Nick's Plumbing & Sewer Service

I give them a C on the price because the pipe section replaced was about 4 ft long or less and the drain connection was just that, a drain connection so I feel they are high priced, other than that, their work & attitude were excellent. I was very well impressed by their professional behavior.

I was pretty excited when Angie's List offered a "big deal" from Nick's Plumbing. I knew I had some plumbing modifications that I wanted a bid on, my water heater needed it's annual flush, and Nick's Plumbing had such great reviews on the list-- what a wonderful way to give them a test drive, I thought! Well, I'm left astounded that they're as highly rated as they are. The "7 point plumbing inspection" consisted of turning faucets on and off-- and nothing else. It was as superficial and half-assed as it could have been. I understand if someone doesn't want to go into my house's crawl space to look at the piping system, but you could have at least looked under a sink once in a while. When I identified the need for a clean-out in the plumbing line of a bathroom, there could have been some sort of visual inspection then and there.... instead, I just got a bid of $325 to run a CAMERA down the toilet to trace its pathway to the sewer. No bid on installing the clean out valve I actually asked for, just one for an expensive toy. That seemed to be theme of the visit, really: how can this plumber pressure me into a list of expensive work. My two-year old water heater "had some rust in the flush, and probably only had a year of life left in it". Really? What should go strong for 12-13 years crapped out after two? Somehow, I doubt that. This "big deal" was a farce. I invited some guy into my house to make a sales pitch, and I regret it. I felt like the gentlemen I dealt with was just looking for ways to run up a bill and pressure me into more work, and had I known what a joke the plumbing inspection was going to be, I'd have saved myself $67 and gone down to home depot for some tubing and flushed my water heater myself. Nick's Plumbing won't be getting any of my work in the future, that's for sure.

I was furious with Angie's List for sponsoring such an offer on their website plus the trick that Nick's Plumbing was pulling. I really feel like I was ripped off for $67.00 when they had no intentions of flushing the water heater. The"check" of plumbing consisted of turning on and off water faucets and looking in the back tank of the toilets.

They gave me an approximate quote by phone. The plumber showed up on time, was very professional, courteous, and efficient. It took about 45 minutes to do the work. He had to snake the line about 70 feet to get the clog. The price was the same as the phone quote. I would definitely use them again.

Responded quickly. Performed the repair using what was available on his truck in a short time.

On time, on estimate, friendly, did a good job, left shovel.

The went very well. The serviceman identified the problem quickly, and took care of it.

There was wide spread shortage of valves in the Houston area due to the winter freeze which damaged many valves. I had to prepay for the valve to secure timely repairs as there was a waiting list, they were ordering a shippment from out of state to meet the usual demand for sprinkler valve repairs. A week after the valve was replaced.

They were here promptly on the same day I called. The tech had the part with him. He did a good job.

I had a plugged shower drain. The serviceman easily identified and fixed problem and also consulted on a few other issues. The drain plugged up again in a few days and Nick's came back to clear up the drain again - said that this was typical when clearing a drain (more sloughing, settling etc.)

Excellent. Their representative came twice, once to gather information for the proposal and once to do the work. The proposal came in promptly and was professionally done. Once the equipment arrived, we were contacted immediately and made an appointment. The plumber showed up on time, and did the work efficiently. We're very happy with the results. In short, an excellent experience.

Everyone at Nick's Plumbing is extremely professional, from the person who answers the phones and schedules the appointments to the plumbers. They are on time for the scheduled appointments, or if running late will call to let you know. The plumbers are skilled, very personable and clean up after completing the job. I will use them again and have recommended them to my neighbors.

They came on time, inspected the plumbing system and gave me an estimate. The explain the problem and fixed it. 2 or 3 days later the noise was there again, they explain that there was a loose pipe inside the wall and gave me 2 alternatives to fix it. They were very professional, knowledgeable and honest.

Great! Jimmy the technician was friendly, very knowledgeable and quite speedy. I would definitely use Nick's Plumbing again and would refer them to anyone. Fast, professional and well worth the price.

I kept hearing the sound of running water in connection with a toilet. The plumber tried a few adjustments BEFORE he began any replacement. He then advised me that he had done all he could but that a new part would be needed. He had the part and the replacement was made quickly. He stayed a bit longer to flush the toilet several times to ensure that it worked properly.

