Able Plumbing Inc

I wish I could give an even higher score for responsiveness and punctuality! Other plumbers I called couldn't get to me for almost a week. Able was there the same day, within a couple of hours. I did not know that there was a dangerous electrical short that produced scalding hot water in my water heater. Had I waited 5-6 days, I could have had a fire in the house! Able did not have a replacement circuit board on hand, but the technician spent the time to show me how to safely install it when it arrives. That will save me from having another service call.

The serviceman had to go out and purchase a part and he did this without charging me for the time it took him to purchase the part. He was efficient, worked very well, my leak was fixed. The serviceman was very helpful in answering my questions, he was polite and knowledgeable. I will only call Able Plumbing for all my plumbing needs.

I have used Able Plumbing once before for a toilet issue so when I started hearing this wierd sound whenever the water was running in the house I called Able Plumbing. Nelson arrived during the timeframe that was given when the appointment was set up and listened closely while I tried to explain the noise I was hearing. He asked me if I heard the noise only when flushing a toilet and I told him that the noise occurred even when I ran the water in the sinks, showers, washer and dishwasher. To demonstrate what I meant I flushed the toilet in the powder room and Nelson heard the noise while standing near the front door. He then asked me to turn the water on in the kitchen sink so he could see if the same sound occurred, and it did. He asked for the location of the main shutoff. He had me run the water in the laundry tub and flush the toilet in the basement bathroom. The sound still happened but was easier to hear when standing next to the PRV valve. Nelson stated that it was definitely a problem with the valve; that we could try and adjust it but with the sound coming from every location in the house it would be better to replace the valve. Sure enough, after he replaced the valve the sound went away. I can tell a big difference since the new valve was installed. Before leaving Nelson was kind enough to even install a cartridge I had purchased for my master bath sink. I am very pleased with the service I received from Able Plumbing and would use them again.

The technician that came out to give a quote said that they don't separate the items in a quote. Said that there were no 60 gallon 12 year warranty hot water heaters and that he would sell a 75 gallon 9 year warranty system. He dealt with my wife and had a 'bit of an attitude' towards her. The quote was written on the back of a business card, very unprofessional. I not only got my 60 gallon 12 year warranty system from another company but I saved nearly $900 over the quote from Able. The company that ultimately installed my hot water heater will get all of my future business and I will not use Able again.

Rob was very professional! I wrote an e-mail in Angie's List and got a reply from Rob to discuss the issues. He was very good about working with me on scheduling and found a time that worked great for my family. When he came out, he looked at our tub and troubleshot for a little while before showing me why we needed a new spout. Then he got to work on the emergency drain and gave it the old college try to fix before extensively showing me why it was not going to seal. Unfortunately, the old tub was rusting from behind and so won't seal correctly. He came up with some good work-arounds and made it so that the tub is functional once again. Overall, a great experience and we will definitely use them for any plumbing issues we have in the future. Thank you, Rob!

The plumber was very polite and explained everything to me very clearly. He also took a look at a leaky toilet, because the work on the sump pump finished early.

Work was done quickly. Plumber thoroughly cleaned up after completing repair.

I called Able Plumbers since they were; 1. On Angie's List. 2. Perform work in my area. 3. Were rated very highly. I called Able to inquire about installing a spigot on the outside of my townhouse since the builder thought that it was too much bother/cost during construction. The lady on the phone was efficient and pleasant. She did not want to ballpark any costs over the phone (most likely a good idea) and assured me that the plumber would work up the price once he saw what he was dealing with. Due to unavoidable delays our plumber (Bryan) was running late because of another job. We found Bryan to be knowledgeable and outgoing. We specified what we wanted and he was going to have to return with another plumber because this was a "two-man" job. Bryan prepared an estimate which he supplied to me over the phone. The following Tuesday we rescheduled for 9AM. No problem, he arrived 15 minutes early with George who was also very nice. We have a spigot on the front of our home but nothing on the rear. We decided to tap into the water supply from the kitchen sink in on the 2nd floor, the deck is outside of the kitchen. Bryan drilled through 8" of wall and siding to get to the outside on the deck. Brian prepared some fittings of copper and brass, the spigot is a "commercial grade" piece. They installed an interior shutoff that will help us in the winter. Bryan and George were done in a little over 2 hours but, did NOT rush. They were extremely clean and organized. They brought in quite a bit of tools & equipment that NEVER touched the floor or my furniture since they laid out their drop cloths and tool buckets. We are very satisfied with Able Plumbing and especially Bryan. I would hire him/them again. Naturally, I would have liked to pay less. This is Arlington after all and I like to do things once. I don't count someone else's money, Bryan has over 20 years experience. That is what I paid for, the installation is rock solid. It looks the part, my wife is happy. I support local businesses, especially ones like Able who give you what you pay for. The Angie's coupon was good for $20! I do not shop for price, I wanted a solid installation for a fair market price. I got exactly that. Thanks again to Bryan.

