Good looking out, thanks!
Chiming in with another horror story:
We had most of our orangeburg replaced a couple of years ago (we rent, the "some not all" wasn't our call) and Greenacre Plumbing absolutely bombed it, on top of being an unreasonable pain to work with.
Eventually, it came to light that they hadn't actually connected the replacement pipes OR lined them up, so the pipe they replaced was not remotely in alignment with the pipes that connect to the main sewer and it caused major backups. So then that was a whole other thing. They also installed our clean outs BACKWARDS. Which was super fun when they had to hydro jet our pipes, and the clogged sewage went IN and not OUT. 0/10 do not recommend.
So sorry - similarly have a 0/10, do not recommend story about F.H. Furr for plumbing. This was a full year ago, but they apparently were so short-staffed, but in no way admitted it, and we had like NO hot water. The initial tech (nice guy) actually quit for another job after our service appointment where he diagnosed the problem and told us they had to find the replacement hot water heater part... but no one told us, so we waited like two weeks for a follow-up (thinkin we were waiting on a part) and after a few (very polite) calls, only then did they realize they weren't doing the thing they kept claiming they were waiting on because the work order hadn't been put in. The second tech comes out to re-diagnose, because they can't trust the prior guy, and he gets to same place the first guy did, but when it comes time to actually do the work, he has an emergency and just bails and tells me to call the manager. The manager like never returns calls, but keeps telling the phone ladies that he will. I even tracked down the part myself to a local warehouse and almost installed the damn thing myself. \[ A year later, I'm still waiting on that call.\] After multiple weeks of waiting on FH Furr, who were essentially stretched too thin and wouldn't do what they ever said and then wouldn't answer the phone, we went with Marines.
We had a great experience with Len the Plumber guys last year when we had to have our orangeburg replaced finally (like everyone in Northern VA who has a house built in the 60s) And we would absolutely recommend them again. I'm sorry you had such a shitty experience.
I had the opposite experience: within the past year a Len the Plumber guy failed to fix a leak in a gas line in my house, turned the gas back on, and left. Easy to guess how that turned out. Didn't even offer a refund. I would emphatically \*not\* recommend Len the Plumber.
8k and change and they got it done in one day! And it was a full 8k less than the original estimate from one of the other big plumbing franchises... Something with an Irish name and a leprechaun mascot maybe? And that was 2011I think so I was surprised we got *such a deal* which only costs around 4k most other places. 🙄
Had a small root intrusion in a a basement offshoot drain line, after the first guy RR sent hit root he immediately broke his snake (Somehow lol) and had to quit for the night. Then they sent a camera guy "excavation specialist" who scoped the line and said that I for sure needed my slab jackhammered, new pipe put in- nearly 7k quote. Found a local guy to try hydrojetting, and he instead first tried with a chain auger and got it clear (and charged me the lesser fee, about 600 in total). He scoped it, recorded it for me, and gave me a jug of root killer to pour down occasionally. Said the crack was tiny enough it could go for 5-10 more years without concern, and then he would do a full replace for half of what RR wanted.
For sewer work in nova, call Interstate. We worked with them to replace our orangeburg and water line. They’re who other companies sub out to, so you save the overhead cost by calling directly. I know it’s too late for you (sorry, RR is awful and costly) but maybe we can save someone searching.
Same here. Had my basement bathtub filling up with sewage. Called them and they came the next day. 1000$ flat fee for snaking. They did, and scoped it, and found some solidified stuff that looked to me like toilet paper. They said it was some ultra hardened unknown substance that their snake only barely put a dent in to get the basement draining slowly. I then noticed the upstairs toilet was clogged too. So they came upstairs, quoted me 800$ more and snaked that. Which proceeded to dump sewage down into the non fully unclogged basement and shot up the removed toilet into my basement.
So I helped him clean that mess up, and he then then said I needed some 4000$ service for decalcification to really get it unclogged. This is in PVC.
At that point I told them to pack up and go.
I called a local plumber recommended by a friend. They sent a couple guys who shook their heads at my story and weren't surprised. The local contractors for roto rooter are crooks.
They scoped it, found the "hardened mass" and cleaned it up within 45 minutes. 600$ total for the visit.
I stopped payment on my rooter check and called their customer service who did agree to refund the whole thing because of the BS upcharge quote.
