Albert Nahman Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling

The original phone call and arrangement for the estimate was very smooth. I am disappointed by the amount of the procedure and paying for the estimate and an out of service area fee. I live in Lafayette and they are based in Berkeley. I was very disappointed that I could not receive a timely estimate. It took me three separate phone calls to receive the estimate three weeks later. For each phone call, I had to repeat the story to a different person because apparently they are so large that they have several different people answering the phone. The estimate was way too high and I chose a different plumber. I also didn't feel that they were interested in my business.

They were very good and professional. They arrived on time. They were a bit pricey, but very efficient and knowledgeable.

We were very pleased. It was excellent work. They arrived on time and they did absolutely everything that they said they were going to do. We have absolutely no complaints. The foreman for the job was very good.

The office tried to put off repair 13 days later I had a forceful discussion w/ them & they agreed to stick w/ Wills pledge to start in 6 days & finish in 2 days work. On the scheduled day an unfamiliar crew arrived & that William would arrive soon. They set up to work William came at 10am spoke with crew & me & then left. It was the last I saw of him. Crew finished the pole by noon & waited for city inspector who came at 2:30 he signed off on leak test crew temporarily connected line & covered with plywood. They did not return the next day (Thursday) I did not receive call from the office or William. I called the office & secretary had no information for me. I left a voicemail with the owner Albert Nahman I did not get a call 6 days after work stopped I got Nahman. He promised to look into matters & get back to me. He called later that day & apologize for delays due to unavailability to dig in the street. He promised resumption of work in 2 days w/completion in one day. The same crew that worked 9 days earlier arrived w/another crew of 2 w/backo & dump truck (company from Vallejo) complete work in street doing a trenchless pull (not the open trench repair in contract). City inspector signed off on work & condition of city main & I talked w/crew at the end of the day b/c of conversation I over heard they told me that they did not work for Nahman but a contractor in Antioch. Imagine my shock & dismay. Nahman hired a subcontractor to do the work & never informed me! I called the state licensing board & they said that this was improper & advised me to ask Nahman for a lean release from the subcontractor to protect my property. After Nahman complied I paid the balance off. From 1st call to Nahman plumbing to the finish of all work took 35 days! Mr. Nahman promised all work was done properly & is guaranteed & the deviation from the estimate was technically ok & apologized for the problems so far my sewer seems ok. I hope it remains so. My care in choosing a contractor was for not as all repair work was done by a company unknown to me.

It went very well, including Gabe being available by phone and coming to the house for an estimate.

They sent two crews, one for the sewer replacement and one for the leaking pipe under the house. The job took exactly the amount of time as estimated. Everything was completed, inspected and cleaned up in two days. The men were all professional, courteous and nice people. They explained exactly what they were doing and why. Their work was impeccable.

My phone call was answered promptly by a real person. Very polite & clear communicator, but could not(or would not?)begin to advise how major or minor my problem might be. Said that it would be $45 just to come out and assess the problem, and provide a by the job (not by the hour)estimate. I was so surprised(and disappointed)that estimates were not free, I thanked her and needless to say did not call back to schedule an assessment. Since I ended up hiring a handyman instead of a licensed plumber, I supposed I'd have to consider this company again when an actual plumber is required. Hopefully by then Angie will have more names that cover the area where I needed the work done.

AWESOME! They are unbelievably responsive coming out same day as my initial call. Marlon is calm, professional, kind, and honest. He gave me his initial impression of the water heater leak but stated that he couldn't be sure until the leak at the city water meter was fixed (it was spewing water and no one knew). So the city fixed the leak and they came back out. He diagnosed the problem, which ended up being less "big" than his original hypothesis (he didn't try to sell me on a big ticket item that was unnecessary) but that did require some real clean up of my plumbing. He did it all on one day and now...NO LEAK! We just bought this house and the previous owner told us that "leak was normal and had been there a long time"...no so normal. He was kind, was always punctual, did a great job, and cleaned up just fine. He's awesome and I'll call these guys again!

I was very satisfied with the quick appointment I received, the punctuality of the estimator, the knowledge and thoroughness that the estimator displayed, and the quote I was given.

This company overall was fairly-priced and did reasonably good work. They definitely knew what they were doing - more so than other plumbers I had interviewed. Other departments in the company proved to be very responsive and prompt. One considerable disadvantage in dealing with this company is having to go through the estimator. Someone came out to do the estimate within a few days of calling; however, it took a long time to get the written estimate - plus, it was not provided when promised. The estimator had promised to get a written estimate within a day or two, but I had to call about 5 times before I finally got it a week later. Eventually, I requested the description of the job to be revised because the estimator had left out some important details, and even though the corrections were e-mailed to him (and he needed only to cut and paste them on), it took 2-3 weeks to get a reply. During the scheduling and progress of the job, I had to deal with the estimator numerous times, unfortunately, and had similar experiences of leaving message after message, without receiving a return call. This was a big negative in dealing with the company and proved to be very frustrating that all the jobs had to be funneled through this one unresponsive person. On two occasions, he became defensive and was prone to telling some "mis-truths" about why he did not return phone calls. The company insisted on applying for the city permit to do the work - even though I would have done it myself. Normally, it is a cost-saving measure for an owner to apply for their own permit, but in this case, the estimator would only deduct an amount that was less than the true price of the permit if I had done the permit myself. In the end, after the job was done, completed and paid-for, by chance I discovered that they had applied for the wrong permit. The company agreed to re-apply for the permit, but it involved getting another inspection, so I had to waste another half day waiting around for the inspector to come.

