Sparrow & Sons Plumbing and Heating

Everyone I dealt with, over the phone and the plumber in person, were all very friendly. The reason for the low rating is because they charged me $ 95 to come and use a shop-​vac for 20 minutes to remove broken glass from my garbage disposal. When I called to ask why it was so much for a simple job they claimed that it is the «minimum fee they can charge due to traveling to and from the job.» I asked them if they came simply to take a look at something and do no work, would they charge the same amount, and the lady of the phone simply repeated that statement. I can not speak to their ability as plumbers since they did no real work for me. I am under the impression though that you will pay $ 95 at a minimum for the smallest of jobs. Next time I need a plumber I will take a chance elsewhere.

Just so obviously bad, and they didn’t care. They were plumbing subs hired by contractor Frank Cole Building. Installation of bathroom fixtures done improperly. (See photo at Frank Cole Bldg Co. Unilocal review.) Same with work done on shower, tub and downstairs bathroom. Couldn’t get them back to fix their costly mistakes. In fact, think they broke one of the tub fixtures. Will have to hire someone else to fix their costly mistakes.

I suddenly found myself with water seeping up out of my cherry wood floor in my kitchen. Frantic, I called Sparrow and Sons (I’m a regular customer) for help. This was on a Wednesday morning (admittedly before Thanksgiving) and I was told that they wouldn’t be able to get to me before Monday afternoon!!! What is the good of having a plumber if they can’t help you in an emergency situation?

The day that I moved into my house, the A/​C wouldn’t turn on. I called Sparrow and Sons and scheduled an appointment for the next day. They were there on time, and they discovered that a switch had been flipped on the furnace during the move. They showed me me where it was and how to fix it, and didn’t charge me despite coming out to the house. I would definitely call them again.

This will be short and sweet: phenomenal service and great results. They did exactly what they said they would. This was my second time to use them and had the same experience before; Sparrow is now my «exclusive» plumber.

Update: «Bev» at Sparrow contacted me via email after reading my review here. She apologized profusely, and attached a greatly reduced invoice for 1 hour of labor and $ 40 in parts. Totally realistic, this time. I had already paid the previous invoice, so they mailed that check back to me. Kudos to them for ultimately doing the right thing.

I own several rental properties in Chapel Hill and finding a good plumber has been excruciating. I don’t want to even begin to get into all of the problems I have had with various plumbers doing sub par work and charging excessively for it. Sparrow is the best around, hands down. They are not cheap, but neither is anyone else. Depending on who they send you get from good to excellent. They aren’t perfect but they do stand behind there work, and they answer the phone when you call.

We had a great experience with Sparrow & Sons.
The night before Thanksgiving, our kitchen sink backed up and couldn’t be cleared. (Imagine cooking for Thanksgiving without a working sink!)
We called Sparrow & Sons, and an answering service gave us the number of an employee at home — even though this was after 11 pm. The employee was sleepy but courteous, and we scheduled an appointment for 8 am on Thanksgiving morning.
The plumber arrived on time, was good-​natured and friendly, and fixed the problem right away. My wife and I were so pleased with their service that I signed up for Unilocal in order to give them a good review.

So, we recently had my dad take out our old toilet and install a new one. It turned out to be sort of a pain, but he did it, nonetheless. Problems arose, though; a leak, condensation and a constant hissing sound – yeargh. We procrastinated on calling a professional and then we had a baby! Upon arriving home with our newborn, the toilet decided to just up and quit. It didn’t want to flush anymore! This was not an option for a mom in recovery. I was all like, «I do not care how much it costs, we have to call somebody today!» My husband looked on Unilocal and found good reviews for Sparrow and Sons. They sent someone out within a couple of hours of us calling. The man worked on it for a while. There were a lot of grunts and heavy sighs coming from the bathroom and he wound up having to chisel away at the tile in order to properly reinstall the toilet. In the end he said that it was probably one of the most difficult issues he has had to work on, due to the pipes and the tiles and whatnot. He was very friendly, though, and fixed the darn thing, so we were very happy. We were preparing ourselves for a hefty bill, when a couple of days later we received a really nice surprise in the mail… a bill for only $ 150. That seemed really fair to us. I highly recommend Sparrow and Sons for any plumbing dilemma that you or your dad mess up worse and/​or can’t fix yourselves.

Sparrow and Sons is a good plumber at least for fast and quick jobs. We had a leaking shower nozzle that needed replacing. It took ~35 minutes from when they pulled into my driveway to be replaced. As the plumber was leaving, I asked if he could fix my kitchen faucet because it would spray water from the base sometimes when turned on. He said no problem and replaced it in 15 minutes, making sure he didn’t go over an hour for both jobs.
It has been almost four months and both faucets are still doing well. I highly recommend Sparrow and Sons!