Mission Plumbing Services

Steve Swalwell earned my trust and my respect. Mission Plumbing is a one person company, so Steve is the whole company. He looked over my specific situation and explained that the in-floor radiant heat system I wanted, would not give me the energy savings I expected given the particulars of my home, though my feet would be pleasantly warm. As a retired engineering professor, I followed his reasoning and agreed with his conclusion. With that piece of news upfront, Steve and I talked for quite some time about the system he would put in, if I wanted to proceed. I found him to be quite experienced, and he was ready to guide me away from the latest gimmicks one might see on This Old House and helped me focus on the tried and true equipment that works just fine (i.e., if my goal is to get from Portland to Salem, I don’t really need a BMW 7 Series, when a Honda Civic will work just fine). We looked at the gas line running into my house and Steve was concerned that the 20 year-old installation would not pass current code, and he showed me deterioration on the pipe that I had not noticed. Steve freely shared his ideas on how to reinstall the line with little impact to my house. Our conversation was rich and ranged from various insulation options, to ways to duct the hot-water heater, to selecting diameters of PEX tubing, and my choices in laying out the distribution of hot water heating. Now to a key point. Many hydronic installers will tell you they pick the heat system based on their years of experience. Unfortunately this approach will most likely leave you with over-sized heat system that wastes lots of energy. The only way to get a right sized hydronic system is by doing a building heat load analysis. This analysis is rather complicated, and leaving the work to computers and a professional engineer is a smart idea. Steve drives his design by using such a heat load analysis performed by a professional engineer. Of the near dozen hydronic-experts I’ve talked with over the years, Steve is the only one who uses this crucial analysis. Beware of the hydronic installers who don’t. So the bottom line is this – I found Steve to be quite experienced in the area of hydronics, and quite concerned that his work meets his customer’s expectations. In my case, my expectations were unrealistic, and he set me straight. I appreciate his honesty and his approach to business. After our most valuable discussion, I decided to not install a hydronic system. While Steve lost this piece of work, he earned by respect and my trust. In the future, Mission Plumbing will be the first firm I call when I need plumbing services.

Steve performed the work which took probably under 5 minutes. Steve announced that his flat rate was $100 for travel and first 1/2 hr. The actually work took less than 5 minutes. I had mentioned that I was in a dire situation but really - $100 was absolutely exorbitant. Anyone else would have offered a reduced charge when they saw the work. I feel ripped off and will not use this company again.

It was a big project.

It was great. Steve had to come over numerous times due to the construction schedule and he was always there when we needed him. Due to the age of the house, there were several issues that he discovered during the course of the project and he was able to solve them all quickly and efficiently. After the project was completed Steve was willing to come over on a couple of occasions to check his work and to make minor adjustments as necessary, including fixing work that the general contractor had done wrong. He was great.

When we first experienced the water emergency, we called Steve. He previously had done great work for us. He came over within the hour and scheduled the work. He is quick to return phone calls and e-mails. If there was a question or problem he came right over - often at no additional charge.