Drain Works Plumbing

I live in an old house and our basement shower drain backed up when the main floor toilet was flushed.

My first experience was with a company endorsed by television celebrity. Perhaps it was the unprepossessing appearance of my house (or of myself,) but the rather brusque technician seemed anxious to leave as soon as he arrived. After an extremely cursory inspection he suggested I call another company because it would be "cheaper."

Puzzled and a little offended, I called Drainworks next. I would have to say the experience was quite positive. Matt the technician arrived within the scheduled time, diagnosed the problem and carefully outlined my options. He was knowledgeable, respectful and quickly found and removed the blockage - a tree root - from my drain.

I appreciate that Matt took the time to answer all my questions and concerns and I learned a lot of interesting things about drains, clogs and pipes during the process.

As I understand it, Drainworks has a force of permanent salaried employees rather than ones working under contract or commission. This probably makes for a less pressurized environment and lessens the temptation to up-sell on the part of the tradesman.

In any case, I am pleased that Matt remedied a stressful and unpleasant problem in such a timely and gentlemanly fashion.

Drainworks provided outstanding service. They completed a variety of plumbling-related repairs at our home. The workers were polite, arrived on time and completed the jobs thoroughly with a professional attitude. Highly recommended!

Returning home to find water pooling onto our basement floor was disconcerting. One quick call to DrainWorks and their dispatcher assured us he would have a plumber sent out within a very short time frame. Not only did Jeremy arrive prior to the expected time, he methodically located the issue, set to work on fixing it (he came fully equipped), and ensured no other issues were compounding the problem. Jeremy was courteous, fast, willing to explain his findings and a pleasure to deal with. Because of DrainWorks and Jeremy, there was no damage to our home. From the moment of our call, all matters were handled with the upmost professionalism. If we ever need to call someone in the future it will definitely be DrainWorks!

Drainworks replaced my backflow valve in 2009. In 2010 my basement flooded and my insurance company cancelled my coverage right after that. I called Drainworks to determine why the backflow valve they installed did not prevent the flood and the technician, Armando, said it was because I did not clean my back flow valve. My next door neighbour who also had his valve replaced by another company at the same time did not experience any problems, This year I hired another drain service company to clean it as recommended by Drainworks. They said the flapper on the valve did not close properly and that it why water backed up into my basement. I called Drainworks to check it out and they admitted that it did not move freely. They tried to clean it but it still does not fuction they way it should. They are not willing to replace it, they are blaming the manufacturer. I have the other drain company paperwork and Drainworks' paperwork admitting that it does not close properly. I have written a registered letter to Mr. Terry Cord, the President, and left messages and he has not called back or contacted me. I can no longer get flood insurance because of that and if I have another basement flood the repairs will cost me $20,000. Drainworks DOES NOT STAND BEHIND THEIR SERVICE!

This is in response to Drainworks response to me of April 4, 2011 about the backflow valve that they installed in 2009. It is obvious from your response that you do not stand behind your service as you are putting the responsiblity on the City of Toronto and the manufacturer. You should have tested the backflow valve before installing it. As I mentioned in my review, I hired another company, New Canadian Plumbing, to professionally clean my backflow valve as you indicated is required at a cost to me of $200 (which I was prepared to pay each year to maintain it). They are the ones that initially detected the problem with the backflow valve that you subsequently inspected. In conclusion I am now forced to have to my new tiled floor ripped up and a new back flow valve installed at my own cost, after only a year and a half of having it installed by Drainworks. I selected your company from the Homestars site because you claim great customer service and guarantee of your work. If you truly stood behind your service you would replace the backflow valve. All I can say is BUYER BEWARE.

Drainworks said they would call to confirm the appointment time and they did.

Lou turned up at precisely the agreed time.

The work was done in a timely manner.

Lou was prompt, professional, knowledgeable and left our bathroom in the same state he found it. He told me what he was going to do, how he was going to do it and what it would cost.

