Services · Seattle houses
Five jobs, each priced in writing first.
Water heater installation, drain cleaning, leak repair, furnace and boiler repair, and the 24/7 emergency calls that cut across all four. Each one below has its spec table, how the price is built, what we refuse to do and the failure we pull out of Seattle basements most often.
01 / 05 · Emergency plumber Seattle
24/7 emergency plumbing.
One number, answered at any hour by the shop, not a lead line. A 24/7 plumber in Seattle earns the name on the night a burst pipe is flooding a floor or a water heater is dumping forty gallons into a garage. After a big storm, add main sewers backing into basement drains. The order never changes. Water stopped first. Repair priced second.
On the phone we'll walk you to the main shut-off if you haven't found it. We ask what's wet and whether it's still running, then agree the dispatch basis before anyone gets in the van. On site we make it safe, find the failed part and write the repair price down. If it can wait for daylight and you'd rather it did, we say so.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| On the phone | Shut-off guidance, what's wet, dispatch basis agreed |
| On arrival | Water isolated, power checked near the leak, photos taken |
| Diagnosis | Failed part found and shown to you |
| Price | Repair written down before any work starts |
| Common parts carried | 1/2 & 3/4 in copper, PEX-A, angle stops, ball valves |
Price basisDispatch basis agreed on the phone before anyone drives; repair priced in writing on site before work starts.
No repair quotes over the phone
We don't know whether that ceiling stain is a cheap supply line or a cracked drain stack until we look, and neither does anyone who tells you otherwise.
Supply lines that split at the crimp
Braided stainless supply lines under sinks and toilets, eight or ten years old, splitting at the crimp. Swap them at the same visit as anything else. They're cheap and they fail without warning.
02 / 05 · Water heater installation Seattle
Water heaters, tank or tankless.
Water heater replacement in Seattle is mostly a garage or basement job on a gas tank somewhere past its eleventh year. We size the new one to how the house uses water. Two people and a shower: a 40-gallon tank. A family of four with a soaking tub: 50, sometimes 75. Electric goes in where there's no gas, on a 30-amp circuit that's already there or gets checked first.
A tankless water heater in Seattle makes sense when the gas meter and the line can carry it. A 1/2-inch line feeding a 199,000 BTU unit will starve it, so we check the line first. Often that means running a 3/4-inch line from the meter, and that cost goes on the paper next to the unit, not after.
| Type | Suits | Needs |
|---|---|---|
| 40 gal tank | 1 to 2 people, one bathroom | Gas or 30A electric |
| 50 gal tank | 3 to 4 people, two bathrooms | Gas or 30A electric |
| 75 gal tank | Large household, big tub | Gas, venting checked |
| Tankless | Long showers back to back, tight space | 3/4 in gas typical, new venting |
| Code items | Every install | Seismic straps, expansion tank, permit |
Price basisFixed installed price in writing after a site look, covering unit, fittings, haul-away of the old tank and permit where required.
No tankless on an undersized gas line
We won't sell a tankless unit to a house whose gas line can't feed it, or put a new element in a 14-year-old tank. The element works; the tank lets go at the seam the next winter.
Tanks that fail at the bottom seam
Most tanks we pull in Seattle are eleven to fourteen years old and failed at the bottom seam. That's not a repair. A rust streak down the jacket or water in the drain pan is your warning.
03 / 05 · Drain cleaning Seattle
Drains, cable then camera.
Drain cleaning in Seattle starts with a cable. Most of it is a kitchen line full of grease or a tub trap packed with hair. The right size cable clears most of them in one pass, and we run water behind it to prove the line flows before we pack up.
If the same drain clogs twice in a month, we stop cabling and put a camera down it. A sewer line camera inspection in Seattle usually finds the same thing: a clay or cast-iron lateral from before the war, a joint that's offset or cracked, and roots growing through the gap. Cabling trims the roots. It doesn't close the joint. You get the footage and the depth reading, and you decide what to do next.
| Line | Usual cause | Tool |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen sink | Grease and food solids | 1/4–3/8 in cable |
| Bath and shower | Hair, soap at the trap | Hand cable, trap pulled |
| Laundry | Lint in the standpipe run | 3/8 in cable |
| Main sewer | Roots at clay joints, wipes | Sectional, from cleanout |
| Repeat clog | Broken or offset pipe | Camera inspection |
Price basisFixed price per line cleared; camera inspection priced separately and stated before it goes down the line.
No fourth cable run on a repeat clog
We won't run the cable a fourth time and send you an invoice for each visit. Two clogs in a month is a pipe problem, and you deserve to see it on a screen.
Roots in clay side sewers
Roots in a clay side sewer between the house and the street, worst in autumn after the first heavy rains. Second place: so-called flushable wipes, balled up at the first bend.
