John Baethke & Son Plumbing

I noticed a puddle of water under the kitchen sink. I cleaned it up, but it soon was back again. I called Baethke and Sons to fix it. They came the very next morning. Their worker covered his shoes with booties and then came in and quickly diagnosed the problem. He cleared out the various cleansers under the sink and got to work. It was fixed in a less than an hour. Everything was put back in its place, and the plumber was gone. He was very cordial and pleasant.

The employees are always on time and extremely courteous. He stands by his work and comes back if there is a problem.

As always, John's service technician -- Steven -- was excellent. He assessed our situation, provided the best alternative for us, and treated us like we were his best friends in providing advice. We never call anyone but Baethke when we need plumbing work done.

Job was completed timely. I was kept informed of all work as it was being completed. They are professional, and I would trust them with all of my plumbing needs. They were able to complete the work on budget. Highly recommended.

Baethke.... incredibly expensive but I trust their people and their work. I do not use them for more ordinary plumbing work as they are too pricey. But this job absolutely needed to be done right the first time. It was the kind of project that you fix and then close the access panel and hope to forget about for 25 or 50 years. Baethke has a pricing fee for al types of plumbing projects/fixes. They do not charge time and materials. From my point of view it is very expensive .... but ... I do believe they are very good. You can trust their work.

They have excellent customer service. I feel confident that the work is going to get done correctly. They are very clean, prompt and polite. You pay more but it's worth it.

Nobody likes the unexpected pain and expense of plumbing repairs -- but Steven made it as pleasant as it could be.

Overall very good. Yes, they are a little expensive but for us the quality and service is worth it.

The experience was fine, it was very good. They always do excellent work and I have had them out before. I consider them a little high priced but they do the work correctly first time, every time. So, you get what you pay for I guess. But he has only one knock on and that would be that they're on the high price side. They are very prompt, courteous and polite. They are also very clean. I would surely use their services in future.

The first tech came to fix an AC problem. A week or so later we had a related problem. We called on a Saturday and one of the owners came on Sunday morning. He was extremely professional, explained the problem and fixed it for FREE (he wasn't sure if the previous tech did absolutely everything needed). It was a huge relief and a pleasant surprise.

Let me first say that I barely EVER get angry about ANYTHING. We closed on our new house on Sept. 24th and had some work done on the home before moving in on the 29th. The following night, we noticed that the 2 year-old hot water heater wasn't working. We called Beathke & Son the next morning, Oct. 1st, because their large label was on the heater above the huge "6 Year Warranty" sticker. What a huge mistake THAT was! The company said they'd come that day between noon and 4 pm and would call 45 minutes prior to arrival. Although the water heater was under warranty, they explained that the warranty "only covered parts" and that I would have to pay them approx. $70.00 just to come out there and then pay additional money for the labor. I had no choice but to agree. After all, they were the ones who installed the water heater in the first place! I resolved myself to the fact that I'd have to take that day off from work (after taking 5 days off) but my boss understood that having hot water in your house is sort of important. Soooo I took the day off from work and waited. At 2 pm, Baethke & Son called and cancelled. They told me that they were too busy with their other jobs and asked if they could come the following day. I begged them to come that afternoon. They would not come. I could NOT take another day off from work and my husband had just started a new job. I was VERY upset (and did NOT smell like a rose without a shower for 3 days). They recommended that I call another plumber. Had I known I could call ANY plumber I would have called my trusty plumber Jeff Wagner. I called Jeff and left a desperate message to please call me back. He did. Jeff first patiently tried to talk me through a fix while he was at someone else's house. When that didn't work, Jeff came to our house. He arrived at 7 pm. He's married and has a life outside of work but still cared enough to come to our house to help us. Jeff worked on the heater for about 45 minutes and fixed it. When I asked Jeff how much I owed him, he said, "Oh, it wasn't anything, I think $25 should cover it." I laughed and wrote him a check for $50. I should have written it for $100. What he did for us was priceless. What Baethke & Son did to us was inexcusable.