Furthermore, Lou helped me understand how to the problem was happening and how to avoid it from occurring again.

Thanks Lou and Drainworks.

I give drain works credit for being on time and doing what they said they would do, but they ripped me off big time. Firstly, the job their guy was 99% sure would get fixed (attaching shock arrestors on my washing machine to stop water hammer) didn't actually do the job, but the price they charged was astronomical for the actual labour.

I decided to go with the arrestors in the hopes that they would do the trick. I agreed to the price (and even questioned it at the outset) as I figured (even got the impression from the guy) that I was looking at a couple hours work and maybe some soldering etc. The price included "labour and parts".

After the first 15 minutes at my house the service guy had to go and get some parts. He came back around 45 minutes later and started the work. The work was essentially attaching the arrestors where the waterlines connected with the washer (he also did the kitchen sink). There was no soldering, no special skills needed as the parts simply screwed on from bothh sides. The actual labour was about 30 minutes. If you include the 15 minutes it took to scope out the problem initially and the 15 minutes or so at the end when he tried to figure out where the hammering was still coming from, it was maybe an hours worth of actual labour.

When the guy finished the job I asked if that was the price he was actually going to charge me considering a) he hardly spent any time actually doing the work b) didn't actually fix the problem. I have to say that it is not the fact that the problem didn't get resolved, moreso than the fact that I paid $750 for an hours labour and maybe $100 in parts.

I was told that I had agreed to the price ( that he had set). And he couldn't change it. When I called the office to complain, I was told that was the price i agreed to. My argument was that there was hardly any actual labour done and it should be adjusted. $500 an hour for a plumber is a little steep. They don't itemize their work- they simply say here is the price all in. Being a layman when it comes to plumbing, I figured the price was so high because they would need to do some skill work for a couple of hours. When I saw what was actually involved I felt like I was getting taken. The guy must have known what work was involved when he set the price and I stupidly trusted that the price was going to be fair for the work that was being done. That is the bottom line.

When I called the office to complain about the price John-Paul assured me that they don't change the price and that they gave me a price for the job and if it had taken 9 hours that would have still been the price. I'm not stupid, but I guess I am a little too trustworthy. These guys knew exactly how long the job was going to take. My house is 7 years old and in very good condition. When they quoted me a price they knew exactly how long it was going to take (certainly not 9 hours) so the argument that the price was for " the job", however long it took is bunk.

John Paul also claimed that the charges were for the 3 hours it took to complete the job which is also crap.
I picked drain works due to the good reviews and the fact that they claim to have all the parts in their "warehouse on wheels" trucks they drive. The 15 minutes it took for the service guy to figure out what he wanted to charge me beforehand, the 45 minutes it took him to get the parts and the 10 minutes afterwards to finalize the financial gouging are not, in my books, part of the "on the clock time". If you are being paid to do a job, you show up with the parts ready to work. Don't charge me for the time it takes you to get your act together.

All in all, I understand it is buyer beware. That doesn't mean that Drainworks can't right a wrong - and that would be the true test of good customer care. They didn't give a crap after they had my signature on the estimate. The fact that they don't itemize the charges on the invoice allows them to make up any price they want.

I believe in paying for services rendered - I have absolutely no qualms about it. But when a job is so simple and uncomplicated they should be charging a fair price.

Learn from my lesson and avoid DRAINWORKS

I had Drain Work at our home to fix my hot water heater plumbing. Before calling Drain Works I called two different companies. Plumber from other companies could not figure out about the problem. However, It took Drain Wrok plumber about 20 minutes to figure out the problem. I think this company knows about there work. I think plumber from Drain Work are knowledgeable.

Thanks

I recently had Michael in to work on my sink that was backed up. He was able to clear things up quickly and took me through the whole process. He is very pleasant to work with and I would use this comany again in the future for sure.

Professional, quick service. We called them and we got a quick response. they gave us a very reasonable estimate for an emergency situation. They cleaned up after themselves. I would highly recommend them. I found them on Homestars.