John Baethke & Son Plumbing

we are a small condo building with only 4 units. our exterior storm drainage system was backing up badly every time it rained, sometimes flooding our neighbor's back yard. Baethke Plumbing came out promptly, with only a reasonable service call fee which was applicable to work done (others we called had much pricier call fees). they immediately got to work, rodded out the drains and inserted a snake camera to view the obstructions, confirmed much improved drainage thru 2 of the 4 drains, then returned a week later to work further on the other 2 drains. we were so pleased, we chose to purchase a service agreement (included in amount spent) to have them come back annually. annual service is inclusive of inspection of ALL plumbing inside the building as well the storm drains.

Baethke is expensive, but work is super professional. On time, highly skilled plumber. This was no exception.

Very good, professional, honest. Determined that a replacement wasn't needed, shared us a lot at expense.

John, the owner of John Baethke Plumbing came out himself to check on our tankless water heater that they installed about 2 years ago. It has been sporadically malfunctioning, through no fault of John's or his plumbers. They have been out several times to check on this issue and have been in contact with the manufacturer trying to diagnose this problem. All of their visits on this issue have been w/o charge since there is no reason for this very new unit to be misbehaving. John as stood behind his work and has always been responsive and professional. They may charge a bit more than some others do but they know their stuff and when you're talking water issues on the forth floor of a condo building you happily pay a little extra for the real PROS! The last thing we want to be doing is fixing out floor and our downstairs neighbor's ceiling. Also, you know upfront how much the work will be. They have price book and they spell everything out for you. If it takes a little longer than they thought to do the job the price is still what they quoted you. We will continue to use them for our as long as we own our condo. We also used them to install a new tub in the master bath which turned out great!

He was wonderful and was able to save me some money. I bought a Big Deal on Angie's List. I got a schedule the same day. I don't allow outside shoes in my house and they actually came with their own mat that they put down and removed their shoes before I asked. They diagnosed the problem, gave me a fair price, and did the work. It was an excellent experience. They followed up the next day to see how things went. They came back and fixed a few things that were no fault of their own, but still didn't charge me. I appreciated that. I will definitely use them again.

We noticed one the water heaters wasn't working and found Baethke & Sons on the Rheem list of approved warranty repair providers. They came the next morning and were able to fix the problem and check all the connections in under an hour. They explained what was wrong, what to do if it happens again, and even provided one of those Homeowner's Rights pamphlets. I've had many repair people come through, and this was the first time I'd gotten one. Pros Speedy Thorough Friendly Reasonably priced Didn't try to sell us extras we didn't need Cons - NONE

service man was prompt, pipe cleaning went fine, however imaging proved to be more difficult of task then we anticipated / or were explained and informed about, the company's manger / owner was very helpful in addressing our concerns and question, by making extra effort to reach out in this situation.

Edger provided excellent service, he was courteous, professional and I feel comfortable the job was done right. The price may be higher than other plumbers, but Beathke provides premium service and charges a fair price for the level of the service provided.

I thought they were overpriced, and the quality of their work was substandard. The entire process seemed like it was geared towards making money as opposed to ensuring I was satisfied with the work. Naturally, I chose another plumber.

Everything went well, however I had a bad feeling about a program where I could pay an upfront amount so that I would have a higher priority on future service calls.

Everything went well, and I was satisfied with the work. The workers were very trustworthy and cleaned up after themselves.

The work was done well, but the service was exorbitantly priced. It cost $500 to repair the tub alone, and it would have cost even more if I had followed their advice on repairing the faucet. Ultimately, I saved nearly $700 by doing the faucet repairs myself and purchasing a 30-dollar handle. I am astounded that the plumber didn't know of this fix in the first place. I've read the Provider's Response below and, with all due respect, it is inaccurate (in my view and, in light of my conversation with the provider, intentionally so). The repair on my tub was $500 and no attempt was made to repair the faucet "for free." Statements to the contrary are false. I was never given the "option" of having the handle drilled out and replaced. It is unbelieveable to me that Baethke would claim otherwise, since we specifically discussed this at length. During the original service call, I was told that I would need to spend $700 on the installation of an entirely new faucet and handle ... that's it. No other "option" was offered or discussed. The further suggestion that our call "cleared some things up" in Baethke's favor is completely inaccurate. In fact, the call ended with me telling Baethke I was unlikely to ever use his company's services again. As part of the Silver level service package I was originally talked into, I was to receive a free plumbing inspection. During the course of our call, Baethke assured me I would have a much better experience when I used that inspection. Well, I just went under contract to buy a new home and tried to schedule Baethke to come out. Apparently, they only do these inspections during regular business hours on weekdays when, as it happens, I am at work. Interestingly, they *have* people working on Saturdays, they just won't schedule them for *this* type of project. I guess I didn't have that better experience after all. Don't bother with these people. They'll come out with a book of inflated pricing, oversell you, and then try to sell you a service package on top.