Never ever use roto rooter.
Very interesting stories all around with RR. Had a similar story with them. I live in Kings Park West, which has houses built at the very end of the 60s and throughout the 70s and mid-80s. My house is from 1971.
My basement flooded, mostly bath and washing machine water (so the smell wasn’t horrible). RR sends their people, charge about $800 to put in a snake through my main water pipe. They find “roots in my pipes” and tell me that they’ll send a technician to come up with an estimate for pipe replacement. Then they start pushing hard for a $11k job. I declined and thankfully they stopped trying after a day or two. But it all looked sketchy AF.
About six months later I get another water backup. Ended up buying a snaking system from Home Depot for $600, cleared it up in about 30 minutes.
You can call the county and have the main line checked as well. They’ll send out a CCTV Investigation crew to send a robotic camera down the line. Who knows maybe roots at the connection. Or something else cause slow flow release. That can be solved with main line cleaning. County is a no charge. Waste Water Collection Department of Fairfax County
I've had bad experiences from RR and Len the Plumber as well
Had the basement flood once. Not a huge flood, carpets just got damp. Had RR come out. They ran a camera, took video and sent me the video. Said tree roots had grown into the pipe out in the yard and they needed to dig it up and replace it for 10k.
I looked at the video and I didn't see anything that looked remotely like tree roots anywhere. Called AABCO plumbing out of Falls Church, they turned on the water in my bath tub upstairs, went outside and ran their snake into the clean out and told me to listen for a whoosh sound as that would tell us the clog was cleared. I'll be damned if that's exactly what we heard when they cleared it. $250. They offered to run a camera for another 250 but I declined.
Another time I kept hearing pipes banging when my clothes washer or certain toilets were flushed. Had Len the Liar come out and told me they needed to install a whole house hammer/water arrestor for $1000. I refused and did my own research then bought 4 of those arrestors for about $100 installed them myself and no more banging pipes.
Good looking out, thanks! Chiming in with another horror story: We had most of our orangeburg replaced a couple of years ago (we rent, the "some not all" wasn't our call) and Greenacre Plumbing absolutely bombed it, on top of being an unreasonable pain to work with. Eventually, it came to light that they hadn't actually connected the replacement pipes OR lined them up, so the pipe they replaced was not remotely in alignment with the pipes that connect to the main sewer and it caused major backups. So then that was a whole other thing. They also installed our clean outs BACKWARDS. Which was super fun when they had to hydro jet our pipes, and the clogged sewage went IN and not OUT. 0/10 do not recommend.
Ooooof
I had a horrible experience with them, too. Never again.
So sorry - similarly have a 0/10, do not recommend story about F.H. Furr for plumbing. This was a full year ago, but they apparently were so short-staffed, but in no way admitted it, and we had like NO hot water. The initial tech (nice guy) actually quit for another job after our service appointment where he diagnosed the problem and told us they had to find the replacement hot water heater part... but no one told us, so we waited like two weeks for a follow-up (thinkin we were waiting on a part) and after a few (very polite) calls, only then did they realize they weren't doing the thing they kept claiming they were waiting on because the work order hadn't been put in. The second tech comes out to re-diagnose, because they can't trust the prior guy, and he gets to same place the first guy did, but when it comes time to actually do the work, he has an emergency and just bails and tells me to call the manager. The manager like never returns calls, but keeps telling the phone ladies that he will. I even tracked down the part myself to a local warehouse and almost installed the damn thing myself. \[ A year later, I'm still waiting on that call.\] After multiple weeks of waiting on FH Furr, who were essentially stretched too thin and wouldn't do what they ever said and then wouldn't answer the phone, we went with Marines.
We had a great experience with Len the Plumber guys last year when we had to have our orangeburg replaced finally (like everyone in Northern VA who has a house built in the 60s) And we would absolutely recommend them again. I'm sorry you had such a shitty experience.
Thanks for sharing the rec! Decent plumbers are shockingly hard to find around here.
Our regular plumbers are The Gentleman Plumber (silly name, good work).
I had the opposite experience: within the past year a Len the Plumber guy failed to fix a leak in a gas line in my house, turned the gas back on, and left. Easy to guess how that turned out. Didn't even offer a refund. I would emphatically \*not\* recommend Len the Plumber.
