Stemmle Plumbing Repair Inc

DO NOT USE THEM FOR EMERGENCY SERVICE!! We had a plumbing emergency and they had to come out THREE separate times over the next 12 hours due to negligence on the part of the technician. Even though it wasn't fixed until the next day they still charged us almost $200 just for an emergency fee. We attempted contacting the owner to ask them to make it right, but they just ignored us and never called us back. We continued to call until we finally got through and they refused to do anything to satisfy us. We will be spreading the word about this negligent work as well as failure to stand behind their service.

Very professional from start to finish. Prompt service (less than 24 hrs from call), I received a call from the technician while he was assessing the work with a diagnosis, proposed plan, and estimate.

The great folks at Stemmle Plumbing were fast, efficient, and highly skilled in helping me through a very difficult septic situation. In addition to fixing the problem, they helped me navigate my way through very confusing county policies. They had my back every step of the way and likely saved me up to $10,000 dollars in the repair of my septic system. They were on time, thorough, and fast to respond. I recommend them to anyone seeking excellent service in the Greater Richmond area!

I contacted this company this morning to make an appointment to install a tube. The last service they provided me, was done by one of their trainees because the rest of the staff were in training. He over priced it over $1000.00 just to install piping, connecting from the base of the sink, to the sink itself. I stated I was not going to pay that and they lowered the price. Today I spoke with Amanda, and she put me on hold, in the middle of scheduling and Tonya was rude, and non apologetic. You get farther through kindness, in any customer service position. FYI.

They did an excellent job. They have a really good pricing system.

They came promptly when called, described the proposed costs in detail and did the job that day. I was very satisfied.

I contacted the company for a service call for a leaking garbage disposal. I explained that I had used the manufacturer's trouble shooting resource, and it was likely that a specific flywheel gasket needed to be replaced. They were able to provide a same day appointment, and indicated that the cost of the visit was $79. The technician arrived within the stated time range. I explained the problem, and only at that time did I learn that this company does not repair garbage disposals -- they will only replace it. They use the same brand that I own, but only stock up to 3/4 hp, whereas mine is 1 hp. The quote to replace with a lesser model was around $450, plus labor, though some of the cost of today's visit might be applied to that. Or, at least they would not charge me the same visit cost again. The current cost to replace the unit with the same model, more powerful unit, by buying it on Amazon, is $124. The labor effort would be minimal because all of the plumbing and electrical are already set up for this model. If I had been informed at the time I scheduled the appointment that repairing the unit was not an option, then I would not have used this company. I have since discovered other plumbing businesses that offer free estimates.

Plumber seemed confused on current code and was on the phone for some time speaking with another regarding what was needed. In the end the following was decided by the technician: 1. A new vent was needed to be installed to meet code. 2. A vehicle barrier was needed to be installed for code. 3. The price could go up if additional personnel or equipment was needed. In the end I installed the heater and had it inspected by the county. The inspector's words, "You did a fine job". My costs including the permit and all material was approximately $600. Time for the installation about an hour. According to a retired plumber a professional should be able to install a heater in about a half an hour. In my research a quality heater runs $400 to $600. Even if the heater costs $1000 with parts - which I found is about $50 Stemmle was charging about $3000/hour for labor! The technician did say they weren't the cheapest but they would do it right and to code. Really? Read on. We did not have them replace the heater for the following reasons: 1. The price was ridiculously high for what amounts to 30 minutes of work. The heater being easily accessible. Their price was hundreds above the next closest. In their defense the other quotes were over the phone. 2. They charged $79 for the house call which was not mentioned when we made the appointment. My wife clearly stated that this was not an emergency. The receptionist - Vicky could be heard backpedaling when the technician called her about the confusion. In addition per the county inspector: 1. A vehicle barrier was not required. 2. The exhaust vent did not require replacement. I simply rotated the existing one about 45° So much for Stemmle doing things to code. Probably the most disconcerting issue was the $79 charge for the quote. It raised a question of integrity within the company should we have had an issue down the road. Also there is no need to charge such an unreasonable amount for a quote. The companies that gave quotes for our roof job didn't charge neither did those for the siding. When I asked about the charge the technician stated it was due to the time to come by. Perhaps, however the above mentioned contractors gave their time without charging. Perhaps plumbers are special. Perhaps their time is so much more valuable. Or perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he drove up in a Mercedes-Benz.

Bought an old house that was flipped and was hoodwinked by the seller's 'inspection' of the septic system. They just did a walk-over and determined the septic tank did not need to be pumped. That was true because the house had not been inhabited for about 3 years. Anyway, 3 days after we moved into the house, the system backed up. Stemmle took the correct approach (which, in hindsight, proved wrong) by rooting the line from the house to the septic tank. The system backed up again. They were very responsive when we had to have the septic tank pumped. They then started exploring the outlet line from the septic tank to the Distribution box. They rooted and camera-ed as far as they could, but the outlet line was just too compacted. Bottom line: The outlet line to the D-box (about 100 feet) had to be excavated and replaced. The D-box itself was basically disintegrated and had to be replaced. About the first 10-25 feet of each of the header lines leading to the drain field needed to be replaced. Fortunately, my story ends there. I did not have to replace my drain field and 4 weeks later - all seems to be working well. What I liked about Stemmle: I liked that they tried to address the problem with the least invasive (i.e. least expensive) approaches first. As it became evident that my particular issue required a more aggressive resolution (excavation), they actually credited me some of the previous work they had done and applied that credit to the big job of replacing the outlet line, D-box and header lines. Everyone I worked with at Stemmle was professional and seemed to be genuinely interested in resolving my issue at as little cost to me as possible. Nobody wants to spend money on this stuff, and it's not cheap when you start talking about excavating septic lines. But I feel good that I chose Stemmle and would recommend them to anyone going through a similar h***.

