An emergency plumber for Seattle houses, on one number that a West Seattle shop answers at any hour. Mostly burst lines and water heaters that let go at the bottom seam. You get the price before we open the wall. In writing.
01 / Before you dial
Three minutes of your own work saves more drywall than anything we do after we arrive. Do this first, in this order.
It's usually by the front foundation wall or in the basement where the line comes in. A gate valve is a round wheel: clockwise until it stops, and don't force it past that. A quarter-turn ball valve has a lever; turn it so the lever sits across the pipe. No basement? Look for the meter box at the curb, which takes a meter key or a pair of channel locks.
With the supply shut, the tank can drain itself down and an element can burn out dry. Gas: turn the control knob to PILOT or OFF. Electric: flip the double-pole breaker, usually marked 30A. If water is near the panel, stay out of it and tell us when you call.
Tell us where the water is, what's under it and whether it's stopped. We'll agree the dispatch basis on the phone before anyone drives, so the first number you hear isn't on an invoice at your door. Sewage backing up a floor drain? Stop running every fixture in the house and keep people off that floor.
02 / The work
What a Seattle plumber actually gets called for, and how we go about each one. Every job ends with a written price before the wrench comes out.
A split braided supply line under a kitchen sink will put out a couple of gallons a minute until somebody closes the angle stop. Most of our night calls are that or a water heater that let go at the bottom. After heavy rain, add main sewer lines backing into basement floor drains. We stop the water first. The proper repair gets priced second, in writing, once we can see what failed.
Dispatch basis agreed by phoneRepair priced on site
How a 24/7 call worksMost tanks we pull in Seattle are eleven to fourteen years old and failed at the bottom seam. That's not a repair. We size the replacement to the household, not to whatever was on the truck: a 40-gallon tank suits two people, a family with teenagers and a soaking tub wants 50 or 75. Tankless is on the table when the gas line can feed it, and we check that before we quote it.
Expansion tankSeismic strapsHaul-away
Water heater installation in SeattleA clogged drain in Seattle is usually grease in the kitchen line or hair in the tub trap, and a cable clears it in under an hour. If the same drain clogs twice in a month, we stop cabling and put a camera down it. Old clay sewer laterals in this city crack at the joints and roots come in through the gaps. A fourth cable run only trims them back.
Kitchen, bath, laundry, mainCamera stated before it goes in
Drain cleaning and camera inspectionWe find the source before anything gets cut. A moisture meter, a pressure test on the isolated section, sometimes a look from the crawlspace side, and only then a square opening in the drywall, as small as the repair allows. Pinhole leaks in old copper are the usual find. After a hard freeze it's a burst pipe in an uninsulated crawlspace. Each one is priced as a fixed repair once we've found it.
CopperPEXShut-off valves
Leak repair in SeattleSeattle's older houses still run cast-iron radiators off a boiler in the basement, and plenty of the newer ones have a gas furnace in the garage. Both stop on the coldest night of the year. We service and repair both, along with hydronic baseboard. A cold boiler should sit somewhere around 12 to 15 PSI on the gauge; when it reads zero or 30, that tells us where to start looking.
Diagnostic stated at bookingParts priced before ordering
Seattle heating services03 / The price
We don't print dollar figures on a website, because a number written before anyone has looked at your basement is a guess. Here is what goes into the written price instead.
| Line item | What it means | On the paper |
|---|---|---|
| Parts | Every fitting, valve and length of pipe the repair needs, named by size and material. | Itemised |
| Labour | The whole job as one fixed figure. No meter running while we hunt for a part. | Fixed per job |
| Equipment | On installs, the unit itself, with the manufacturer warranty passed to you. | Make & model |
| Haul-away | The old tank, the cut-out pipe and the packaging leave with us. | Included |
| Cleanup | Drop cloths down, floor wiped, wet towels bagged. You shouldn't find our solder on your stairs. | Included |
| Permit | Water heater replacements and some repipes need one in Seattle. If yours does, it's a line on the price. | Where required |
Plumber, West Seattle
The van leaves from a real street address, not a call centre that sells your job to whoever bids. The racks carry copper and PEX in 1/2 and 3/4 inch, angle stops, ball valves, a sectional cable machine and the fittings for most of what fails in a Seattle house, so the first visit is usually the one that finishes it.
2401 SW Alaska St24/7 Phone answered, every day
04 / Before you book
The things people ask at the door, usually while we're still taking our boots off. If yours isn't here, ask it on the phone.
How the shop worksFor a night call, yes, the dispatch basis. We agree it before anyone drives. The repair itself is priced in writing on site, after we've seen it and before work starts. A plumber who quotes a burst pipe repair over the phone without seeing the pipe is quoting the easy version and will find the hard one when he gets there.
Yes. The shop is on SW Alaska St and the crew works across Seattle. Give us the address when you call and we'll tell you straight whether we can get there and roughly when. We don't promise arrival in minutes, because the bridge doesn't care what we promised.
Sometimes a temporary repair is the right call at 2 a.m. We'll say it's temporary, write that on the paperwork, and price the proper fix separately. What we won't do is put a coupling on rotten galvanized and call it done. We'll show you the pipe and you decide.
Call the same number. We come back and look at our own work at no charge, and if it's our workmanship we put it right. Manufacturer warranties on any equipment we install pass to you. The full wording is on the terms page.
Commercial buildings and new-construction rough-ins. We work on houses: basements, crawlspaces, kitchens, garages and the heating plant that keeps them warm. And if you want the cheapest possible number for a tank swap with no permit, we're the wrong shop.
5-star rated
Not an emergency? Leave the details and we'll call back to set a time for a site look. Water heater replacement in Seattle, a slow drain, a furnace that short-cycles, a stain spreading on the ceiling below a bathroom. Say which, and anything you already know about it.
Water running right now? Don't type. Call 206-745-7570.
