Canadian Rooter reviews (904)

These guys did an amazing job. Talked us through through their process. Arrived when they said they would, protected the stairs, protected the work area. Left the work site clean and tidy. I was amazed and delighted. The job was done in a couple of days from start, through inspection to finish! Very happy!

This is my first homestars review so I try my best to put in as much details as I could. We observed some water stains on the Kitchen's and living room's ceiling so we suspect there might be some leaking on our second floor's bathrooms. Based on the reviews we emailed Public Plumbing and was informed that the there will be a fee of $49 for assessment. At first we thought this was a reasonable price and thus booked an appointment with Public Plumbing. Paul came to my place on time this morning and started to test the source of leaking. He first looked at the water meter and there was no running up of number so no leaking from the water pipe going up. Then he began to check the bathrooms on our second floor. We had a bubble ceiling on the living room ceiling and weeks ago when I touched a part that has stain and made a small hole through the paint. Even that the water never came out the hole because I think it was just the painting on the drywall. Despite the fact that I explained this, Paul started to look at each tub and filling up the tub and then open the plug to see if there will be water coming out the hole. He opened up the faucet and checked if there was any leak inside the wall. He also observed that the caulking was old and cracked and suggest we should replace the caulking. So after he tested the two bathrooms on the living room's and found no water coming out of the hole. Of course there won't be because it never came out there! So the conclusion was that it was the caulking that leaks water into the ceiling. I was not fully convinced but we moved to the bathroom on top of the kitchen. He spent some time to look at the shower and plugged the shower sink and drew some lines on the wall then pour in water to test if there was any water leaking through the shower floor. Then he concluded that it was leaking and the tiles are old and cracking and suggested we need to replace the entire shower or renovate the entire bath room. I can buy that idea because it indeed looked like the tiles are too old and we'd better off to replace the tiles instead of patching stuff. He did spend some mins on our fourth bathroom on the 3rd floor since we asked him to take a look. Nothing suspicious was observed. So that's the summary of what he did in terms of inspection. Then he asked us if we wanted him to redo the caulking for the two tubs and that would be additional $100 to the bill of $150 for inspection. We were surprised because that was never communicated in any form (written or oral) before he started checking. He claimed that the $49 was only for looking, namely he would not touch anything if for only $49. Since he tested stuff it would be minimum $150. And he was in our house for an hour already so he claimed it was a fair price. We decided to not let him do the caulking and paid him the $150+tax. Overall Paul was professional and good in manner and he did explain what he was doing and what would be the possible reason of leaking. However I am not fully convinced for the explanation on the living room's leaking (since the test was not effective at all because there was never any water coming out that hole) and he said if we decided to open the ceiling it will be another $150. Since we were little surprised by the bill already we decided to not do anymore checking at this point. To be honest we were expecting to see more usage of tools to detect the source of leaking but that might be just our imagination. So based on our experience today I would give the stars accordingly like above. Update: I just tried the faucet Paul opened and installed back, turns out now it can only runs hot water!!! Now I have to figure out a way to install it back to normal. Update: Public Plumbing Service contacts me promptly to solve the issue. They will send another technician at no extra cost to check the situation and to fix the faucet issue. I change my review for their good custom service. Update: They sent a technical to fix the faucet and didn't charge me the original bill. Now the only comment I have is that they always try to defend their employee and told me that they did nothing wrong even though they indeed put the faucet back in a wrong way for the first time.

Public Plumbing offered all possible solutions, including outside installation [no idea why others skipped over this possibility]. With no basement tear-up, city approved and rebate eligible, a backup valve was installed. Unlike some others, they took care of everything from start to finish including the rebate paperwork. A company that does a great job from quote to completion will always get our business. Public Plumbing with very competitive pricing is such a company. D Villeneuve

I wanted to have a seer-back up valve and a battery backed up sump-pump installed in my basement, for a while. The representatives of Public Plumbing gave a very clear proposal and did the job in a very professional fashion, within the promised timeframe. They also did all the paperwork for any municipality refunds. Strongly recommend them.

The gentlemen from Public Plumbing have rescued me on a number of occasions! 2 burst pipes at different times, one under floor and one in wall as well as a terrible massive sewage backup. Everyone is exceptionally friendly someone on site ASAP. They have always explained my options clearly and have been very reasonably priced as well. All of the guys, especially Mike and Vlad have been terrific and I would highly recommend them.

We called first thing in the morning and they had someone available with in a 2 hour window (which was great as others i called gave me a 4 hour window). It was completed quickly. The plumber's expertise resulted in finding the leak behind the drywall in his first attempt at cutting out the drywall.

Last year, Public installed sump pump and back flow at our house. Dealt with Walter who was in charge of project. He and his crew were professional, polite and extremely accommodating. Project completed on time. Since then, Walter attended twice (follow up) checked to ensure valve operated properly and pump disposed water as required. We have been very pleased with Public Plumbing and especially Walter conducting work.

I own an older home that still had a lead water supply pipe and it was upgraded to 3/4" copper. I hired this company based on the reviews here on Homestars. Walter came by to give me a quote, explained everything to me, and answered all of my questions. The work was done on-time and at the cost quoted, which was significantly better than other quotes I had gotten. The site was left clean and orderly both during the work and afterwards. These guys are very professional, and I would definitely recommend these guys.

Completely re-piped double sink and installed brand new basket strainer with tail pieces, then cut wall and cut out bad section with hairline crack and replaced with new. Cleaned up and tested thoroughly. I year warranty on labour, manufacturers on parts.

We got several quotes to replace our ancient (and dangerous) lead water service with modern 3/4" intake. Public Plumbing's quote was far better than the others. Mike was very responsive and though we had a few scheduling challenges due to weather, the work was done well and very quickly. The guys doing the work were polite, clean, and got it all done in one day. They went the extra mile when they needed to. Very impressed with Public Plumbing and I will certainly use them for any plumbing needs I have in the future.