Bay Area Trenchless

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Ernie was excellent in discussing what made sense to stop my semi-annual calls to a plumber to clean out my plugged sewer line. His three page proposal was very detailed, a plus from my perspective as I had managed facilities organizations for 14 years in 2 major local companies before retirement.. While his company wasn't the cheapest, I had confidence he had spelled out the proposal adequately that there would be no surprises. Also the cheaper bidder was so filled with work, he could not meet my schedule - important since this was the first of 6 interrelated projects. They started on June 30, and finished on July 1 without incident, as promised. Inspection, however, did not complete the next day but not until July 12 after two return trips by the inspector due to workload delays. No apparent serious issues and the sewer was operational from July 1. Their work was excellent, but I would have given them an A- somewhere if I could due to several minor issues at completion. First, they used concrete to repair the hole in the sidewalk, although at my request the contract called for crushed gravel due to my plans for the area next year (the only communications issue I caught between Ernie and the work crew). Second, a few minor cleanup issues - old cleanout cap open, forms remaining in place, drain rock not fully replaced - all minor issues that kept it from being a perfect job. I ignored them at the time since they all occurred after waiting an extra hour for the inspector to arrive on a Saturday, his third final inspection trip. Overall, I would be pleased to have them work for me again, and would consider them in the top ten percent of the hundreds of contractors I worked with in the past

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Very professional. Very little disruption to landscaping or hardscape.

It was a pretty good experience. One of the employee came in and replaced our main line sewer. He ended up in a permanent work in such that the permanent work costing was more than he expected. So the price went up a bit but he split the cost with us that seem fair. He did a good job in terms of replacing the line sewer. We had a few issues with it so he came back several times to help troubleshoot them. In the end, it has nothing to do with the work he was doing but he was very responsive that he came out for a couple of extra times. Communication was a little challenging with him. Having the thought he is going to do one thing, it is good to really clarify in terms what he is going to do. He is very punctual.

They were absolutely fabulous. I was so very pleased. I had gotten a couple of estimates last April and hadn't proceeded to decide about it because I still didn't know if I wanted to do trenchless or not. I finally decided on using Bay Area Trenchless because one of the things was Sean came out himself, he looked at it, looked around the house to make sure there was nothing else wrong and then he did not write out an estimate in the card so that I couldn't read it. He went back and typed it all out and sent me a very professional looking proposal. There was another one that we were thinking about that was about the same price but I had trouble reading his proposal and understanding him when he was here because of his accent. I don't care if he has an accent, I just wanted to understand him. Sean was wonderful about it and he called me that morning, he told me when he would be here. He called to say they would be late because they had a blow out on the truck and he said they'll be delayed an hour and in an hour, he was here. He took care of everything. Initially, I thought I had to have my water turned off all day and he said, "I'll knock on the door, tell you when, it will be about an hour." And he did everything perfectly.He didn't even come until 10 and he was gone by 6:00. I told him not to fill in the area with cement 'cause I'm going to have the whole walkway redone and the next morning, there was a whole in the part that he had done. At first I thought the dog had dug it up because there was mud all over but the pebbles were in the bottom of the pit. So I called him. He didn't understand so he told me somebody would be here within an hour. His assistant was here and found out that my sprinkler system had turned on during the night and cracked and flooded and a sinkhole had formed. So he dug up the sprinkler system, replaced the pipe and refilled the whole thing and it's perfect. They were so wonderful to deal with. I'm absolutely thrilled. It was the first thing I've done through Angie's List that actually came to fruition and I'm absolutely pleased. I asked them for extra card so I can refer them to neighbors if they're interested.

Overall I was pleased with the work performed. I did run into a slight problem. The job was contracted for replacing 185 feet of sewer line, install one new clean out and replace two existing clean outs. Three are required with a run this long. The job was completed but because I got sick near the end of the job I was unable to inspect it myself. I had my wife look the job over and pay them. When I looked at the job about 3 days later I found that a new clean out was put in at the house and a midway one was replaced, but the one at the street was still the old one. I called and talked with Sean to see why it had not been replaced. I was told he was not planning on replacing the third one. I pointed out that the contract said he was to replace the two existing ones. At this point he said that when he went to pull the permit for that job the City wanted him to pull a second permit for working in the public right of way and that would need a second inspection. He decided not to pull the second permit. He also said that after digging up the area where the clean out was and inspecting it, the clean out was in good shape and didn't need replacing. After further inspections by me, I did not disagree with his assessment, but was concerned that he did feel the need to inform me about the change. In addition he made an attempt to make the existing pipe work but did not fix the existing problem with a portion of the clean out that was loose. I have discussed the issue with Sean and he has agreed to fix it. As of 6/25/13 all work was completed and any problems were resolved. This contractor will do a good job, even if it might take time to get it done.

We had a persistent problem with roots growing into our sewer line for the last 10-15 years. Two or three times a year water would backup into the house and we would have to get it cleaned out. I am very happy with my experience with Sean of Bay Area Trenchless. I called him to request a bid. He did not require that I be home to meet him since he could inspect the sewer line without entering the house. He came by the same day while I was at work and emailed a bid that evening. It was about half the price of the first bid I had received for trenchless replacement. The bid was so much lower that I followed up to make sure it included everything from the first bid but he assured me that it did. About a week later I accepted his bid and he scheduled to start the next morning. He showed up right on time at 7:30am before I left for work. He completed the job the same day before I came home. Everything looked great. This job only required digging two holes in the yard and did not damage our old sidewalk. Other than the 2 new cleanouts there was not much evidence that he had been there. Everything was cleaned up. He restored the grass around the new cleanout. He placed a circular cutout of grass from the new cleanout where the old cleanout had been removed. He even used some extra dirt to fill in an unrelated depression in the easement near the new cleanout. All in all it required very little time and effort on my part and no inconvenience since the job was completed in one day while I was at work. Regardless of price I can't imagine another company would have been much better than Bay Area Trenchless.

Recently I had a recent sewer line back up and called a plumbing company to deal with the immediate problem—But they said they were “unable to clear the line” and tried to upsell more expensive and unnecessary services. Luckily I had neighborhood referrals – so I contacted Sean Fry of Bay Area Trenchless, who has been replacing sewer lines in our Mountain View neighborhood for years and comes highly recommended. He came out and within 15 minutes easily cleared the line. When the line cleared so quickly, the other company’s actions and intentions became glaringly suspicious. On the other hand, Sean Fry was great -- because it was already on the TO DO list, we had him replace the line the next day -- at less than and frac12; the price of the other company and with a lifetime warranty on parts and labor. Trenchless is definitely the way to go -- the pipe was replaced in a day with just 2 small sections dug in my yard! He’s efficient, easy to work with and I especially appreciated the care he took with my recently landscaped yard and newly placed drip lines. And even better--you can’t tell there was work done. My yard looks just as it did before the line was replaced—so for me, a job well done! And Sean can add me to his long list of happy customers.