Bill Howe Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning Inc

When pulling into the garage attached at right angles to the house I snapped off an awkwardly protruding spigot on the exterior water line. That required that we shut down the water to the whole house. We called Bill Howe Plumbing late on a Friday evening and he had someone out to fix the problem within one hour! We were afraid that we faced a grim weekend suffering with no water. The problem required repositioning the spigot head and soldering new copper connections. The work was completed promptly and efficiently. We have used this firm several times before (our house is 50+ years old), and they have always provided friendly, efficient service. I highly recommend them!

Terrible experience. We had a leaky kitchen faucet and suspected it needed to be replaced since it was old. My wife was home. The plumber came and disassemble the faucet told her that he would replace a part instead of putting a new one in. He then spent >1 hour supposedly driving around town looking for a small plastic part to "fix" it. He never found it and didn't return but we got charged $120 for, in essence, getting nothing done. We then tried another plumber recommended on Angie's list. They replaced the faucet for about the same price. Bill Howe took advantage of my wife's lack of knowledge. They threatened us with collection agencies to collect the money (again, for basically doing nothing) so we paid. Questionable ethical standards.

Everything went very well, except for the missing spray attachment.

Bill Howe's crew came through for us! The only challenge was it took 3 plumbers and 1 drywall expert over four visits in 3 days to fix the problem - which they eventually did. The first plumber (DJ) thought it was the shower's hot/cold valve - neither he or we realized the washing machine on the other side of the common bath/kitchen wall wasn't getting cold water either. The second plumber (Jorge) came a few hours later with a high-pressure tank of CO2 and correctly determined that the problem wasn't the shower value -- it wsa inside the cold water piple inside the wall between the bathroom and the kitchen. He then attempted to blow the obstruction out of the pipe using the CO2 via the backyard hosebib and leaving the cold water valves open (except for the hot water heater & bathroom sink - to avoid damaging them with the high-pressure CO2). He was unsuccessful in clearing the cold water line. Then a sr. technician plumber (Jason) then came out later that same day and did his own thorough inspection, as well as looked at pictures we'd taken of the wall opened up 4 yrs before when all the hot/cold water pipes were replaced. He agreed with Jorge that the wall had to be cut open and the copper cold water pipe sawed out where the blockage was likely located. His experience informed him where to cut the line, and indeed several big chunks of 4 yr old solder fell out of the pipe. That was the problem (over time, these chunks came loose - but shouldn't have been in the pipe in the first place!). He soldered in a new piece of pipe and was then able get the Bill Howe Plumbing Dry Wall Repair techincian to come out the next day. All of the Bill Howe Plumbing & Restoration guys were helpful, courteous, worn special slippers over their workboots to protect our carpet, cleaned up after themselves, and collectivley got us back to normal (the washer & shower worked) within a few days. We haven't had this type of plumbing problem before. The manager at the office authorized a $100 discount because of the extra visits to our home to fix the problem. We appreciated that gesture - although we found plumbing problems inside a wall can be expensive to fix ($500-$700 - mostly labor & some parts).

They are not cheap, but they are worth the work they do. They even warned me that the work would not be cheap, so they give you a fair warning. They also discovered a couple of problems that I didn't know that I had, and took pictures of it, while I was there, to prove that in fact I did have them.

They did a great job overall. I would use them again and recommend them also.

I called this morning and i ask for a quote the work above described. The person in the phone offered to send a tech to quote but i read here that they have a cost per hour so i asked for that so i got a cost schedule of $106/hr, will charge for a full hour and 1/2 hour increments afterwards. 10 gas surcharge + parts. So i asked to have the tech comming to hear his assesment and refine a quote. Tech came and assesed two hours; i mentioned that that seemed excesive so he mentioned that he had quoted a maximum and he would work towards less time. So i told him that i would agree to pay based on the hourly rate and be notified if anything out of scope would come. Another thing was that the part he carried in the truck required a little more of work to install. My older regulator came with two nuts and the one offered came with one and one side required adding a tail. The price of the regulator was $149 which i though high as i checked in home depot and there were regulators from 70-100$ .. I decided to go for it as it would then force the contractor to honor warranty for the whole job (the part quality its their problem). Later i checked through internet and the same Wilkins 600 regulator costs 100+shipping. It took him 55 min exactly once i agreed on terms to finish. He came with the paperwork once finished and i noticed that he put 1.5 hours so i told him that my watch recorded 55min. He said that it took him 15min since he first got to my house, gave me the estimate (original was $375) and that he still beat his record and felt he was doing me good. He said that since i have already signed in the 'waiver for right to cancel' i needed to pay and i could call his boss if i wanted. I ended paying for the 1.5 hrs as i needed to go back to work but i'm very dessapointed on the lack of clarity on which the estimate was presented to me.