Very professional. Explained all work and costs before starting. Very neat and cleaned up after work. Would have no problem recommending and calling again.

I was very pleased with their service. Better then expected.

I'm always skeptical of reviews, whether it's Yelp or Angie's List or wherever, but I'm pleased to report that the reviews are true about Able Plumbing. This was easily the best plumbing company that I've ever hired. From the first phone consultation to the actual job, the process was smooth and professional with no surprises and no attempt to pad the job with extraneous or unnecessary work. The young plumber who arrived at my house was friendly, punctual, and got right to work. He diagnosed the problem in about 30 seconds, gave me a time estimate (which turned out to be on the nose), and performed the work efficiently and to exacting detail. I had consulted several plumbing companies who had quoted me prices of $425 and $600-700 for the work, so when the Able plumber gave me a final bill of under $300 I was so thrilled that I wanted to give him a tip. I mean, I was expecting to pay far more! I highly recommend Able Plumbing. I'll be calling them for all of my future plumbing work.

I was really looking forward to working with Able - their reviews are great and my brother has used them and liked them in the past. I think that there just must be one guy who is not so great. I was unfortunate enough to get him. I called because we have been having general slow plumbing issues, intermittent back ups, gurgling drains, and I really wanted him to snake my main sewer line. He refused and basically argued with me about it because at that moment there was not a back up. He treated me like I was crazy and had invented these plumbing problems. He did agree to snake out my laundry line because I could reproduce the problem there (the bucket with water in it was not enough evidence of the problem). When that snake did not fix the problem with my laundry room he looked under my house and saw old cast iron pipes. NOW he was willing to snake the main line and put a camera down to see what was going on, after telling me the problem was probably with the pipes under the house. He charged me 175 for his time, which I paid but to be fair most of that time was spent arguing with me about the line. We left it that he would bring his camera and boss back on Thursday (this was Tuesday). After he left I found a mess - my laundry room was disgusting, water heater and washer covered with dirt from the snake. He had left the lid off the toilet and had not turned the water back on to my toilet (not even sure why he turned it off in the first place). After that fiasco, I called another plumber, they came right away, put a camera down my line for free and found roots in the sewer line. There was nothing wrong with the pipes under the house and it was a problem way far down the line as I had suspected but couldn't get this guy to believe. I honestly think the issue was that he did not want to pull the toilet to snake the line, that this was too much hassle and so he was trying to talk me out of it. I had a second plumber come the next day, also with a camera to get a second opinion which confirmed the root issue. Able called back at this point and said they would not be able to come with their camera for another week. I politely declined. The staff seemed nice and I am sure they have good plumbers there but this young man was not one of them and is hurting their reputation.

I thought they did a great job and they were easy to make an appointment with them.

They were very friendly, personable and efficient. However, I thought the price was steep for the repair. The part cost seemed extremely high. The cost would have been higher without Angie's discount. But, I was extremely grateful that they were able to come out right away (same day) as our faucet was leaking water

3 experiences: First great, second bad, third great. Third experience: Able Plumbing came out, recognized my leaky faucet was a freeze-proof faucet, disassembled it, replaced a washer, and put it all back together. Works like a charm. He was professional, pleasant, began with the most simple solution, explained everything he was doing as he went along. Second experience: I had Able Plumbing at the house to do several things. I asked plumber (different from first and third plumbers) to look at this same leaky faucet. He told me he would have to break through the ceiling and the wall to install a valve and great expense, etc. without ever looking at the lines in the house or taking anything apart. He discouraged me from fixing it because he didn't want to "do all that work". I decided not to do anything and let the faucet leak. He also snaked my kitchen drain without trying a more simple solution (which I think would have taken care of it). I didn't challenge him because I figured it was a make up for the great first experince I had which was at no charge. In spite of that second experience when I needed a plumber again, I confirmed (on Angie's list) Able Plumbing still had good reviews and called them for the third time The first time they came out I, again, had a fantastic experience with them. I thought I needed to replace a sewer line before it collapsed. They did the research (went to the county) and found out that the line I thought was the original (50+ years old) was in fact cast iron and didn't need to be replaced. They charged me nothing to do this. Two other plumbing companies had come out, took my word for it, and gave me estimates between $5 and 7k to dig up my yard and replace that line unneccesarily. Based on that positive experience I called them again. They pay their plumbers a straight rate rather than by the job. This keeps them (in most cases) from doing unneccessary work or expanding tasks. They are one of the very few plumbing companies who do it this way. I will not hesitate to call Able Plumbing again. I will just make sure the guy I didn't like doesn't come.