I think this company is fantastic. I've used them for years, and they always deliver. They have the best people, and the work is always excellent. Plus, they've helped out a number of times in the "above and beyond" category. Also great in an emergency situation. I can't recommend them highly enough.

(I cross posted this review on Yelp) Much of the concern over John Baethke & Son seems to be over price, they are not the cheapest plumbers out there. If you want a cheap plumber then don't call them. However my experience is that they will keep at it until the job is done right - and more. Let me explain. My wife and I have a three flat, a two flat, and the house we live in, all are about 100 years old. I don't call a plumber when the faucet leaks or the toilet flapper needs replacing. I call the plumber when I have a serious problem and I don't want to deal with it again in my lifetime. I have used Baethke exclusively for about a decade and chances are I need a plumber about six times more often than you probably do. Here are some examples of my experience with Baethke & Sons. The bathtub in our house worked perfectly fine when you took a shower, but if you filled the tub with water it would leak into the dining room when it drained, The dining room is not directly below the bathroom. They came out and we discussed what might be wrong and settled on a price. Neither the first or second obvious solutions were the problem. As they day went on every Baethke plumber that had finished their jobs showed up to help, by 6:00 p.m. they were all here, including John Baethke. Remember this is not an emergency -all we had to do to prevent the problem was avoid filling the tub. The final answer was a type of drain trap that has not been used in over a half century buried deep in the ceiling. They removed the archaic part and designed a new drain system on the spot. Good luck with your lowest price plumber on this one. They charged me the price we originally agreed on and I'll bet they lost money on the job. Another time I had a furnace for an apartment that had been installed, and sealed, into the ceiling about 30 years previously. It was operating at about 20% efficiency, the tenant's gas bill was astronomical and she was operating the furnace at about 60 degrees. Other experts had told us there was no way we could replace the system and would probably need to to do serious changes to the system for the building or give up a large amount of floor space in a one bedroom apartment. Baethke & Son did not take the conventional approach and instead created a solution that would work without compromising floor space and leave us with a furnace that operated in excess of 80% efficiency. They worked with me to minimize costs by allowing me to do some labor myself or use other contractors when I saw fit. (why should I pay a plumber to do carpentry work?) The furnace was not cheap, I could have gotten one for less, but it probably would have cost $10,000 more than the solution Baethke came up with by the time I was done. Here is the final, and best, experience I've had with Baethke. I was doing a bathroom rehab and called them to come take a look at the job. The quote was quite a bit beyond the budget for the project. I told them what I wanted to pay and we negotiated the scope of work until it fit my budget. It means that I would be doing more myself, but the parts of the project that would benefit most from professional experience would be done by them. HERE is the kicker. A week after the project is completed I get a call from Steven, the plumber who did the work. He asks me if I can measure the stub-out for the vanity drain because he has been bothered all week that it might have been installed too high. He assures me that if it is he will come out and fix it immediately. (it's a Saturday) THIS GUY IS STILL WORRIED ABOUT WHETHER MY JOB IS RIGHT A WEEK AFTER HE IS DONE WITH IT! Let me know when the cheap plumber calls you about that. I have had a couple of problems with Baethke over the years and I've argued with them about price but they have always made it right in the end. My advice is call them if you want it done right. Work with them on the price. And consider learning the basic stuff for yourself because ultimately that is going to save you way more money than calling the cheap plumber.

These guys were prompt an professional. I know all the work that was done was done well. The price is what kills me. These guys clearly work with a wealthy clientele who think that things that are more expensive are better. I think they were great, I have no problem with the work they did, but I will look for a better value the next time I need a plumber.