In May, 2012 I had another large services company replace my sewer line for my house that was built in 1958 because I had had several sewer blockages and was told that it was not advisable to keep routing out the sewer because the process of routing the pipe could cause the line to fail. That advice was correct because the company replaced the sewer line told/showed me that the old pipe was "Orangeburg" sewer pipe. "Orangeburg" was the cheaper option that was within code when the house was constructed, but is essentially made of a material like tar paper and is fragile in houses as old as mine. When the contractor replaced the sewer line they reached my property line without reaching the the sewer 'tap' where the private sewer line is supposed to attach to the county sewer main. They couldn't go farther because of the fence and a couple feet beyond that is my neighbors shed. The contractor advised the county of the situation and the county came by and water jetted the sewer line from the county clean out to the main. Fast forward to May 2015. My sewer line clogged. I called the original contractor. They cleared the clog starting at the county clean out so the clog was in the line at the county end that could not be replaced. They charged me $489.74. After visiting the Richmond Home Show where Stemmie displayed technology that could re-line sewer lines with an epoxy process, I called Stemmie to see if they could use that technology to complete the sewer line to the sewer main. The Stemmie technician called me back to discuss the work. As I said above, he advised me to call the county to inspect line. The county has now done that and agrees the county is responsible for that part of the line. The shed will be an issue and they haven't resolved that yet, but they have told me to call them if the sewer clogs again. The gave me phone numbers for both business and after hours emergencies. My point is that the Stemmie technician gave me good advice and didn't charge me. He could have come out, inspected with a TV snake and billed me at least for that, but he didn't. I intend to call Stemmie next time I have a pluming problem.

So spring has arrived and we have called twice and they tell us that someone will call us back. No one ever calls us back. We are VERY disappointed in their service as we have used them for many years. We will not ever use them again. It was absurd to pay $198 for someone to come out and do nothing but tell us what we already knew. We had hoped it would be taken off our bill when the work was performed. Sadly, this will not be the case. Just to add - this was at my mother's house and she had used them for years as well.

They were super helpful and gave us a lot of good information and advice about what needed to be fixed and what didn’t need to be fixed. Ryan was the plumber that helped us. They have good turnaround time to come out and look at any issues.

This was the first time that I used them. I would never use this company again.

Stemmle was great -- my landscaper had recommended them and I gave him a thanks, as well. We had a water line break in our front yard and the County of Henrico confirmed that was where the water was coming from (we had drainage issues, so we thought it was natural drainage due to some improvements we had made). It was a small, but steady leak, which was running down our driveway. Stemmle gave 3 options on an estimate visit 1.) Dig where the leak is and see what is there... $400 2.) Replace the water line 3) Install a lining in the water line -- If I chose option 2 or 3, they would then decrease those quotes by the $400 ... They also seemed very knowledgeable and explained to me the water line system at my house (what do I know, I am a fairly new homeowner :)). They came out promptly when the appointment was set for and dug in the spot where the leak was coming from. We discovered that a previous owner had a cheap repair done and that gave in... Verizon had just dug nearby and perhaps vibrations nearby caused the leak to occur... I am very thankful for Stemmle coming by and helping me with this stressful issue... I was afraid that I would have to spend a lot of money to fix this issue, but I felt very at comfort during their visit. I will definitely use them for future plumbing needs!

The repairman showed us that the company who had previously pumped our tank had not actually been cleaning our primary tank for many years, but had instead been pumping our secondary tank. The Stemmel serviceman pumped our primary and secondary tanks, identified an issue with our primary tank and swiftly repaired the problem. Very pleased with their professionalism.

Everything went fine for the actual job but they were supposed to contact us later on to let us know like the details of the video and we never heard on that. My husband said we had to e-mail them or called them but we never heard from them. There's nothing that stood out good or bad other than not contacting us. He didn't get his money worth because they didn't contacted him in his office.

36 hours after my call, tech arrived on time, diagnosed problem, left to get pump, returned within two hours and installed new pump.

Professional, Courteous, on time

I had no complaints about Stemmle. (Verizon is another subject altogether . . . )

Found this company on Angie's List and am very glad I did. They showed up on time and went above and beyond to get this taken care of. Prices were very reasonable, and should I run into another plumbing issue, I'll definitely call Stemmle!

My home is a tri-level so roof access is pretty easy. I am in my 60's and I can easily get on the roof. I do not feel there was a great amount of risk. I was disappointed in the high cost for less than 10 minutes of work.

Provider was prompt, professional and courteous. Extremely knowledgable.

It was good. They specified a time they came when they said they were gonna do it. They spent a lot of time on it because it wasn't an easy job.

Scheduling the service was easy and they had a appointments available the next day. I was called and informed the plumber was available about 30-45 minutes before he showed up at the house. Once on site, he inspected the areas of concern, then wrote up an estimate for the services. Once I approved them he started working on it immediately. He fixed, cleaned and tested each work area before he went to the next making it easy to continue our lives while he was repairing the issues. I will be happy to use them again.

Jim will be back to fix and replace what I need. Will order through them and have installed