The nice thing about this company is that if they say it going to cost one price- it stays one price. We couldn't believe the price because it was so good. It only took a short time to do the work.

My previous contractor refused to connect the toilet for one week, so I called in Howe's Plumbing. They installed a new water hose and connected the toilet.

Arrived on time & removed, then installed a new 40 gallon water heater. The technician wore a nice clean uniform & was friendly.

They were very nice to me. He showed up on time. He did a great job and he cleaned up after himself when he was done. The work was great and have had no problem with the work.

The sewer backed up in the lower level of our home at 9:00 pm the night before Easter. We called Bill Howe and they sent a plumber out by 10:00 pm. He found a clog in the main sewer line. The work was finished in about an hour. The price was reasonable and the job was well done.

Contacted Bill Howe Plumbing, who we had used before, and obtained quote for install of a new 50 gallon water heater. Was told $870 plus additional labor and parts since I requested that the new install include a pan and drain to the outside. Rate for additional work was $106/hour, their shop rate. Went with them as their price checked out and they are always available quickly (arrived same day). Plumber performed all work well. When bill was presented, it included the $870, $144 in misc material, and 2 additional hours of labor = $1224. Knowing that the plumber had only worked 45 minutes on the drain, I questioned the bill. Was told that work began when he picked up the water heater and had to be rounded up to nearest hour (both aspects BOGUS). Told him that I would pay the bill but would contact office. Office did confirm my fears and reduced bill $133. Company always provides good plumbing but gets creative on the bill .... watch them !

Very pleased. With home party coming up on the weekend, time was a concern. Called at 4:30pm on Wednesday and plumber arrived at 9:05am Thursday. Bill Howe can always get someone there quickly. I like their new pricing ($106/hour) instead of arrival charge plus labor.

It backed up again, so someone came out again. He said it was in the street and would be very involved to fix. He said it'd be the city's problem so said he called the city. He told me he'd file a plumber report and told me that the city would not cover it. Then he gave me a quote for $9000. At that point, I said I'd think about it and decided to call the city to verify. They told me they would have someone out within the hour and that they had not filed any plumber reports. They came out within 20 minutes. I followed up with Bill Howe Plumbing and he said he spoke with someone he knows and they said they wouldn't cover it, so there wouldn't be any point in filing the report. The city fixed the problem and there was no charge. I was very upset and felt like I was almost scammed.

He was very knowledgeable and courteous. He was able to know what it was before he even started on it. It was very thorough. He also wanted me to know exactly what was going on and make sure I was satisfied. I was impressed. Even though he had opened the drain by snaking it to show me that it was flowing, he told me that within a year or so it was probably going to plug up again even though I do treatments. That's when he brought up the flushing system since it would last longer.

They were very prompt and professional. They're a large company but they seemed to be very well organized.

I can say that they are very reasonable with the prices that have and if I need emergency service, they are available. They do not waste time and I can count on them to be there when I need them.

I was so grateful to have them do the work for me. They came during a holiday weekend and they arrived very quickly. They were able to get the work done before my expected company showed up and I can truly say they are definitely accommodating.

Bill Howe Plumbing is the biggest company in San Diego and they have always done excellent work. They are right on time every time, honest and reliable. They have really good pricing and their reputation is excellent.

I'm very pleased because they provided a very good service, they're very prompt and they did what they say they would do. They did a pretty quick job and I never had problems with the. They are a great company.

We have called Bill in the past. He was referred to us by a friend. He is responsive and does a good job at a fair price. He has proved to be honest and helpful in answering our questions.

I was shocked by the price he charged for the replacement. The icing on the cake was the $2 he charged in gas to go get the part. Because of the cost for a simple faucet replacement, I would not recommend him.

Ron did an excellent job. He was professional, ontime, wore booties on his shoes to protect our carpet while working inside the house. At my request, he also explained the pro/con of using his parts vs. some that I bought myself. He politely answered my additions plumbing questions too. I'd definitely use this company again!

Joey did a great job fixing our bathtub drain clog quickly using a electric drain-snake machine. He was able to come within 2 hrs of my call, and was efficient, professional, and did his work without making a mess of our a bathroom-what a pleasant surprise!