We had a leaking toilet closeout valve. They came out the next day, exactly on time; fixed the toilet quickly, noticed we had a cracked sewer outflow and called me back the next day with a bid to fix the sewer pipe. Again, they came exactly on time, fixed the problem and sent me an invoice for less than the maximum price quoted. Inside work cost $177, and outside work was $386. We had previously received a bid from someone else for the outside work of up to $800. Responsive, on time, fully professional and reasonably priced. They get an A in our book!

First, I have to believe based on the other reviews that we are an exception rather than the rule. We have a 60+ year old house with slow draining pipes in the bathroom upstairs. We made an appt for Able to come to snake our drain in the bathroom. The people on the phone making the appts were very nice and deserve an A. Our house is a carbon copy of many of the houses in our neighborhood and for that matter the Northern VA area. Our bath tub is original so I am pretty certain any plumber around here has seen it and dealt with it. At least I thought that. The guy shows up, very polite. He spends less than 5 minutes in the bathroom and says he can't snake our drain and it will be $97. He then tells us that we need a whole new drain. He didn't even put forth effort to snake our drain (he said it couldn't make the bend) and I find it hard to believe that our drain is special. I am pretty certain it is not. We will not use again.

I have two outside faucets that were leaking. When I called to schedule the appointment, the representative explained the hourly rate. She reminded me to print out an Angies List coupon. The plumbers came on time. They were very polite and very efficient. They quickly finished the project and asked if there was anything else. They were professional, quick and I would definitely use them again.

Accurately described the situation, performed service, and billed by T&M at a reasonable rate. Provided 30d warranty. Good experience.

Did not use them for the work.

Danilo and George were very professional. They explained everything they were planning on doing, made sure I understood the workings of the emergency valves for the house, and were fast and cleaned up everything afterwards. Original price that was given was $140, but I had a $20 Angie's List coupon.

Called to get a price on replacing four faucets and pop up drains in my home. Was told they only worked by an hourly rate and they gave me a Half hour rate with first half hour being more expensive. I asked about how much time this would take and was given a vague estimate of three to four hours. I called back to schedule the job as was then told that the office could not schedule the work and that the plumber would call to schedule on the following Monday. Plumber never called back so I used another pluming company.

We were very pleased. The plumber arrived a little earlier than the estimated window. We've had experiences in the past with another company where the plumber never showed up despite promises that he was "on this way". We had the same clogging problem approximately one year ago and another company had come out and manually snaked the pipe. Shortly afterwards, water leaked into our kitchen ceiling requiring costly drywall replacement and repainting so we did not want to repeat that experience. Called Able based on reviews in Angie's List. Plumber (Danilo) was professional, explained what he was doing and why and used a mechanical snake since the job involved 3-inch pipe. We would definitely use Able Plumbing again and would highly recommend them.

Rob, the plumber whodid the work, was competent,couteous and professional. Price (including coupon for Angie's List user) was excellent compared with phone quotes from other companies. Bill was detailed and professional. Will definitely use again.

Overall, interactions with the front office (i.e. scheduling) went well, though there was maybe one time (out of 3 exchanges) when they hadn't called back after a couple days and I had to follow up. They were able to schedule the work in a reasonable timeframe once I decided to move forward with the work. On the initial visit by Nelson, I explained that the current water main valve wasn't actually shutting off the water and wanted to get an estimate for having it replaced. He looked at it and initially suggested that, instead of replacing the existing valve, he would simply cut the pipe a foot or so "downstream" (my words, not his) from the existing valve and add a new valve there, instead of replacing the existing valve. He also mentioned that he didn't have the right materials (coupling?) to perform the service that day. I wasn't sure at the time why he would want to add a new valve rather than replace the existing one, which when rotated leaked some grayish water onto the floor, so I said I would prefer to replace the existing one. He said he would coordinate with the front office and get an appointment set up after the needed materials were available. After a few days, I hadn't heard from them, so I called to follow up and schedule the work. In another 1-2 days, Nelson called and said that after talking with the owner, they determined that they could not do the replacement procedure, because it could cause the water main pipe (i.e. from house to street) to rupture, which would lead to a very major and expensive repair. On the other hand, he said that if we added the valve above the current one, as he had originally suggested, he felt that the cutting of the pipe was much less likely to cause the bigger problem with the main. So, I said we could go ahead and do it that way. I asked for a rough estimate (recognizing that they charge hourly rather than by job), and he said it would probably be a "few hundred dollars," which turned out to be accurate. When he came to do the service, Nelson was prompt and polite, seemed competent, and seemed to perform the service at a reasonable speed (1.5 hours), and the job appears to have been done well. I felt that he was trustworthy and competent, and not trying to gouge me on the pricing. Based on this experience, I plan to use Able Plumbing for my plumbing needs in the future.