Romeo in Toronto

While washing the dishes after supper on Thursday, June 10/21, my wife noticed the water in the sink staying in our 2-basin sink. That evening, she put baking soda and vinegar and poured hot water in the sink but the water still stayed in the sink. The following morning, Friday, June 11, my wife and I (both seniors) used a plunger to no avail either, as only dirt coming out of the sink. I removed the trap valve under the sink but the clog was not in plastic pipes under the sink. At 3:38pm, I phoned Gus Kaspiris of City Plumbing at his cell phone. He recognized me and remembers where we live as he had done two excellent emergency plumbing services for us in the past. When explained of the problem, because he was finishing up a major plumbing job with a client today, he said he’d come by tomorrow morning, Friday, June 11, on his way to his pre-booked client, to look at our plumbing problem. True to his promise, around 9:05am of June 11, he came over to take a look of our plumbing problem. Gus took a look of the plastic pipes under the sink he installed replacing the old copper pipes when we had a broken kitchen sink in February 2016, leading to writing my first review for and published by HomeStars then. After taking his portable mechanized plumbing snake (the snake) from his van, he asked me to show him where the kitchen sink pipe leads to under the kitchen in the basement. He was hoping he could find a pipe connection down the kitchen floor he could use the snake get into and not from the kitchen sink, where being an old house (more than 65 years old), he would have space working problem. He found out all the plumbing pipes upstairs were sealed in the basement. Leaving no option, even with space problem to work on, Gus removed the plastic pipe connectors under the sink and uses the snake to get down to the kitchen sink pipe under the basement. He used the maximum length of the snake to clear the clog, three times. Every time he would pull the snake up, it was covered with greasy substance, hair and other dirt which R&L tried to avoid getting into the sink. Some grease, however, cannot be avoided get into the sink because we use vegetable oil preparing our dishes through the years. After using the snake three times and cleaning the grease and other dirt on it, he ran the water in the sink (after asking us to flash the toilet) to test whether the clog had already been cleared. Note: During the short period Gus was working on our clogged kitchen sink, he received two phone calls on his cell phone from clients also requesting for his service. Gus professional plumbing skills and his portable mechanized plumbing snake cleared our clogged kitchen sink in 40 minutes which caused us stress, not being able to use it overnight and thinking what if the clog won’t be cleared by Gus’ emergency visit today. While we can continue using baking soda, vinegar and hot water to prevent future clogging of our kitchen sink, Gus told us not to use Drano plumbing liquid as the latter would damage the kitchen sink copper pipe down below. When asked how much we owe him for this morning’s job, he told us normally he would charge the basic emergency service call fee of $200. However, being an old and good client, he would just charge us $150, giving us a giving us a senior’s discount of $50. The $50 service fee discount given to us was secondary for Gus’ plumbing skills, friendliness, honesty and being considerate for senior’s plumbing needs, which I strongly vouch and endorse for the third time.