Under "Service Information," Angie's List should list whether or not a provider charges to make an estimate. Nick's is one of the growing roster of practitioners of what I call the Fee-Based Mystery Estimate. He was not the only provider on Angie's List to practice this. I report him because he was at the top of Angie's List for this area. Nick's charges $50 to simply come to the house and look at your job. They wouldn't quote over the phone either their hourly labor charge or their minimum fee. You get the $50 back if you hire them, you lose it if you don't. I understand the providers' issue--time is money. But from this consumer's point of view, I could very much pay $50 to Nick's to come to my house and I receive nothing than Nick's revealing to me that if I accept his price, he will overcharge me because he's a too-expensive plumber. I could beat his price--if anyone would reveal it for free. I might--might--find a cheaper provider elsewhere. But ol' Nick has a pretty effective strategy: pocket the $50, reveal a price, and then stand there while the customer stews. "That sounds high," the customer thinks. "But there the service person stands, ready to work. If I pass, I'll have to call another plumber and pay THEM $50 to come give me a price. Most of all, I'd have paid $50 to watch this guy turn around and leave with a $50 debit to my credit card having performed no service other than to give me a price. And I'll feel played." And Nick's knows that. Several calls later, I did find a couple of providers who provided the Fee-Based Mystery Estimate for $40. I could call one of them--and face the probability that I am now out 90-darn-dollars simply to hear plumbers give me quotes that feel high. See, I did my homework. In addition to Angie's List, I consulted the U.S. Department of Labor. I learned online that the price I eventually paid was nearly four times a average hour's wage for a master plumber in my area. But the homework counts for nothing when providers won't tell you how much they charge unless you pay them. Speaking of U.S. Departments . . . were the U.S. Department of Justice to learn that Sony, Panasonic, and Sharp were concealing the prices for their HDTVs, charging $10 to learn it, then Sony, Panasonic, and Sharp would be in big trouble for restraint of trade. I hate feeling like a sucker, and the Fee-Based Mystery Estimate is almost a guarantee to getting the emotion, accept the Mystery Estimate or not. You know how much like a sucker you'll feel if you watch a guy walk back to his truck having done nothing more for the $50 debit to your credit than look under your sink and utter two words with a dollar sign in front of them? It took work and some prodding for a provider who'd give up a price over the phone. The job was dirt-simple--to replace the tank of an instant-hot water dispenser system. After a bit a persuasion, which likely sounded desperate because it was, I described the job and received a quote over the phone. According to the installation instructions provided by tank manufacturer, installation of the whole hot-water dispenser system should take a maximum two hours, even by an unskilled civilian, and the provider would only remove and replace an already-installed tank, then re-hook existing plumbing. Four times what a master plumber gets for an hour. I still feel like a sucker.

They were on time, clean and courteous. We discussed some other small jobs I wanted to do (replace bathtub fixtures) and the plumber was able to locate the right fixture and give me a price for that also. I have scheduled that for later this month. I was very pleased with NIcks and the fact that they didn't try to sell me some bogus service policy to bump up the bill. I will use them again.

They did a good job, and explained what they did to me.

It was great. The last time they came , they came out really quickly. The found the leaks that we needed repaired and got it fixed. It was really fast.

