my heat back up. Turns out it was the little pig tail pipe that connects to the pressure gauge, luckily for me the guy that came knew me and he explained the problem. 


We called Toro the morning after Irene, which knocked out our water heater. They installed a new one that afternoon. We were impressed (and grateful), especially since it must have been a monstrously busy day for them.

ETA: We were in the same situation as you, with a regular plumber who was a solo guy and away that week.


DaveSchmidt said:

We called Toro the morning after Irene, which knocked out our water heater. They installed a new one that afternoon. We were impressed (and grateful), especially since it must have been a monstrously busy day for them.

ETA: We were in the same situation as you, with a regular plumber who was a solo guy and away that week.

Good to know!

@Jaytee - I can do a far bit of regular plumbing and boiler trouble-shooting, but when my tenant calls and says the boiler isn't working and they have no heat, I need someone who can quickly diagnose problems, especially related to the gas lines.  I don't mess with gas and my tenant takes comfort in a "professional" vs. cheap, handy landlord...


Toro was terrific in responding to emergency repair resulting from my failed attempt to repair some plumbing.  Were the only local company that offered to fit me in the same day.

Continued using them for several years now and always have good experiences


For frozen pipes - seems like this might be good to use.  We use it just to get hot water faster and I think it affects the cold pipes to some degree also.  It constantly circulates hot water through your pipes.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Watts-Hot-Water-Recirculating-System-with-Built-In-Timer-0955800/100426993


lanky said:

Good to know!

@Jaytee - I can do a far bit of regular plumbing and boiler trouble-shooting, but when my tenant calls and says the boiler isn't working and they have no heat, I need someone who can quickly diagnose problems, especially related to the gas lines.  I don't mess with gas and my tenant takes comfort in a "professional" vs. cheap, handy landlord...

ok that’s better. Didn’t realize you were a landlord.


jamie said:

For frozen pipes - seems like this might be good to use.  We use it just to get hot water faster and I think it affects the cold pipes to some degree also.  It constantly circulates hot water through your pipes.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Watts-Hot-Water-Recirculating-System-with-Built-In-Timer-0955800/100426993

Oooh - very cool!  Highly rated too.  Seems worth it for showers alone...  For frozen pipes, we found getting behind the drywall in the basement and putting a drain/spigot with a valve at where the pipe to the exterior bends and goes up worked wonders - it was never enough to shut the valve to the line and open the exterior, water would stay in the pipe (gravity's a bitch, ain't it) and freeze. 


Correction, if the timeliness makes any difference: I meant Ida (2021), not Irene (2011).



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