The estimator came on Wednesday, gave the estimate and said that if I accepted it Thursday morning, he could have it excavated Thursday afternoon and the pipe installed on Friday. I accepted on Thursday morning but didn't get a call back until Thursday afternoon. He said at that time that he could have the excavation done Friday and the piping on Monday, but I declined since the grass would be out of the lawn for 3 days. Instead I opted for Monday. The excavation was done Monday, even though no one was home. The soil was piled on plastic sheets to keep if off the ground. I was home for the piping on Tuesday. Three workers did the job and were done by about 2 pm. They needed access to a crawl space hatch that was inside the house. To protect the floor where they would be walking, they put a moving blanket on the part that was carpeted, but not on the vinyl floor part. Nonetheless, they were neat and there was nothing to clean up afterward. The foreman of the crew spoke good English, which reassured me that we were communicating well. The excavation team came back at 4 pm to refill the trench, which went under the pavers twice and across the lawn. When they were done they hosed things down and watered the now-replaced sod. You could barely tell there was any excavation at all.

While trying to pour tea water from our filtered, auto pre-boil faucet (Little Boiler), there was a clonk and water started to pour out of the cabinet. We received a replacement from the company and needed a plumber to install it; we also had low water pressure in the kitchen faucet and two leaky bathroom sinks. Albert Nahman plumbing was over in two days, on time. Chris was very professional and quick. Although deterred by a severe clog in one of our bathroom sinks, he was very honest about his ability to clear it and let us know that if we had plans to remodel anyway, we should wait, as the clog would require getting into the wall or going in through the roof and may require having a pipe replaced. We've had no leaks since and plan on using this company when we remodel our bathroom.

I thought they were o.k. I would probably call them again. He was on time and was very professional and his advice was very helpful. He seemed very knowledgeable.

We wanted an estimate for a tankless water heater. For our place it didn't make sense for the cost. Needed leaky toilet fixed. It was replaced by an excellent, though expensive model.

Very prompt and professional. Figured best way to access basement hot water to the two showers on the second floor. Moved quickly and efficiently to replace pipes and valves. It has made a huge difference for us.

Plumber arrived right on time -- a few minutes early -- and worked quietly and efficiently. Total job took 1.5 hours, removing all old toilet, switching out seats, installing new toilet. No hidden charges! Phone quote was actual cost. Plumber was pleasant, clean, covering his shoes in the house. Plumber wrote detailed succinct bill. What could have been a nightmare job was a pleasure to deal with! Called company on a Monday, midday. The job was done by 3:30 p.m. the next day. One stop shopping, without having to play subcontractor on the job. This company is a winner! I would certainly use for all my plumbing needs.

Called for assistance. Spoke to a dispatcher and NEVER heard back from them! Found someone in the telephone book who came right away. Am canceling my Angie's List membership today.

It started off a little shaky but it got straightened out and everything turned out nicely. They had a complicated job to do with city permits and other restrictions but they got the job done and I am very happy with the work.

We ended up having some issues with the toilet after the service person left. We called the office to let them know the situation. Scott, their Office Manager worked with us to get the situation resolved. Scott really went above and beyond to make things right for us. I would definitely use this company again in the future and strongly recommend them to anyone looking for a company that takes customer satisfaction seriously.

Albert Nahman plumbing did a great job installing my tankless water heater. One thing that stood out for me was how proactive they were in communicating when the electricity, gas and water would be turned off. They removed my old water heater, installed the new one and did a wonderful job cleaning up when they were done. They showed up on time and completed the job in the time-frame initially quoted. They also took care of the City of Berkeley inspection, which we passed.

Nahman did a great job! Fernando is a wonderful crew chief & does excellent work! They show up on time & clean up after themselves. I really appreciated their expertise as plumbers because our house is old & funky. To us it was worth the price (which we found on higher end) to have their expertise and good reputation to know the job would get done and done correctly. We compared with Repipe Specialists which would have done the job at similar pricing but use a heavier grade copper and choose Nahman anyway. We liked that Nahman's people are real plumbers who could point out other issues in our plumbing beyond the original scope of the job because our old house does have issues. For some of those issues, it was better to deal with them at this time than later and some we deferred, all with no pressure, flexible negotiation from Nahman. They also graciously moved the job by a week because of a scheduling problem on our end.

Their prices were very fair. They give you a rationale of what you are exactly paying for. If any additional work is needed they inform you first.

We had a sewage back up in our home and had a plumber come out to clean out the outtake. They thought we would need to replace the sewer line. We had them come back to give us a quote, and also had Albert Nahman come out because they had done some work for us in the past. Albert Nahman was less expensive and because we new their work, we went with them. The crew from Albert Nahman was awesome to work with, very clean and professional. Greg--our main contact--was stellar. Work was done steadily, they showed us at each step what they were going to do and kept us appraised. We thought we were going to have to do a trench-less replacement, but since we didn't, we ended up paying $1200 less than expected. After all the line was replaced and the dirt put back, you couldn't even tell they had been there except for a nice new outtake where it should have been in the first place. We highly recommend Albert Nahman.

Were able to come the next day to replace valve and returned a few days later to run copper pipe. Able to come at end of day (4 pm) so did not have to miss work.

Chris was great, totally professional, gave me all my options and what their costs would be. Called yesterday at 3pm, they had someone show up at my house at 8:45 this morning. Couldn't have asked for anything more.