04 / 05 · Leak repair Seattle
Leaks and burst pipes.
Leak repair in Seattle starts with finding it. Water travels along a joist and shows up four feet from where it started, so we read the drywall with a moisture meter, isolate sections and pressure-test them, and check from below if there's a crawlspace. Then we cut one opening, square and sized to the repair.
Burst pipe repair is the hard-freeze version. Uninsulated copper in a vented crawlspace splits along its length, usually on the north side of the house. We cut the split section out, replace it in copper or transition to PEX-A with expansion fittings, and wrap what's left exposed. Weeping shut-off valves, multi-turn stops that won't close and old gate valves on the main all get replaced with quarter-turn ball valves.
| Material | Typical failure | Repair |
|---|---|---|
| Type M copper | Pinholes, green crust at joints | Section out, Type L or PEX |
| Galvanized steel | Rusted from inside, low pressure | Replace the run |
| PEX | Bad crimp, rodent damage | New fitting, re-crimp |
| Shut-off valves | Won't close, drips at the stem | Quarter-turn ball valve |
| Frozen line | Lengthwise split in crawlspace | Section out, insulate |
Price basisFixed price per repair after diagnosis; any drywall opening stated up front, finish patching excluded unless agreed.
No couplings on rotten galvanized
We won't put a coupling on rotten galvanized and call it done. We'll show you the pipe and you decide. Nor do we tape and texture the drywall unless we agreed it beforehand; most people prefer their own painter.
Pinholes in thin Type M copper
Pinhole leaks in thin Type M copper from the 1970s and 80s, usually at the first elbow after the heater where the water's hottest. One pinhole is rarely alone. We'll tell you if the run needs replacing.
05 / 05 · Seattle heating services
Furnace & boiler repair.
Furnace repair in Seattle is mostly gas forced-air units in garages and basements, and the fault is usually a flame sensor coated in oxide or a condensate line that plugged and tripped the safety switch. Boiler repair is older houses with cast-iron radiators or hydronic baseboard, and the boiler is often older than the people living there.
A service visit means cover off, burner and heat exchanger inspected, combustion checked with an analyser in the flue, pressure read cold. A healthy residential boiler sits around 12 to 15 PSI cold; at zero it's lost water somewhere, at 30 the relief valve is about to start dripping. We bleed radiators, check the expansion tank charge, and tell you plainly when a heat exchanger is cracked and the unit should be retired.
| System | Common fault | First check |
|---|---|---|
| Gas furnace | Lights then shuts off | Flame sensor, filter |
| High-efficiency furnace | Locks out in cold snaps | Condensate trap and line |
| Gas boiler | No heat, pressure low | Gauge cold, fill valve |
| Cast-iron radiators | Cold at the top | Bleed air, expansion tank |
| Hydronic baseboard | One zone cold | Zone valve, circulator |
Price basisDiagnostic visit stated when booking; repair priced in writing before parts are ordered.
No restarts on a cracked heat exchanger
We won't restart a furnace with a cracked heat exchanger so you can get through the weekend. That's carbon monoxide in the bedrooms. We'll shut it down, show you the crack, and talk through what comes next.
Boilers that lose pressure by November
Boilers that have quietly lost pressure through a weeping relief valve or an old radiator valve stem, so the top floor goes cold first. Usually found in November, the first week the heat runs all day.
From call to finished
How a booked job runs.
The same order on every job we take, whether it's a single angle stop or a whole basement repipe.
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You call or write
Phone 206-745-7570 at any hour, or use the form below for anything that can wait. We ask what's failed, how old it is, and where it sits in the house. For scheduled work we usually book a site look within the next few working days.
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We look before we price
On site we find the cause, measure up and check the things that change the price: access, gas line size, code items, whether a permit applies. We show you what we found, on the pipe or on the camera screen.
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The price goes on paper
One fixed figure covering parts, labour, haul-away, cleanup and the permit where one is needed. You read it and decide. No work starts before you say yes, and nothing about the site look commits you.
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The work, then the test
Drop cloths down, water or gas isolated, the repair made. Then we test it: pressure on supply lines, water behind a cleared drain, a combustion reading on a heater. We leave when it passes, not before.
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If it fails, we come back
We look at our own work at no charge. Manufacturer warranties on equipment pass to you, and the paperwork goes with the invoice. Wording on the terms page, and the rest of our method on how we work.
Book a site look
Tell us which job. We'll call back.
Give us the job address and what you know. A make and age off the water heater label, a photo you can describe, how many times the drain has backed up. We call to set a time, and the price comes in writing after the visit.
Not for houses outside Seattle, commercial buildings or new-construction rough-ins. If that's you, we'll say so on the call rather than waste your morning.
Water running now? Call 206-745-7570. For everything else there's also the contact page.