Gus Kaspiris of City Plumbing & Drains did it again for my wife and me, both seniors. In March 2016, Gus as referred by our roofing contractor friend, did an excellent, senior and community resident friendly, and very competitive priced plumbing job removing and replacing our broken kitchen sinks. Because I was impressed with Gus’ plumbing service and his honesty with his clients, motivated me to write a review of our service and cost satisfaction for and published by HomeStar then. When installing a new kitchen sink for us in March 2016, he noticed that the hot water of our kitchen faucet was dripping a little then. He told me I could replace the cartridge which I could obtain for free by bringing the defective cartridge to Home Depot. And if we wanted to replace it with a new faucet, he told us we might consider the new Moen kitchen faucet with flexible, pullout faucet, which his family was happy with. Lately, the hot water supply was leaking heavier no matter how we turn the hot water handle. Last June 23rd (Saturday) evening, I phoned Gus at his Cell phone, which he still received when it was already 9:35pm I introduced myself and refreshed his memory regarding the new kitchen sinks he installed for us in March 2016. When asked which was to go, Gus said, “honestly, if the old kitchen faucet is more than 10 years old and its plumbing is already rusty, it would be prudent to install a new faucet with pullout feature, reiterating how happy he and his family with this new Moen faucet. I told him his suggestion made sense and it’s also about time for my wife and me to treat ourselves with some luxury in life. We agreed as soon as we purchased a Moen faucet of our choice, for me just to give him a call, and he would come over as soon as his working schedule would permit. On Monday, June 25, we bought a Moen Banbury 87017 (with pullout faucet) after receiving good advice from Home Depot’s Kitchen Designer. Around 4:00pm that afternoon, I gave Gus a call on his cell phone to let him know that my wife and I just bought a replacement kitchen faucet we discussed the evening of June 23. Because he was driving, he said he would give me a call that evening from home. And through to his word, around 8:00pm, I received a call from him, informing me that he could over to our place between 09:00AM and 11:00AM the following day, Tuesday, June 26, on his way to a major client job. On Tuesday, June 16, around 9:30AM, Gus came with a burly but friendly assistant Mike.. Despite the space under the sink is cramped (typical old East York bungalow more than 65 years old), it was Gus who removed the old faucet, installed new water supply valves (hot and cold) because the old ones were not working anymore because they were rusty due to age). After widening the hole on the deck plate, he installed the new Moen Banbury single faucet, single handle and with pullout faucet, exactly similar to what Gus has at their house. After installation and testing, he showed me how to operate the new faucet, features of which would definitely make my wife happy. Having done major (changing the household’s old GI pipes with copper pipes) and minor plumbing jobs myself in our place, I know a little about plumbing. But given my age, my chronic low back pain, my wife does not want me to do this kind of stuff anymore. Besides, I might not have all the right tools. In less than an hour, Gus and Mike completed the job without sacrificing quality and to my complete satisfaction. They did not leave our place unless they were personally satisfied that there was no part leaking. We did not discuss the labour cost when we were talking on the phone. I thought he would charge me over $200 because I myself had problems probing the plumbing connection on cramped space (with shelving) under the sink. But like in the past, he charged me less than this amount in consideration of my wife and I are seniors, a resident of East York (we’re the oldest living residents in our street), and repeat customers I strongly vouch, therefore, once again for Gus' plumbing skills, friendliness, honesty, being considerate to senior's plumbing needs and not over charging them.

One morning in February 2016, my wife noticed one of our kitchen sinks was leaking. Upon investigation, I found out the fittings, due to age and use, was corroded with rusts causing the leak. Initially contacted our roofing contractor friend who thought if it was a simple job he could do it himself for us. Upon seeing the plumbing fixtures underneath the sink, he told me he could not do the job as he didn't have the skills and tools to do it. However, he took pictures of the broken sink fittings and copper plumbing (with his mobile device) and after briefly speaking with Gus, sent them to the latter. Gus happened to be an old friend. That night, I gave Gus a call as to when he could possibly come over to our place and take a look at plumbing problems. While he received the pictures from his roofing contractor friend, he would like to see the problem himself. The following morning, before going to his scheduled job assignment, Gus dropped by our place early. After assessing the problems, he told me (who also knows a little about plumbing) that it's difficult to attached the fittings of new sinks unto the existing copper pipes without too much work and time required. Instead, he recommended to replace the existing copper pipes with customized plastic (?) pipes, which are not only economical but also easy to maintain. After agreeing with his suggestion, he then removed the existing copper plumbing pipes and replaced them with customized plastic pipes, adaptors, connectors, pea joint, etc. Being an old East York home (more than 60 years old), Gus had space problems to maneuver working under the sink. But with his plumbing knowledge and experience, he was able to complete the job, cleaned up, and had both sinks up and running in less than two hours, before going to his scheduled client that morning. When informed of what Gus had done to resolve our kitchen sink problems, our roofing contractor friend was also pleased that Gus gave urgency and consideration attending to our plumbing needs. He also told me that normally it would cost me than I paid Gus which included cost of materials. I strongly vouch, therefore, for Gus' plumbing skills, friendliness, honesty and being considerate to senior's plumbing needs.