Dave’s Custom Plumbing

Awesome response time and professionalism! All it took was one phone call and Dave’s Custom Plumbing came out and fixed both of our bathrooms. When you run a business, you gotta have bathrooms that work.
Thanks for getting us back up and functioning!

I’ve had 2 experiences with Dave’s Custom Plumbing. The first was several years ago — we had Aaron install a toilet in our house on a floor that was not quite level (toilet needed to be shimmed) and he did a great job. So when we were having problems with a different toilet I called Dave’s again.
A few weeks ago, we had a Kohler toilet that was running (water was draining from the tank to the bowl causing the tank to refill ocassionally). The refilling was wasting water and was annoying to listen to at night (toilet is in master bathroom). So I called Dave’s and they sent someone over to take a look (not Aaron). The plumber spent not more than 25 total minutes at my house. During that time he made a few adjustments to the parts in the tank (maybe 5 minutes worth of work which included tightening one part and changing the height of one tube), and spent plenty of time listening to the toilet to see if it was still leaking (like 15 minutes). Only after about 20 minutes into the job did he start to complain about this type of toilet (he thought this particular Kohler toilet wasn’t good). And then he started suggesting that I replace the toilet if this fix didn’t do the trick.
In short, if he didn’t think he could fix it I would have preferred he tell me that before I agreed that he try to fix it (I could have saved $ 135 if I was just going to have to replace it anyway).
Moreover, within a day I heard the toilet refilling again so he clearly didn’t fix it.
When I called back to indicate that the problem hadn’t been solved, the plumber indicated I should replace the toilet and quoted me $ 625 to remove the old toilet and install it with a new one. However, the new toilet only cost $ 200 so we just decided to remove the old one ourselves and hired a different plumber to install it.
In short, I wasted $ 135 for less than a 25 minute visit to my house for which nothing got fixed. Look elsewhere for a plumber, I was not at all impressed with the service or the prices.

awesome service — came quickly, diagnosed the problem, fixed it. reasonable prices. dave is very friendly and respectful. A+.

Dave’s Custom Plumbing is my go-​to plumbing service. They have repiped part of my old house, replaced old toilets with low-​flow models and fixed various leaks and problems.
I find them always fair and 90% of the time very competent. Like any service, it varies according to who you get. Aaron, John and Dave (the owner) are great! Once or twice some other person has showed up and they have been less great.
The price is not cheap but it is fair, and they are very good about asking if there is anything else they can do once they are on-​site, to maximize your value for the time you’ve paid for. When the shower was leaking, for example, Dave went around to the other shower and checked, and checked a couple of other things, since I had already paid for him to come out.

I dealt with Dave’s Custom Plumbing on 2 occasions:
1. First time Dave, the owner, came out to look at a corroding sewer line, he seemed professional and reasonable, and subsequently provided an estimate for the cost of replacing sewage line that seemed reasonable. He said he would return to perform video imaging and that altogether the overall cost for the esimate would be $ 275. Indeed, I was billed $ 275. I was very pleased with their service up to this time.
2. The second time I called them for a walk-​through which I was told would cost $ 40, that they did NOT charge/​hour, and that I would be given UP-​FRONT estimates and would have to sign off on any additional work that needed to be done in the house. This time Aaron came out and during the walk-​through proposed draining my tank, but did not inform me that there would be an extra charge for this or what this charge would be besides the $ 40 for the walk-​through. When I was getting to write out a check, all of a sudden he told me the cost would be $ 145 and that they DID charge/​hour!
I called the company back to complain 3 times in additional to several emails. The woman I spoke to was very helpful initially and told me that I was misinformed by Aaron, that he should not be charging me per hour, and that they would credit the $ 100. Then all of a sudden the next day they came up with additional charge of $ 60 for the initial visit by Dave, that was supposed to be free of charge per Dave himself, and was NOT included on the original bill with the video imaging!
Furthermore, the estimates I asked for during the second visit never materialized. It was a complete WASTE of money!
I asked Dave the owner to call me back to ask him for the additional estimates, to give me a timeframe for the work, and to explain how they were coming up with new charges for their trips – NEVER HAPPENED!
All in all, I think Dave’s Custom plumbing proved unreliable in the end and I believe they are misleading the customers about their charges.

I’m not sure what to say. I called Dave last night at about 10:00 because we needed help — water backing up into the bath tub and we were taking it out by the buckets.
The answering service said that someone would call me asap. It’s now 7:30 the next morning and still no call back. I can’t say if Dave’s is a great plumbing service or not, but they dropped the ball this time.

