Pioneer Plumbing & Heating

Their estimate was too high, so we didn't use them. The overall experience and the price were poor. I would not call them back.

After getting lied to (especially after I questioned them about the necessity of replacement) and railroaded, big-time, by a company (Open-Rooter) saying I needed to replace the entire sewer line for a cost of $12,000 + tax, and told that it would require a pipe-burst of the 4-inch sewer pipe to the street (the pipe was actually 6-inches), I decided that I needed at least 3 other opinions/bids for the job. Three of the bids were about the same ($3500-3600, before taxes, with one offering a 20% discount if I paid in full within 10 days; one included snaking out the 6-inch pipe once the clean-out was installed, the others did not). On the other hand, Pioneer Plumbing, working with Jayson Irwin and his crew (4 people total, at different times), was refreshingly informative, honest, AND had the lowest bid ($1970, before taxes, + $300 for the snaking). They dug down 7+ feet to the pipe/sewer, by hand; snaked out the roots to the street noting that the entire line was in remarkable shape, for being 100+ years old. They cleaned up everything and re-seeded the grass that was dug up in the process. I will use them for every plumbing problem I have for the rest of my life in Seattle.

The work itself was fine, and the crew who came to do the work was professional and efficient. They arrived on time and completed the work within the promised time. The problems were in terms of communication with the scheduler (and manager?), Jeff. We had agreed at the time of the estimate that all of the excavation would be done by hand. When I came home from work to check on the progress, I saw an excavator in my front yard. I was concerned and upset, and asked the crew to stop. I managed to get Jeff on the phone, eventually, and agreed to allow the work to go forward, on the condition that they would take care of any damage to the yard, the concrete pavers, etc. Thankfully, there was no damage, and the work itself was fine, but there was a communication issue between Jeff and the crew that was sent to my home. Also, we had agreed on a reduction in price from the initial estimate, based on the fact that a significant portion of the excavation had already been completed by my landscapers, who had been doing some unrelated work. I received an erroneous bill reflectiing the higher initial estimate. It took many emails and telephone calls to get the bill changed. Part of the scope of the project was to clean out the portions of the sewer line that was not replaced. This was not done on the promised date, and again, it took several reminders and requests before it eventually got done. I'm not sure if I would use them again -- the work itself was fine, but there were some issues with communication, details, etc.

My elderly bathroom faucet was leaking in two places, and I was having trouble fixing it. Plumber came day after I called and was able to fix one leak, but not the other, due to needing a replacement part that was not readily available. He tried as hard as he could, then suggested I purchase a new faucet, and he would come back to do the replacement, if I needed him to. He told me what kind of faucet to buy, and I got it from Home Depot. On the second visit, he installed the faucet. If I had known from the get-go that I would need a new faucet, only one visit would have been needed, and the cost would have been cheaper. As it was, I still felt fairly charged. The plumber was very personable and explained what he was doing as he worked. I never felt that he was trying to sell me anything. He was interested in providing good service.

It went very well. I later discovered that he forgot to cleanup the wood shavings in some deep basement cabinets but I cleaned it up myself rather than call and complain.

They rushed the job and had to return a couple times. Utimately the job got done and it was ok, but there were a couple things wrong they had to return for.