It was great. The company responded right away, and both servicemen were very knowledgeable and personable.

Everything went well. We were impressed with how efficient and fast the work was done, how clean they left the work spaces (bathroom, utility closet), even something as small as the booties they put on their shoes to enter our home was a nice touch.

They gave me an appointment the day after I purchased the Big Deal. The technician was great. He was very competent, knowledgeable and helpful. They followed up the next day to make sure everything was good.

I already had a service contract with this company so I called them to come out to replace it. They responded promptly to my phone call and arrived on schedule to peform the work. I had just replaced my disposal in my northshore home three months ago with Arrow Plumbing, a licensed plumber in Libertyville, who also re-did all the pipes under the sink when he replaced the disposal, because he didn't like the arrangement. Both companies replaced the disposal with the exact same model of Insinkerator, the Insinkerator Compact Pro. My plumber bill for my northshore home was $380.00. My cost with this company was $897.00. I called the company immediatey to ask if there could be some mistake. (The disposal itself sells at Home Depot and other home improvement stores for about $175 so that means that the company is charging $722 for the labor!) When I complained, the owner did reduce the chage by 10% but my final bill was still $800 to put in a new disposal.While the company is very responsive and arrives on time for appointments, this was over double what the replacement cost of a residental kitchen disposal should have been.I had intended to use this company to also replace my kitchen sink, because I don't care for the design of the current one, and replace the toilets in the house with better quality low flow toilets. But if they are charging $900 just to put in a new disposal, even with a service contract, I shutter to think what the cost of replacing a sink or toilet would be. I feel I was way overcharged especially since the Libertyville plumber did nearly twice the amount of work, was here for 2 hours, and replaced the disposal with the identical model. The excuce I received was that it was Chicago and plumbers are union. Plumbers are union in Libertyville also! While I had intended to have them do many more jobs for me, I would be very hesitant to call this company again. I was way overcharged for this work.

Flash water heater not hot enough during cold weather. The technician said it probably needed a new starting part (can't remember the name of the part, but it was like a thermo couple lead(?), but that the problem was really the whole unit and should be replaced. He came to this conclusion after spending a lot of time on the phone with his office. They replaced the entire water heater, for ~ $4,000 and it still was the same - it still wasn't warm enough. We had the gas company in and the real problem was gas line was 1/2 inch and needed to be 3/4 inch. Baethke said they would replace the gas pipe for an additional $1,500, which was half of their normal price. We had enough and got another opinion. We then had the gas pipe replaced by someone else for $400. We had the original heater checked, and the original heater just needed a small part and didn't really need to be replaced at all.

Patrick, the plumber arrived 15 minutes early to the home. It was a vacant property that was set to close that morning and the issues needed to be fixed immediately. He quickly identified the leak sources and tried to fix the toilet by tightening the bolts first in stead of replacing the gasket. When it was determined that it still leaked, he called the warehouse and had the proper sized gasket ordered. While it was being delivered he started the removed of the old piping. Like a surgeon, he removed the leaking pipes, and then replaced them with new copper fittings. Per John Baethke & Son style everything was clean and done properly. There were no unexpected fees or charges. I knew upfront what it would cost no matter how long it took.

John Baethke & Son Plumbing was called to help us locate and repair a gas leak. The plumber that was dispatched did not bring a gas sniffer as we originally requested; however, he checked for leaks throughout the building using a liquid solution. The cost of this visit was $90. The plumber was very polite, professional, and clean. After not finding a leak the plumber quoted us a price of over $300 to use the gas sniffer to look for the leak. We thought this was high and decided to call People?s Gas instead since Peoples Gas would check for free. People's Gas initially identified a small leak in our furnace room and pinpointed it using a similar liquid solution. The gas company turned the gas off, so we called John back to have the leak repaired and pressure test the gas lines to verify there were no further leaks. The first quoted price was over $900. The price was negotiated down to $860 which we felt was still outrageously high considering the materials to complete the job cost less than $30 (5 ft of black pipe and 2 pipe fittings). We however accepted the price since we were in a bind because the gas had been shut off. In retrospect that was a mistake and we wish we had done more price comparisons. After completing the job in about three hours, which included about 45 minutes downtime while proper equipment was brought to the site, the plumber assured us that the leak was fixed and there were no other leaks in the line. People?s Gas returned to test the line, and determined that a leak was still present. Our only conclusion is that the pressure test was not completed properly. Confused, we called John to discuss the situation. We voiced our frustration regarding the existing leak, and the cost of the work, and John became argumentative and sarcastic. He did offer to have his plumber come back, but at this point they had made 2 mistakes already (missed the leak initially, and did not pressure test lines correctly) and we were concerned of the additional costs of more services. So after $950 in total costs and no resolution we opted to take our business elsewhere. Eventually we found 2 additional leaks in the line. Once repaired, Peoples Gas turned the gas back on. From our experience we would not recommend this company for qualify fair priced work.