I have a toilet that will occasionally clog, and now we’re renting out our house, so I figured I’d get it checked out to hopefully prevent clogs in the future. I called Dave’s and:
–it was recommended that my «cheap» American Standard toilet be replaced with something more expensive
–they tried to snake my toilet and *failed* to get the snake down
–they left scrapes and scuff marks all over the inside of my toilet after their failed snake attempt
–they tracked mud all over my bathroom floor
–they charged me $ 40 for their «excellent» service!
I’d flush the idea of using Dave’s plumbing.

Our sewer backed up, so I checked Unilocal for help. Finding Dave’s highly rated, I called them. Aaron showed up right on time, checked the cleanouts, and determined that it was a city problem. He said he’d be glad to clean it out right then and there or charge me a diagnostic fee (less than ¼ the cost of the job and very reasonable) so I could call the city which would take care of the problem in an hour or so. I opted for the latter, and
Aaron then showed me how to tell if the problem was the city’s or mine, gave me the city phone number for future use, and then actually called and made all the arrangements for me. Service just doesn’t get any better than this!

My sub-​pump broke. It was installed by Dave’s Plumbing less than a year ago. He was sold a defective pump. I believe the warranty for labor had expired, but I was charged Zero by Dave. He sent a plumber to check it out the same day who determined the problem. The next day they installed a new pump. Superb service.

I had a clogged toilet. Based on reviews here, I thought I give Dave’s Custom Plumbing a try. It was a simple thing and it took the guy 5 minutes to clear up using an auger.
He then walked around the house and told me I had to fix this and that. He said it would cost around $ 400-​$ 500 to fix and he can get the parts right away. He made it sound like it was something urgent and that we’re lucky that he is there and available. I Googled the item and found that it costs much less. I had a feeling that someone was trying to pressure me into buying something I don’t need. So, I said no. He then went and charged me $ 160 for the toilet. That’s $ 160 for a 5 minute job! Given, he has to drive out here and spent the time. But the rate was still a bit outrageous.
Sure enough, a few weeks later, the toilet (a different one) was clogged again. Since I was kind of suspicious at Dave’s plumbing at this point, I called a different outfit — Bay Plumbing, which is also highly recommended by Unilocaler.
Harry from Bay Plumbing came out and proper diagnosed the problem I have with my two toilets. He correctly fixed both toilet by removing both toilets and reinstalling them. He spent 2.5 hours here and charged me a very reasonable $ 105 per hour. Most importantly, he took the time to diagnose the problem and fixed it properly. The other guy from Dave’s just fixed the symptom, and then went on and tried to sell me an totally unrelated expensive job.
Oh, the kicker is, I had Harry from Bay looked at that $ 500 problem that Dave’s guy wanted me to fix. Harry took a look at it and said it’s not even close to requiring any repair! You can see my detail review of Bay Plumbing here:
So, I seem to be the only one that had a bad experience with Dave’s. My advise is, you TRY to get an estimate out of them before letting them fix things. And don’t let them put you on the spot and pressure you into any unplanned repair. Do you research, ask for quotes, before agreeing to let them fix any «emergency».
BTW, I did try very hard to extract an estimate out of them before letting them start work. The phone operator was VERY skillful in avoiding to give out any estimate — not even a range. The guy here gave me a range, but the actual repair only took him 5 minutes and he took the rest of the hour here (that he charged me with) to try to upsell me something else.