Overall, they did a good job, but there were plenty of missteps along the way. We initially determined that one of our underground downspout drains was clogged with debris and we called Pioneer Plumbing to come out and diagnose the problem. In their first visit, they attempted to snake the drain but it was too impacted to allow them to do that. They excavated around the first few feet of the drain pipe and determined that it had been infiltrated by roots and that a new drain would be required. A few days later, the estimator (Jeff) returned and provided me with an estimate of $2,200 for removing the existing drainpipe and installing a new drain pipe that would lead to a different area of our lawn where they would install a new rock pile drain field. Jeff indicated that the excavator equipment was narrow enough to fit through the gate in our fence and that they would be able to access the area of our yard where the work was to be performed without any difficulty. We agreed and Jeff indicated that they would come out the following Monday to begin work. On Monday, I stayed at home from work so that I could meet the work crew and get them started. When they hadn't arrived by mid-afternoon, I contacted Jeff. He initially could not reconcile who I was or what job I was calling about and said he would have to call me back. When he returned my call, he said that there had been a scheduling error and the excavator equipment that was required for our job was being used all week at another job and he would have to reschedule, but he was not at a location where he could do that. Since we were going away on vacation later in the week, I told him I would give him a call the following Monday and we could reschedule at that time. On Monday, I was contacted mid-morning by my wife who was working from home that day, and she said that a work crew from Pioneer had arrived on site without announcing their presence and they had begun working on the project. I called Jeff to find out what was happening and he said he thought we had agreed to have the work begin on that day. I told him that was not what we had discussed, but after some discussion I agreed to allow the work to continue. A few minutes after that call, my wife called again to let me know that the work crew had cut and removed a portion of our wood fence, despite Jeff's specific assurances that this would not occur. I immediately called Jeff again and told him that I would like to have his crew stop working immediately on the project and asked him to meet me at the house to review things and discuss how to resolve the fence issue. We met and he was very apologetic for all the miscommunication. He offered to complete the job as originally estimated for $1,000 instead of the original estimate of $2,200. I reluctantly agreed and the work crew soon returned to complete the job. From there, things went well. They excavated approximately 60 square feet of area in our yard, installed the new drain pipe and rock pile, refilled the area with the previously-removed soil, and then topped it off with some new topsoil they had brought in. They did a nice job of compacting the soil after refilling it so that it would not settle over time. They also replaced the section of the fence which they had previously removed and it is almost imperceptible that it had ever been removed. And best of all, the new drain works well. One final hitch was that the invoice I received upon completion of the job reflected the original estimated price of $2,200 -- not the $1,000 I had negotiated with Jeff after things started going awry. However, they submitted a revised invoice for $1,000 once I brought it to their attention. All in all, we are happy with the end result, but there were some definite communication issues along the way.

The big ticket item in this job was the replacementof the water control components in the MBR shower. The shower has a main shower head (with dedicated control) and a small shower wand (also with a control). We decided to replace both. Pioneer ordered parts, then installed them. The fixtures are top-end (came with the house) and very expensive. They function fine but the new parts are different from the old. They apparently are designed to prevent water from flowing at temperatures above about 110 degrees. Unfortunately, we like the shower water to be hotter. We keep the house relatively cold in winter (reduces bills nad carbon footprint, etc.). We asked Pioneer to return to determine the source of the problem. They confirmed that the water coming from the shower heads no longer reaches the temperature of the house supply. They had no explanation. Afer some urging, the plumber stated he was unable to find any adjustments that could be made to the valve sets to modify the output. Result: water from our super-expensive valves doesn't provide a hot shower. There are times when I am very cold from working late into the night and want a hot shower. No longer available. This is unpleasant. My epxerience was that Pioneer's plumber was not very friendly or responsive. The technician left after performing the initial work but offered no report on work completed nor comments on the work yet to be performed. It took too long to get followup informaiton...and I had to call. Later, after the new valves were installed, it took too long to get a response to our questions about insufficient water temperature. An additional home visit was eventually made to confirm that the shower water temperatures were lower than available supply. However, we didn't have the impression that the company was ever really committed to solving the problem. The plumber did not contact the manufacturer to discuss the problem. They did not propose that we return the components since the parts don't perform as expected. They did not research other options to the hardware that was installed. Our general impression is that Pioneer (or at least the young-ish plumber who worked with us) seems to favor rough-in plumbing work and not finish work. Pioneer;s plumber refused to even address our request for a replacement to the kitchen sink hose, simpling saying "we don't do that kind of stuff."

Joe was the plumber and he was great! The charge was materials and labor by the hour. Joe "ran" from the time he arrived until he finished. The toilets installation was right on estimate. The laundry value was more expensive than estimated because of the hot water heater value problem not known. the sump/drain pump cost and labor was greater than estimated. This seemed to be a job that the company was not familiar with. Also there was a breakdown in communication between the office scheduler and the plumber. Joe only had orders to install the toilets and there was some stress until we worked it out with the office that there were other items to be addressed. Overall, I'm very pleased. Again, Joe was fabulous - knowledgeable, good technician and customer service oriented.

