CAPITAL PLUMBING CORP

In the summer 2006, I had finished fixing up a first floor apartment and was getting ready to put an ad in Craigs list. That morning a pipe from the bathroom above sprung a leak, destroying a section of kitchen ceiling. In a few minutes of fury and frustration, I broke open the ceiling, found the leak, and called in Capital Plumbing because they guaranteed one-hour service and were listed as licensed plumbers. I knew it was an easy 30 minute job, but I was willing to pay extra to get it done fast & done right so I could start renting the apartment. Capital showed up promptly, gave me an overpriced estimate (which I gladly accepted), and left a young assistant behind to do the work. Forty minutes, I could still hear cutting and banging. I went downstairs to check on the delay and found the young man was trying to cut out an entire section of floor beam because he wanted more room to work. He had already cut half-way through the beam. I made him stop, explained to him that the "extra piece of wood" was a vital floor beam, and left as he returned to working on the pipe. Twenty minutes later, I stopped back to check on him. He proudly showed me how he had "done me a favor" and removed "unnecessary extra cement" and saying that it was odd that he found tile and marble "in the cement" He pointing at what he though to be plywood underlayment. It was the plywood from the 2nd floor sink cabinet. He had just ripped trough the marble tile and was looking at the underside of the furniture above. He didn't believe me until I pulled the sink cabinet away from the wall, showing him the gaping hole he made between floors. I halted the work and called the supervisors. They made various excuses about collateral damage occurring in all plumbing work, pointed to my signature next to a paragraph on this issue, then went to fix the pipe. In the meanwhile, I brought up some cement from the basement and cut a board & marble tile to fix the hole. The "supervisors" shooed me away, insisting that they would do finish the repair. After they left, I found to my horror they had replaced the heavy galvanized drain pipe with $5 sink pipe that you can cut to length with a good scissors or tin snips. Then I saw that they didn't nail down to the beam the board which I cut to make new underlayment. It was unused. Instead they dropped a large flat chunk of the broken cement on the $5 thin replacement pipe, dumped wet cement on top, then laid the cut marble in place. And the leftover wet cement? They tried to wash it down the bathtub drain clogging the drain. (They came back to unclog it.) How long that that replacement pipe last? ... It leaked again in less than two years. Last year (2008) I called in an unlicensed plumber who did the job right this time. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the paper-thin sink pipe that the Captial plumbing had used.

The people who answered the phone at their office were good and they kept calling and told me about the plumber being late. They charged $300 for changing a faucet. The plumber was late by 2-3 hours.

They do not work 24/7. You call and leave multiple messages and no response. They did not even call me back in the morning. I called them. They then said someone was coming out within one hour. Half an hour later they called to say no one was coming.

Job 1: Tommy is a competent plumber and very nice. He first estimated a higher price, but the boss (on the phone) came down to the $400 price. Job 2: Work was well done and at a reasonable price. Licensed plumber.

I THOUGHT THE PRICES WERE EXCELLENT FOR THREE HOURS OF SERVICE INCLUDING LABOR. THE TOILET WORKS GREAT AND I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY TO EVERYONE.