Fixer Upper
TL;DR : Hire Francisco. Don't even stop to think about it. Just do it.
Ever had one of those weeks or months where it seems like everything just breaks down. Well that happened to me. It just started out as a simple kitchen faucet that needed to be replaced, but then all the bathrooms, were like "you will not forget about us," and let's show this homeowner whose boss and let's leak water everywhere. So what started as one job needed to span across a kitchen, two bathrooms and a water leak that
went through a family room ceiling. Just. My. Luck.
We called Francisco Araiza to get our plumbing in order. We had hired him before with a clogged tub, that had so much hair that even he was amazed by. We setup an appointment and we were ready for this nightmare to be over. Honestly, washing your hair in a tub hurts the body after awhile and I don't think my back well ever forgive me for that. Anywho, the day before Francisco shows up he calls to confirm, which is always a plus, and quickly goes over the list of repairs again. With that squared away, we said our goodbyes and Friday couldn't get here fast enough. On the day in question. Francisco showed up one hour early. One Hour! I've never met a plumber who arrived early for anything. He was very kind of enough to put on a mask when he saw us wearing them as well. Once he stepped in it was down to business.
He checked out each location that needed to be repaired and asked us additional questions and thus the repairs began! He started in the kitchen. We had bought all the fixtures beforehand so that made the job a bit quicker. He did noticed that the water shut off valve underneath the sink was rusted over and completely unusable. He recommended to replace it, which we agreed and lucky for us he had some spare parts in his van and the first job was done. Onto the first bathroom. He was able to replace second problematic faucet and noticed that the shut off valve needed to be replaced here as well. Well lets just say every shut off valve needed to be replaced including the toliet. Like I mentioned before, it just happened to be one of those months. He decided to leave the shower/tub leak last just to finish the smaller jobs first.
The second bathroom was up next. That was a bit trickier as it is a very tight space, but he was able to replace the faucet, plumbing and shut off valves too. Now for the major leak. Well the leak that had magically disappeared. Francisco tried recreating what could be causing it, only for the leak not to appear. Did the plumbing heal itself...no of course not. His worry was that if he couldn't find the leak using these methods that he might open up the wall and that would be expensive. We weren't thrilled about the idea either. We could see that he wanted to exhaust every available option first before creating a giant hole in the wall. He decided to use the camera next. He put a small camera behind the wall to see if it was the water line that could be leaking. Luckily, it wasn't the line, but that still left us a conundrum of what was causing the leak.
With the fixtures removed for the camera, Francisco did noticed a slight water staining. On closer inspection he checked around the diverter. That's we he noticed some water drops. He inspected the diverter more closely and realized it was the cartridge. Let's just say it was very gross. Francisco said we definitely needed a new cartridge and voila the leak was solved. However, the new fixtures we did buy couldn't be easily swapped out and would require a whole new system. Which was a bummer, but Francisco did went out to quickly to get a matching system as to match the one we had previously, but a bit more updated. And with that, this saga came to a close. It took a little over four hours to fix everything, and he got it done and then some.
He went over each job and showed us what he had done and why. Even hours after he left, he called to check up on what he replaced. He wanted to make sure that everything was satisfactory and that there was no more leakage. This plumber is the real deal. I cannot recommended Francisco enough. He was professional, knowledgeable and thorough. We also thought his prices were very reasonable for the amount of work he put in. I started writing a review and then ended up writing a short paper into why you should hire him, which I think (hopefully) says more of his work ethic and his professionalism than anything else.
So in short (too late), Francisco is the guy to call for any and all of your plumbing needs. read more