When plumber arrived, he realized he could not get camera into sewer line from basement without tearing bigger hole in wall so called colleague to help him use camera from sewer line connection on roof/gutter. Did not start clock running on the labor charge until his colleague arrived--merely waited "for free" in his truck for about 30 minutes. The two men used their camera to diagnose problem, gave expensive alternative of tearing up deck, breaking through concrete, replacing old, deep sewer line--which they could do. and then gave cheap alternative and strongly suggested we try that first--which we could do ourselves, of getting a rain barrel from the city, and using it to catch excess rain water from the downspout and diverting it away from the old, too deep sewer line to the garden on the other side of the house.

I use them all the time. I love them. I have been using them for years. They always fit me in when I have an emergency. If they can fix the problem quickly and if a plumber is not needed for the said job, they don?t charge me. Their rates are very reasonable and they are incredibly friendly. They tell me exactly what the problem is. I spent $280 for replacing the toilets. I will use them again in the future.

They had came the same day I called them, and they responded very quickly and had done a very good job. I would use them again in the future.

The job lasted for about a week. They were extremely quick to show up and for the most part we were very satisfied. We had a couple of little issues but that would be true with any job.

They came out and looked at and repaired what they said was leaking. The next morning I woke up and there was water completely covering my bathroom floor. I had never had water on the floor before it was always leaking into the garage. I called them back and they said it would be three days before they could get back out here because she did not want to send her service man out in the traffic. He came back out and fixed it. Then they sent me a bill. I called them back because I didn't think I should have to pay for them to fix the mistake they had made. They ended up taking the bill away.

Very professional from beginning to end. The ower came to do the estimate and the work was started a couple of weeks later. The workers arrived on time and worked constantly. The best part was they made sure that I had use of my toilet and shower every night and promptly took care of the most needed plumbing repairs first. The crew was very informative and showed me what had been done that day when I arrived home. I really liked Pioneer Plumbing for their professionalism and each member knew his job well. The crew members spoke very highly of the owner as well.

The quality of work is wonderful and able to solve problems efficiently.

They were not particularly professional. I think they were here for about two to three hours. I had questions about the angle of the drain. I was assured that everything was okay. I have had some recurring issues since then. They were also overpriced. Our experience with them was not too good.

Every time they've done work for us it has gone extremely well, except for once. They responded immediately by sending another technician who dealt with the issue right away and did not charge us for the extra visit. They always respect the fact that we are struggling on a budget and offer us ways to save without compromising the function of our plumbing. They are great problem solvers and we ALWAYS call them. If for any reason they can't do a particular service (RARE) they are ready with a terrific referral. We rely on these folks to keep our ancient plumbing up and running.

They are excellent in all respects.

The job went very well. The plumber was very professional. He was knowledgeable, efficient and pleasant to deal with. He first surveyed the problem, decided what to do, got the necessary materials and tools from his truck then did the repair.

He arrived on time, explained the job, was professional and great to work with.

They were very quick, completely done in less than 45 minutes. And clean, picked up after himself. And a nice guy, he's responded to a previous call of mine 2 years ago and still remembered the unit and me.

They came when they said they would. They were knowledgeable and knew what needed to be done and how to do it. I would use this company again and recommend them.

A simple toilet clog led to a flooding bathroom and an incredible leak in the basement, which required some serious drain cleaning in a hurry. All the drains were cleaned and the mess sorted out.

My experience with Pioneer Plumbing was great. They were the second company I called(first one couldn't do the work until a few days later). It was urgent as I only have one bathroom in my house and there are three of us(myself and two teenage boys). They said that they could have somebody out in about an hour and that is about what it took for him to show up. He went right to work on the problem and explained to me what had caused the leak in the first place. I felt that there were no big surprises, except for he couldn't tell me what the costs were outside of his labor charges and so I was not sure what the total bill was going to come to. This was just a little unnerving, but with the ratings that this company is getting on Angie's List I felt okay about it. My instincts were right!