Drain Works Plumbing

My tenant reported problems with three toilets. I called DrainWorks to repair because I read positive reviews online. However, the plumber failed to give the right solutions and thus asked for unreasonable price.

The plumber’s diagnose and quote are as follows for 3 toilets A/B/C.
A. Leaking. Toilet tank completely fails, and needs to be rebuilt with new parts. $384+HST.
B. Fillvalve fails and floater gets stuck on top. To replace fillvalve. $218+HST.
C. Leaking. Parts not working. Drainworks does not have American Standard parts. So client order and supply parts. Drainwork comeback another day and install. $268+HST (based on his estimated 1.5 hours labor time).
The total cost would be $983.1 including tax. In addition, I will have to buy parts for the toilet C…No warranty due to older toilet.

I did not hire the plumber to do the job. My reasons were: 1. the quote is way too high. The cost of labor and parts should not be that high based on common sense. 2. a plumber who does not have parts, does not know what parts are available on the market, and needs 1.5 hours to install parts in one toilet tank is not a qualified one. After I said no, the plumber was willing to reduce the quote for the second toilet to $99+HST which I did not accepted either. I paid $69+HST for DrainWorks’ on-site quote.

I took a closer look at the three toilets myself after Drainwork plumber left. I managed to fix all of them with less than $20.

A. Toilet fillvale and floater were working well. Only the flapper did not fit well because it had worn and was stretched. I bought a new flapper from Home Depot and spend 2 min to replace the old one. Toilet stops leaking.
B. The floater was too high. I made minor adjustment and lowered the floater. It works perfectly fine.
C. All parts were good. Only the flapper needs to be replaced. It is true that the parts are a little bit special. However, I bought a Korky toilet seal ring from Home depot. It is designed for American Standard toilet. I replaced the seal in 5 min. Toilet stops leaking.

The flapper and seal are less than $20 in total, and it took me a few minutes to replace parts. I am young and do not have experience in plumbing. DrainWorks might be good at fixing other plumbing issues, but definitely not toilets. Replacing all the parts will solve the problem. But is it the right solution?

This company is the most professional and prompt in visits and phone calls. They answer all question and explain every inch of what they are doing before going ahead. L am very happy with them.

Over the course of a few days, we had water in our basement laundry room coming in from a floor drain during heavy rains. A neighbour recommended Drainworks, and I have also seen their trucks in the neighbourhood of 1940's homes before. I left a message before office hours and heard back first thing in the morning. I received a second call confirming exactly when to expect Jim, who arrived exactly as promised. He was professional and informative, explaining everything that the video scope was showing, and what it meant to the operation of our plumbing. Having fixed the immediate problem, which was a clog in the pipe downstream, without hard selling, he suggested improvements that should at some point be made - primarily replacing sections of original clay pipes that had not been fully addressed by previous home owners and/or renovations. All in all - job well done, with high integrity, professionalism and cleanliness. Thank you Jim and Drainworks for the excellent service and for educating me on what we will need to address in future.

Had an issue where I thought the pipes were broken underneath kitchen sink. Turned out, after the initial assessment, the whole faucet needed to be replaced. Jim, the plumber who came to my unit, had a faucet on hand and fixed the whole issue on spot. Took about 1 hr to do everything from start to finish. Very efficient! Reasonable pricing but definitely peace of mind that there won’t be leakage. Definitely recommend!

I had a clogged basement drain. I called Drainworks and was given a super fast response. They arrived right when they said they would. The service technician’s name was Matt (I hope I remembered that correctly) and was extremely professional. He explained everything he was doing, showed me on the camera afterwards, and gave good advice for any future work I need. From the gentleman I spoke to on the phone, to the technician at my house every thing was fantastic. AND as if the world isn’t small enough, it turns out The technician was the same one that came out in 2006 when I needed most of the sewer drain replaced (from the ancient clay to new plastic) and they were amazing then too. That was a big job, but they were fast, professional and very clean. Having the same staff 13 years later reflects very well on a company. Drainworks is my “go-to” plumbing’s company I call if I have a problem.

I have received a very professional service from DrainWorks - from the prompt request to my inquiry and booking a same-day appointment, to showing up on time, troubleshooting and addressing the clog and providing tips and tricks on how to keep our pipes in good shape. Thank you Matt, for a job well done.

We have been using Drainworks services for approx. 5 years and have always had great service. Recently we thought we had another blocked drain which turned out to be a major obstruction in our stack. Once finding out this would require removing drywall and floors I was horrified , during the repair process other issues were discovered that would have caused us problems in the future - blocked kitchen drain, leaking toilet and leaking sink in kitchen. These issues were dealt with during the one service call. I found our plumber Jim Carr to be very professional and all of the service technicians I have dealt with to be quick, clean and efficient and we have another project to be done in the near future and we will again be using this company.

We were extremely fortunate to have secured Drainworks services, recommended by a family member, as we needed an issue in our basement assessed. We discovered the project was significant, involving a complete overhaul of water and sewage piping related to a previous owner’s badly completed renovation. Drainworks was top notch on all counts. Professional, skilled, thorough work based on clear accurate estimates, options provided for decisions, clean work sites left each day, and excellent communication. They addressed a complicated set of serious issues and we have confidence in the results. Supervisor Jim Farr was knowledgeable and quite exceptional throughout. All of the team were pleasant and skilled. Have already recommended them and would use their services again.

With a basement shower drain blocked by tree roots, no working basement drain, and the desire for a backwater valve, we decided to replace our entire 100-year-old clay basement drain system with new PVC pipes. We had had Drainworks do good work for us previously, but as this was a big job we got three quotes. Drainworks had the lowest price and also said they could do the work in three day ups, compared to up to five for the other companies. The Drainworks crew did all the work on budget and on time. They re-routed the drain from the main stack to save the tiled floor in the basement bathroom, dug under a built-in storage unit to keep it intact, and only removed a couple of shelves in the unit (which are easily put back together and not visible with the doors closed in any case) to find the kitchen drain, which was hidden behind the drywall and the built-in. All the work was done with minimal disruption to ourselves and our neighbours (our house is semi-detached), and the crew left the place clean and tidy. I would not hesitate to recommend Drainworks for any home plumbing job, big or small.

I called drainworks for aclogged kitchen sink. Jim arrived on time , provided upfront pricing. He cleared the drain and pipe my kitchen sink new with future access in needed for snaking. Iwill call them in the future if i should needaplumber.