I set an appointment for Friday on a Thursday. They never called to confirm and never showed up on Friday. I set another appointment for the middle of the following week. They called 90 minutes after their window had closed and asked if they could come later that evening (after 7:30 PM). They finally arrived on Thursday of that week and charged me $70 for showing up (which I can't believe I paid). The tech was a nice guy, but gave me a TOTALLY OUTRAGEOUS price to move our existing furnace. I can only assume that they simply didn?t want the job and priced it high enough to make it worth their while. He also told us that it would be smarter to replace our furnace because of its age, yet two other firms told us that our equipment was in great shape and showed limited signs of use. Estimates by these other plumbers in the area were less than 1/2 of their estimate for the very same job. When I called the office and asked what their hourly rate was, they said "we don't charge by the hour". DO NOT TRUST any business that won't fairly break down their costs and expenses for you or provide their labor rate. It means they can't justify their own numbers. After the plumber was finished estimating our job I explained that I was leaving the following day and asked that he fax the estimate to my office by Friday. He agreed but to this day hasn't faxed a thing. He did call repeatedly, starting the day after I left, but he never faxed anything. There are loads of other plumbers in town and plenty that will disclose their pricing structure.

Overall, the work was high quality and the technician was extremely professional. However, I have used Baethke consistently for about a year now (two different locations, about 4 separate visits), and I am highly dissatisfied with their sales approach. Every technician is a trained salesperson as well as a licensed plumber, and I have grown tired of that. They will NEVER give you an estimate over the phone, because they want the opportunity to upsell you on more services. So the technician shows up, you tell them what you need done, and then they give you a ridiculous price for the thing you ask for, and then attempt to bundle other services (that you didn't ask for) together, which theoretically brings your price down for the thing you asked for. And if you decide that the one thing that you ask for is too expensive, you have to pay the destination charge anyway. Because most plumbing issues are near emergencies, you feel trapped. We even have a service agreement with Baethke, but I think I am done using them. It is the same experience over and over, and I'm tired of feeling frustrated and rippped off when they leave. I am willing to pay for quality services, but I absolutely hate the "upsell" approach, and Baethke should be careful about alienating customers like me with multiple properties.

Once they came out, I was promised an estimate in the next few days but never heard from them. Called two weeks later and still no estimate. Called two weeks after that ( one month after visit) and let them know how displeased I was, and thought this was an indicator of their service and professionalism Also, other contractors described their systems in detail but never got any idea of what they were going to install other than check valve with ejector pump. Finally got estimate which was $12,000 while 3 other contractors' estimates came in at $6000!!! DONT USE THEM!

Everything was excellent. They bring their own doormat, and are very neat and professional. They wear booties on their feet as well. They are extremely expensive, and if you have any work done, plan to spend at least $500. However, they have any part you could need on their truck. They do high quality work, and I have been very happy with them.

Never will I use John Baethke and Sons again. I am mad at myself for getting desperate and agreeing to go forward with the work.

Two young plumbers were unable to correctly diagnosis cracked seal in leaky toilet. After high estimates and high bill for parts for other toilet, I realized I had been scammed. I then proceeded to go to two plumbing parts stores and with their help ordered parts for $36.00. My contractor installed the seal and charged me $85.00. This solved the problem. A number of calls to John Baethke and Son proved frustrating as they only wanted to come back to my condo and do the work. As a senior citizen, I feel very stupid to have paid them the money for minor repairs and a buy a 12 month contract which seemed to be the main job of the two young plumbers to sell.

Don't use them unless you want to be taken for a ride. I had to pay $200 for them to come out but this should have been covered in the service contract that I already paid for.

They are very professional. They do a good job and they know what they are doing. They aren't the cheapest company in the world. They care about what they are doing.

They had to do only external pipe work, something very simple, but it cost me a lot of money. The people were very professional, nice, timely, and proper, but I was outraged at the price.

Very professional and polite. Called on a Friday and we set up an appointment for the following Tuesday. The plumber was on time and very professional. Fixed the leak in about two hours. It seemed a little expensive; however, I probably should have enquired as to the estimated cost when I made the appointment. I also signed up for an annual preventative maintenance plan that will give me priority with their firm, a provide discounts and includes an annual preventive maintenance visit intended to fix small problems before they become big ones.

They were always on time, and the serviceman were excellent, but the amount of money that was charged was extreme. There were all sorts of fees tacked on aside from the service call, and each visit ended up costing around $250.00, for what would sometimes take 15-20 minutes of work. I have since used other companies, and they are much cheaper for similar services.