Our water heater failed and I called John Baethke & Sons on Wednesday night at 9:00 p.m. After speaking with the answering service, I got a call back from Mr. Baethke himself within 5 minutes. He offered me the alternative of having someone come out immediately (late Wednesday night) or at 9:00 a.m. Thursday morning, which would be $100 cheaper. I opted for Thursday morning and said earlier was better. Scott, the plumber, showed up at 8:30 a.m. He was very neat, polite and professional, wearing shoe covers in the house and clearly take extra care as he went about his work. After diagnosing several issues with the water heater, which were obvious once he showed me the relevant parts, he gave me an estimate on repairs and a fixed quote on replacement. Given the age of the water heater and the possible complications that could arise with repairs, I opted for a new water heater. Scott said he could come back first thing Friday morning and that it would be an all-day job. Late Thursday night, we lost power due to a failed ComEd transformer. I called Scott early Friday morning to inform him that we had no power and to offer to reschedule. Scott called back a few minutes later and said that he would bring a generator to run his lights and equipment and would be right over. He also brought Patrick, an extra plumber in order to be able to get the job done more quickly. Both guys were great - very professional, kept me informed throughout the process and worked to create the minimum mess. Even though they ran into several unexpected issues (due to some quirks of how my house was originally plumbed) that caused the process to take a couple of hours longer than expected, they stuck to the original estimate. They fired up the new water heater using their generator for electricity in order to make sure everything worked right. Once they were done, they very thoroughly cleaned up the job site. I was very pleased with their work. I suspect I might have been able to save a few dollars if I had gotten multiple quotes, but the company came highly recommended on Angie's List and now I know why. At the end of the day, I felt their price was very fair for the service they provided.

We'd recently had a piece of plumbing for our first floor rental unit replaced by our regular plumber. Our house is old, so we knew that there was a possibility that the one repair may lead to additional repairs. Unfortunately, our tenants returned home to tell us that their bathtub had been overflowing while they were away, which soon became apparent as the water poured from their floor into our basement. While we waited for a 24/7 plumber to return our call (our usual plumber was recovering from surgery), my husband showered in our second floor owner's unit, which seemed to make the entire situation worse. The owner of John Baethke and Son called us himself at 9 PM that Sunday night to discuss the situation and alert us to cost differences between a late-night call and regular appointment. The situation seemed to be slowing down, so we agreed to wait until Monday morning. The serviceman was actually early (which I appreciated), friendly, courteous and efficient. He assessed our home from the top unit to the basement, told me his plan and stayed to test the solution in several different scenarios before wrapping up. In addition to the work done, I was able to get estimates for two other plumbing jobs we know we have to address and we signed up for a one-year service contract, which includes discounts. We're impressed and satisfied - and will use John Baethke and Son again!

They were really good. They showed up when they were supposed to and completed the work on time. They communicated very well with me and cleaned everything on the way. They didn't do any work that I didn't authorize without contacting me first. I didn't have any problems with them.

Waking up and finding that your dry basement was filled with water for the second time in a week was a horrible feeling. I quickly called John Baethke & Son plumbing. They had someone come out by early afternoon which was sooner than we expected. They identified the problems with the Sump Pumps and were able to pick up 2 new ones from a supplier and have them installed same day. They were clean, removed all the old materials, and tested everything thoroughly. I've used John Baethke & Son Plumbing in the past and would rather let my house drown than have another company fix any plumbing issues in the future. They are simply the best across the board and you know when they leave that you can breathe easy!

1. I purchased a new Nortiz on-demand water heater on-line and had them install it for me. The installation went very well. They removed my old water heater, performed the required changes to the plumbing, and vented the new unit through the roof. I was very pleased with their work on this project. They worked quickly without comprising quality. They left the job site cleaner than they found it. "A"

They could have charged me extra for the emergency call which they didn't. They did all the work and there were no questions asked. It was a great service and they were simply excellent. Baethke is the best plumbing company that I have ever worked with.