ATM Plumbing

unknown

My home is old and small, and the heating system was a propane furnace from the early 1950's. The furnace still worked perfectly and had no leaks. However, the propane tank regulator and the underground line to the house had developed leaks, and could not be repaired or replaced at reasonable cost. I wanted to replace the system with a modern, high-efficiency natural gas furnace. I had six heating/air conditioning/plumbing companies provide bids on the job--three small companies and three large firms. I did not at that time proceed with the job, however, because of state permit requirements ( a permit was needed for the gas company to bore under the roadway to provide service to my house). Therefore, this review only deals with the experiences of discussing some unusual challenges of the situation in this old house on an odd property, and getting an estimate for the work. Mr. Ralph Martinez of ATM Plumbing came to my house within 24 hours of my call, and he came within fifteen minutes of the time he had indicated. Of the six contractors, he showed by far the most interest in the job and was the most helpful in providing information about safety code regulations. He also seemed more knowledgeable about code requirements than at least three of the other companies' representatives. He suggested a better place for the new gas service line to enter the house, and told me about a gas company policy on meter placement, of which I didn' t know --this info may have saved me hundreds of dollars. By the time I talked with him, I had already found out that there would be a substantial delay due to permitting for a gas service, so I did not ask him for a written bid. However, after some quick and quot;figuringand quot;, he gave me a verbal estimate that was in the mid-range of the ones from the other companies. I just received the permit, and I plan to contact ATM Plumbing and one other company for current bids. It is very likely that I will ask ATM to do the job.

Ralph was recommended to us by a local electrician. He was kind of hard to get in touch with. He doesn't have an answering machine to leave messages on either. He came out with his son and made some measurements and saw what we wanted done. He told us the best way to do it. We were switching over from propane to natural gas and the pipes were very old with lots of leaks that we couldn't find. He warned me to get in touch with the gas company quickly because they normally take a few weeks. He was quick, neat, and very unobtrusive. He warned us about any extra problems with the house and fixed what he could. (It's an older house with lots of and quot;quirksand quot;). Compared to all of the other plumbers I tried to get quotes from before, Ralph was a dream to work with. Now, unfortunately, we're still just waiting on the gas company! Update: 3 months later(!) the gas company has finally installed our gas lines and Ralph came right away and hooked everything up for us. We had an extra problem with a sink that was stopping up and he fixed that for us on the spur of the moment. This guy is a great help!