It's Sunday and I just had one of the best experiences with a plumber I've ever had. Allow me to explain--
I live in a very old Spanish style building far up in the Hollywood hills, built in 1927. One of the biggest problems in our building is the plumbing. It is old, corroded, and it is going.
The last couple weeks I have had water fill up in my kitchen sink and neither Drano nor Liquid Plumber were able to remedy the situation much in the end. Even the industrial strength product recommended by Home Depot employees was unable to clear it despite the promise of "your money back if it does not work." So my problem of slow draining water was now a stagnating sink filled with water and chemicals, the limes of which I knew were unhealthy to be inhaling. It was clear that I needed a professional.
The maintenance department of the large management company that handles my building sent over someone from the company they use most often. He showed up sweaty, dirty, with substandard tools, was difficult to understand, and his Covid protocols left something to be desired. He did help me get a small set of keys out of my bathroom sink, so it was not all bad, but he raced out of here after 20 minutes saying that the plumbing all needed to be replaced, that his snake did not work, and that even the unit below me was affected.
"Wow," I thought, "this is baaaaad." I called my downstairs neighbor to apologize that maybe my staying home more due to covid, what with the cooking and needing to clean dishes more, probably was the culprit and blocked up his pipes too. You know what my downstairs neighbor's reply was? He told me his kitchen sink was FINE. Running perfectly!?!
What was going on here?
I called the management company and they told me they got a huge estimate for the future work which entailed the complete removal of the piping of the corner two units-- yada yada yada. I told them that the plumber they sent lied to me about having checked the sink drain for the tenant below and that they were NOT having problems. I suggested getting a second opinion and they agreed to that recommendation.
Enter XTREME PLUMBING from Downey.
Now, I will say that it took a while to get one of their plumbers here as there was an emergency situation at a Wal-Mart and the lovely Rachel had to re schedule me for the next day. While I did not appreciate having my time moved about some, I did like the idea of having a plumber with skills good enough to handle bigger jobs like that at a Wal-Mart, so I agreed to the following day's time window and they let me cancel having him come over on a Saturday night. It was Halloween after all.
I told Rachel I'd like the man who was tasked to work on the emergency gig at Wal-Mart too. She offered that plumber Max Hernandez was available to come see me the following day, on a Sunday. I agreed and felt good about it now that it was a more typical daylight job.
Max showed up clean and presentable, not smelling of cigarettes (or anything worse!). He was easy for me to understand and communicate with. He had his face mask on when he arrived and was unhurried and ready to first assess the problem carefully and then set about repairing it for me. Yes, he said, the internal plumbing probably would benefit from an overhaul and new pipes, but that we both knew this and it was not an option today.
So Max brought in not one but two snakes, a small one and the other larger mama badass snake. He proceeded to irrigate and clean out the corrosion and food and black funk trapped in my pipes that was keeping the water from flowing and he removed pail after Paul of the watery sludge from my apartment kitchen-- Whew!
After this all was taken care of, Max recommended swapping out the old chrome piping for a stent of black plastic pipe that he said would retard future corrosion some. Now I'm no plumber, so I elected to just trust him and allow him do what he felt was best. It was no easy process! I saw that he had to cut and re-route things, but-- A couple hours later? My water is flowing well and I can get back to living and cooking and cleaning and life in quarantine as I know it!
Max cleaned up everything-- no black gunk was left about on the floor underneath the sink like with the previous plumber. I really appreciated this. I'm ready to set about re-organizing my kitchen and sink quarters now.
In summary, Max Hernandez is a good guy and a terrific plumber. Clean. Conscientious. Calming. If you come across plumbing issues, I recommend starting with XTREME and maybe that you request him first and by name. I know I will in the future.
Thanks, Max, and thank you to XTREME! read more