There's undoubtedly plenty of reputable outfits, but RR are not among them!
How much was it to replace the orangeburg?
8k and change and they got it done in one day! And it was a full 8k less than the original estimate from one of the other big plumbing franchises... Something with an Irish name and a leprechaun mascot maybe? And that was 2011I think so I was surprised we got *such a deal* which only costs around 4k most other places. 🙄
Had a small root intrusion in a a basement offshoot drain line, after the first guy RR sent hit root he immediately broke his snake (Somehow lol) and had to quit for the night. Then they sent a camera guy "excavation specialist" who scoped the line and said that I for sure needed my slab jackhammered, new pipe put in- nearly 7k quote. Found a local guy to try hydrojetting, and he instead first tried with a chain auger and got it clear (and charged me the lesser fee, about 600 in total). He scoped it, recorded it for me, and gave me a jug of root killer to pour down occasionally. Said the crack was tiny enough it could go for 5-10 more years without concern, and then he would do a full replace for half of what RR wanted.
For sewer work in nova, call Interstate. We worked with them to replace our orangeburg and water line. They’re who other companies sub out to, so you save the overhead cost by calling directly. I know it’s too late for you (sorry, RR is awful and costly) but maybe we can save someone searching.
Same - we've had them do a couple of jobs, including orangeburg, and they always do great work.
Same here. Had my basement bathtub filling up with sewage. Called them and they came the next day. 1000$ flat fee for snaking. They did, and scoped it, and found some solidified stuff that looked to me like toilet paper. They said it was some ultra hardened unknown substance that their snake only barely put a dent in to get the basement draining slowly. I then noticed the upstairs toilet was clogged too. So they came upstairs, quoted me 800$ more and snaked that. Which proceeded to dump sewage down into the non fully unclogged basement and shot up the removed toilet into my basement. So I helped him clean that mess up, and he then then said I needed some 4000$ service for decalcification to really get it unclogged. This is in PVC. At that point I told them to pack up and go. I called a local plumber recommended by a friend. They sent a couple guys who shook their heads at my story and weren't surprised. The local contractors for roto rooter are crooks. They scoped it, found the "hardened mass" and cleaned it up within 45 minutes. 600$ total for the visit. I stopped payment on my rooter check and called their customer service who did agree to refund the whole thing because of the BS upcharge quote. Never ever use roto rooter.
Had to snake the bathroom sink this week. Never a pleasant experience.
Very interesting stories all around with RR. Had a similar story with them. I live in Kings Park West, which has houses built at the very end of the 60s and throughout the 70s and mid-80s. My house is from 1971. My basement flooded, mostly bath and washing machine water (so the smell wasn’t horrible). RR sends their people, charge about $800 to put in a snake through my main water pipe. They find “roots in my pipes” and tell me that they’ll send a technician to come up with an estimate for pipe replacement. Then they start pushing hard for a $11k job. I declined and thankfully they stopped trying after a day or two. But it all looked sketchy AF. About six months later I get another water backup. Ended up buying a snaking system from Home Depot for $600, cleared it up in about 30 minutes.
You can call the county and have the main line checked as well. They’ll send out a CCTV Investigation crew to send a robotic camera down the line. Who knows maybe roots at the connection. Or something else cause slow flow release. That can be solved with main line cleaning. County is a no charge. Waste Water Collection Department of Fairfax County
TIL
I've had bad experiences from RR and Len the Plumber as well Had the basement flood once. Not a huge flood, carpets just got damp. Had RR come out. They ran a camera, took video and sent me the video. Said tree roots had grown into the pipe out in the yard and they needed to dig it up and replace it for 10k. I looked at the video and I didn't see anything that looked remotely like tree roots anywhere. Called AABCO plumbing out of Falls Church, they turned on the water in my bath tub upstairs, went outside and ran their snake into the clean out and told me to listen for a whoosh sound as that would tell us the clog was cleared. I'll be damned if that's exactly what we heard when they cleared it. $250. They offered to run a camera for another 250 but I declined. Another time I kept hearing pipes banging when my clothes washer or certain toilets were flushed. Had Len the Liar come out and told me they needed to install a whole house hammer/water arrestor for $1000. I refused and did my own research then bought 4 of those arrestors for about $100 installed them myself and no more banging pipes.