On the positive side, the person managing scheduling from the office side (Lisa) is very good. She is accessible by phone or email, responded promptly, and was flexible based on my constraints. The initial person who came out and did an estimate also made a very good impression - was on time, listened carefully to my situation and advised me on my options including cost trade-offs and risks of different approaches. They wrote me an initial estimate that allowed for flexibility - I could do all or part of the work according to what I was able to pay. Now for the downside. The team that actually came in and did the work took more than twice as long as predicted. Some of that was due to weather but not all of it - they were already behind schedule when the first rainfall came. The range of destruction from their dirt piles and trampling and equipment was far in excess of what I expected - I had similar work done with gas lines in the past and there was nowhere near this level of destruction with lawn, flower beds, edgings destroyed, trash strewn around the yard, etc. My biggest complaint was with Josh, the guy who was supposedly responsible for the job. He made a great initial impression - polite, articulate. But then he disappeared. Instead of checking up on his crew he would call me to find out if they were on site. He was not aware of the mess they were making or how far they were behind schedule because he didn't check on the site personally. This became particularly offensive at the end, when he was calling asking for final payment and my yard was still full of trenches, dirt piles, piles of tools, and general mayhem. He hadn't even bothered to check if the job was done or check if it was left in satisfactory condition before calling to ask for payment. And, there was a huge lack of communication about their status. No one bothered to say "hi, we weren't able to get as much digging done today as we thought, so that will slow down our timeline by this much" - I was just supposed to deal with things until they got around to finishing. I'd arranged time off work to be there while the work was done, but apparently they'd reached a point where they had to wait for a city inspection. No one bothered to tell me they were waiting for the inspection, so I wasted a PTO day sitting at home when there was no work being done. As icing on the cake, on the final day of the job when Josh finally showed up at the jobsite, he blamed his workers for all the problems. "I guess we won't be using these guys again", he said casually as I picked up bits of trash from my decimated yard. My first thought was that a supervisor should take responsibility for his workers. If he'd been onsite even occasionally, he would have noticed that they were leaving a mess and taking too long, and could have intervened soon enough to make a difference. I don't have a lot of respect for a supervisor who pays no attention to the job and then blames someone else if the job goes poorly. I also thought that if the problems in the job came from the people they'd hired, shouldn't they be offering to compensate me for some of the resulting problems? But the idea of taking personal responsibility didn't seem to occur to him. I'd hoped to find a good plumbing company that I could return to for other repair jobs that are needed around my house. Sadly, I am still looking for that company.

Everything turned out excellent. They are extremely professional. I have used them several times for various projects over the past years. They are very knowledgeable about plumbing issues and are able to fix the problems. The estimates are always right on target.

I called in the morning to schedule someone to come out and look at some relatively minor plumbing problems that were found during home inspection for the house we bought. A plumber was sent out later the same day. He arrived within the time frame that I had been given, looked at the problems, and gave me an oral estimate for making the corrections. He performed the work immediately, and the final cost was a little higher than the estimate but not enough to upset me. It's been almost a month, and no problems have arisen with the work that was done, so I consider it a job well done and will likely call Nick's for future plumbing problems.

Trenches in the yard were dug and pipes were replaced in the time frame agreed to. This took approximately 5 days. The crew that dug the trenches worked their rears off! Most of the trenches were dug within one day. Some rain extended the job slightly. The job required cutting through our asphalt driveway in two places. All of this work was completed by hand. No machines were brought in other than a saw to cut through the asphalt. The city inspector came while the plumber was not there. I recommend that the plumber be present at the time of inspection. The inspector would not issue a final permit because of some issues that could have been resolved if the plumber had been on site. It took weeks to get the plumber and inspector together and get the final inspection resolved. I had to follow up several times to get this completed. After the work was completed, the driveway repair did not hold up once it rained again. It was almost like it was never repaired. The trench in the driveway was deep enough that I could not drive my small car across it. It took a week for the crew to come back and repair it again. I recommend negotiating with the plumber an actual asphalt company to complete the repair, and require that it be sealed. The plumbing company filled in the trench with cold asphalt which hasn't held up as well. We are still not happy with it, and we have a visible stripe across the driveway which doesn't look good. It is not sealed and is soft to walk or drive over. You should also expect your yard to sink in where the trenches were dug and plan to have additional soil added and grass replaced. Factor this into the overall cost of having the job done. This company offered a better warranty on the plumbing work than others that we contacted, but their cost was slightly higher. The plumbing is working fine with no issues. The company itself was very pleasant to deal with. Quotes and warranties were hand written by the on-site representative. I would have liked to have seen a typed quote detailing all expenditures and the warranty mainly because the hand written one is hard to read.

Kitchen drain was running very slow. After using liquid plumber, plunging, and manually augering the drain to no effect, I called Nick's Plumbing. The service technicial arrived promptly, diagnosed the issue, gave me a price quote, and fixed the issue with roto-rootering in approximately 20 minutes. The price was within my "ball park guess", but was at the higher end.

Work was competent and professional. Arrival and appointment setting was prompt and convenient. Cost was more than a disappointment when I had expressed price consciousness when I made the appointment and when the technicians arrived. Essentially, each technician cost $150 per hour. Upon first inspection, the quote was $310 but ended with a total of $580. The technician told me I was even receiving a $25 discount on each installation. I would recommend using Home Depot's or Lowe's services which are $125-150 per installation; hard not to feel gouged in comparison.