I'v owned my 1967 house now since 2012. I've had plumbers for several occasions though the past 4…read moreyears, some of which were just one guy, more like a handyman, some were a couple man operation, and some were big companies.
Out of all of them, I can say that Atlas has impressed me the most. Let me tell you why. My story is a bit long but I would love to save some other homeowners headache and trouble in this same situation.
I just had a gas leak - apparently in 1967 they didn't really have anything else to go off of but black iron pipe. Well, when that's laid down underground, it starts to rust. So here I am, sitting in my yard, smelling rotten eggs, and wondering if my house is going to be the next on the news with "HOUSE EXPLODES" as the headline. I called Atmos, they confirmed and shut off the gas to the house. Yay. No hot water, no cooking. Wife and Kid use both those things a lot.
I called Legacy Plumbing. After the guy confirmed that the leak was certainly outside between the meter and the house and not inside the house, he gave me the lowdown. $5,300 for 80 feet of poly pipe, risers, hand dug trench, and permit. And over a week lead time. Also tried to sell me on some stupid gold membership that allowed me to have no service fees and gave me a "discount". I didn't feel like they were really focusing on my issue - it was about the sale of me for a long term contract. I had to pay them 400 dollars to do this work and give me the bid. Sad.
I called three more places: Dallas Plumbing, AtomicAZ, and Atlas. The pricing on these three folks were roughly the same - $3,800 - $4,000.
Dallas just emailed the quote, but I felt like I was just another guy calling for help and they had plenty going on.
Guy from AtomicAZ came out and walked through everything with me. Also seemed great. But his timeline was a day later. Can't fault him there - I called him out of the blue, and he had other stuff scheduled. I like the fact he made an effort to come and sit with me and give a quote. I would check with this guy if you are in a pinch.
However, Sonny, the owner of Atlas, called me directly and talked to me about what was going on. He was able to give me a lot of comfort on the phone that he knew what was going on and they would be able to handle it. He alerted me to the fact that the city of Dallas requires permits and all applicances hooked up would be subject to inspection and potential need for safety upgrades. To me, the most important thing other than not spending a fortune was that he could have his guys out there tomorrow digging and would have me up with gas a whole day earlier than everyone else. So I said yes.
I am glad I did. Sonny's team came out the next morning to dig the trench. I was surprised that it wasn't just a couple more day laborers from off the corner. I talked to these two African American gentleman and they had been working for Sonny for several years. Apparently their grandfather also worked for Sonny doing the same work. I loved that fact.
Sonny himself showed up that morning and inspected the house. We looked at the appliances. Sure enough, some appeared to need upgrades. However, Sonny was pretty connected and mentioned he would call some of the inspectors and get an idea of what might pass or not so he wouldn't spend my money without need.
The trench was dug that day (75 feet!) and the plumbing crew showed the next morning. I had mentioned in passing to Sonny the day before that while we were replacing everything, I would like to put a gas connection for a grill at the house. I mentioned it to the crew, and they didn't have the fitting - but since I wanted it, Sonny drove the fitting up to my house from Dallas - he was apologetic, but this was totally on me - I didn't make it a point, it was more me musing than anything else. So I was impressed he would do something so small to make me happy.
I chatted with the plumber doing the piping as well - I am a chatty guy :-) - and again, was surprised to learn that this plumber had worked for sonny over 20 years he said. I loved that. Obviously Sonny was a great boss and a decent man to have such apparently loyal employees.
The rest of the project went fine. Everything was upgraded that absolutely needed it, the inspection was green tagged with no issues, and gas was on the morning of the third day since they started. Given the size of the job, I think this was amazing.
Do youself a favor and call him first, and don't worry about if its the right decision. I know I will be calling him first next time, and not worrying anymore in the future.