Canadian Rooter reviews (904)

Responded immediately to a call for a basement backup. investigated with camera. Worked hard and fast in less than ideal conditions to dig up part of the basement and driveway to replace an old broken pipe. Hard working, amazing service, fair price and left everything spotless. Have already recommended to friends and will continue to do so. Hopefully we don't need you again, but happy to know you are there if we do.

Exceptional service from Phil. Very professional, tells you everything that is being done and answered all of our questions. Very nice person to have in our home. Phil also repaired an issue with a shower we had a few months back. The Public Plumbing quote for our shower and this job was much more reasonable than the first quote we obtained, and that plumber didn't seem to care at all if we hired him or not. Phil was very pleasant and clearly took pride in doing the job well.

We had a plumbing issue with our shower, and we were confused as to what was causing the problem. Instead of giving us a song and dance about how a bunch of things needed to be replaced ($$$), they instead made a small adjustment and told us that we were all set. And, no issues since. Nice to see such honourable people in a profession where I have heard horror stories about less-ethical contractors fleecing un-savvy homeowners. I have, and will continue to recommend them!

Public Plumbing was advise by TIlestars to me. Public Plumbing did suck a Great job, fast service it was a pleasure working with them to get my pluming back in order.

I would like to thank Public Plumbing for the fixing the issue we were having. The plumber took the time to investigate the issue at hand and informed us what needed to be done. The plumber was friendly, had great knowledge of the issue, and best off got the job done. Thank you again, we would recommend this company to anyone looking to resolve any household plumbing issues.

Our kitchen drain needed cleaning, always draining slow. Called a few companies and Public Plumbing gave the best recomendation and were able to come out right away. Fast, reasonably priced service. Will definitely call them again for any future work.

Review summary: we were charged over $300/hour. After talking to other homeowners we knew it seems clear the cost of plumbing should be at most $150/hour. There was some bait and switch pricing on the quote. I'm fairly baffled by the job prices listed in other reviews. Detailed below. We had a 5-6 foot section of cracked pvc piping replaced in our basement. We noticed a leak on a Saturday night and went with public plumbing because they were available Monday. When we called we described the leak as it was fairly obvious. When we opened the access panel in the wall under our kitchen sink we could feel water running while the sink was on. It was fairly obvious it was the sink drain. My husband asked for a quote on the phone. We were told over the phone that it was 49 dollars to come out to get a quote and that if we went with the quote it would be subtracted from out bill. This turned out not to be totally true. Immediately when the plumber showed up he said he needed to cut out a square of drywall near the access panel to see the pipe a bit better and because he had to do that it would be $149 to investigate not $49. I naively said yes because I figured these were the top rated people it should be reasonable. In retrospect this felt like bait-and-switch pricing since my husband asked what it would cost on the phone to get an estimate. Why didn't they say on the phone if they have to cut drywall or do anything other than look with there eyes it would be $149 to get a quote? After looking at it for maybe 30 minutes he told me it was bad news and a big section of the pipe was cracked. He said it would be $1400-$1500 to replace. I asked him when it could be done by and he said it would take him 4-5 hours. It didn't really register with me how ridiculous this rate was at the time ($300-350/hour!). I'm a recent and first time home owner and not very handy. I told him to go ahead and at first didn't think much of it. I was fairly distracted since I'm home on maternity leave with a 3 month old baby. Then maybe 30 minutes later my husband texted me to say that he was coming home from work because it was too big of a job and he wanted to see what was going on. He had talked to his dad who is a commercial real estate developer after we got the quote and he said that 150/hour was the high end for plumbers. He was very surprised we were charged more than 150/hour. When my husband got home he asked them what the breakdown for the price was such as materials and hourly rate and they refused. It was a little uncomfortable, the plumber was fairly evasive and kept saying they were a services based company not a regular plumber. This sounded like nonsense to us. I'm sure they didn't want to provide a breakdown because it's unlikely 6 feet of pvc piping costs much. I also called my parents (who granted live in Kingston not Toronto) and they said they pay $105/hour for plumbing. I did some online research after this experience and it seems like most plumbers charge between 100-150/hour whereas public plumbing charges 300-350/hour. In the end the one plumber was here for 5 hours almost exactly from ringing the doorbell to driving away. They knocked off $200 dollars as a "new customer discount" because they could tell after my husband came home we had realized we were being ripped off. We still massively overpaid but by slightly less. I have a feeling the rate were charged was based on how clueless I seemed. In the end we learned an expensive lesson about trusting homestar reviews. I should have waited to find a referral or walked away at his $149 to cut open the drywall fee since it was inconsistent with the quoted fee on the phone. By the time we realized it was too late. This was our first home repair so we were a bit naive. Lessons learnt. I believe the job prices lists here are either a reflection of inconsistent pricing or they are false. They don't match up with what we were charged unless they are all for 1 hour of work.

After my kitchen sink was completely clogged and liquid plumber didn't work, my super called Public Plumbing. I didn't have to wait long for them to come. Naz and Walter fixed my issue. They were very friendly and worked quickly. I was very satisfied with the service I received.

UPDATE: I was contacted by HomestArs to verify my experience as the company claimed to have no knowledge of their service call. Hopefully the receipts, photos of the repairs and brochures jogged their memory. I called this company because Homestars is my go to place for home related services and seemed to have a lot of positive reviews. My water bill had gone up and someone said check your toilet and sure enough I had toilet that was almost constantly running. So I called for what I thought was a relatively simple job for someone with experience. The person that came did not fix the problem and recommended toilet replacement at around $1,000 each for both washrooms. He did end up soldering a copper pipe that was leaking in the basement but it was unrelated and was not why I called. The soldering job seems fine so I gave 3 stars. We felt pressured and he spent a long time here…after he left we read some other reviews deeper down and I was surprised to see some other reviewers that mention having had a similar high pressure sales experience. So basically the problem was not solved and we did not get new toilets. I ended up looking on youtube and did some adjustments myself and it seems to be better. So in my opinion it was not a great experience and based on this visit I would be hesitant to recommend this company.

I called public plumbing on a Sunday It was for my daughter wh had a plumbing issue in the shower They promptly fixed the problem. I would definitely recommend them to anyone.... Who needs a plumber