Great job folks, thank you so much!
I was a customer of AAAAA «Let Stinky Do It» for several years before they were bought by AAA Plumbing. Every 3 – 4 years they’d have to come and auger out the main line to remove the tree roots. Time for it to happen again last summer, I call Stinky and AAA Plumbing comes out. They try to upsell me with everything they have, including a $ 6K solution with, get this, financing! Yikes. I didn’t buy most of it. I did not like the used-​car-​lot, time-​pressure feel of AAA.
Yesterday our pipes backed up. Only eight months after AAA did a pressure-​wash treatment for a few hundred dollars. I called them and asked about the situation, but it’s only warrantied for 90 days. Plus the lady on the phone sounded like she had been drinking. She didn’t even ask what the problem was — I kept trying to tell her and she just kept on talking about how they could send someone right now. She could not be bothered to set up an appointment for the next day, when I didn’t have a meeting at work, and told me to call again later when I was ready. Hoo boy. That’s it, time to find a new plumber. Unilocal to the rescue. I called Dave’s. The lady on the phone was competent, polite, smart and handled my job scheduling. She informed me of the $ 25 Unilocaler coupon (thanks!), and tried to get what info she could about my problem. She made sure the schedule would work for me and told me the plumber would call 10 – 15 minutes before he arrived, which he did.
I met Aaron of Dave’s plumbing today, right on time. He explained that I had a two-​way cleanout valve. He did a couple of tests, we saw the problem, and he headed out to the street to do the snaking. I should also mentioned that he put on shoe covers while he was standing at the front door to come inside, and when the whole job was done — wait for it — he cleaned up my entryway tile. I dream about contractors who do things like this. Nice! He recommended a couple of things I could do myself to remove tree roots in the future, recommended Barron Park plumbing supply (they rock!), and when I asked about AAA, he said that a lot of plumbing shops pay their plumbers on commission. That explained a whole lot about AAA. He also told me why Dave’s would dig up the main line should it ever need replacing instead of cementing it in (which is only a band-​aid). Aaron really enjoys his work, I could tell. He genuinely seemed to enjoy talking about plumbing, getting a job all the way done right, and most of all, helping people. The man was careful to make sure his job was thorough and well-​done — he ran the snake through more than once until it ran cleanly all the way through, and he ran all the water in the house for 10 minutes before he would call the clog removed, and said to call him if anything were to happen once he left. He was careful to explain what could be done if the trees eventually overcame the pipes, but said that there was no need to do any of that unless there was mud in the line (unlike AAA who was all ready to re-​plumb the mainline *right now*).
The bill was under $ 200. Thank you to Dave & his super staff. You’re my new plumbers!

Last night, our somewhat leaky faucet turned into a gusher. The intake gal in Dave’s Custom Plumbing was very friendly and within 15 minutes, we got a call from Aaron. He gave us a short-​term fix since he couldn’t come until the next day, which was really helpful.
Today, he showed up early, was extremely friendly and handled the job quickly and efficiently. He was clear about the options for fixing the faucet, and it’s working perfectly right now. Thank you!!!

I was very disappointed by the uninformed, misleading and contradictory information I got from the people at Dave’s Custom Plumbing.
–The plumber they sent told me our toilet was not a high efficiency model when it is.
–He claimed our leaky tank could not be replaced, only repaired, which would be complicated and cost $ 487. In truth, the tank could easily be replaced for ¹⁄₅ the cost he bid to repair it.
–He claimed our company could get a rebate from the City of Mountain View for installing a high efficiency toilet (toilet + installation cost $ 500), when, as a business we could not. (In fact, the City of Mountain View has a free high efficiency toilet program for qualifying businesses but only through their own contractor: in other words, there was nothing in it for Dave’s.)
–The plumber claimed they had a high efficiency toilet in stock, went to get it and came back empty-​handed, claiming he had been mistaken — the toilet they had in stock was a normal high-​flow toilet, but that I had to pay a trip charge of $ 25 anyway.
–The receptionist claimed the toilet they had in stock really was a high efficiency toilet.
–The receptionist said it sometimes took days to hear back from the City of Mountain View since they were so backlogged, that it wouldn’t be worth the wait.
I finally decided to educate myself and discovered that our existing toilet is high efficiency (and therefore did not qualify for the free toilet program from the City of MV), the part could easily be replaced and that I could do it myself for $ 100. Bill at Conleff Plumbing Supply in Santa Clara was instrumental in helping me «do-​it-​myself». Thanks to him, our toilet is working like new and I know where to turn when I have a plumbing question!

Plumbing is gross. Genearally, you don’t want your toilet to flush directly out onto your front path. I spent a couple of hours with a long metal snake, stooped over the main access hole like an ice fisherman, except instead of arctic water it was revolting sludge. I failed to unclog it, and It took over an hour just to clean up. I called Rotten Rooter that night, and they promised to be there between six and eight. By nine, I was tired of calling them for made up time estimates. By ten we gave up on them entirely, and went to bed stinky. The Rooter sucks.
The next morning I called Dave’s, left a message with dispatch and got a call back within minutes. Aaron showed up an hour later — exactly when he said he would. He was fast, and professional. Pleasant too, unlike the nasty wad of roots he extracted from the pipe with his giant snake machine. (It left with me serious tool envy).

Great company!
I called them after another plumber (Villa Plumbing, Gilroy, CA) had told me that I needed to break my wall to access the shower pipe to fix a leak. Something was broken somewhere and they needed to break the tiles…
I didn’t really like this option especially since the leak was minimal and making the access and re-​tiling would not have been covered by my home insurance.
I then called DCP for a second opinion. Long story short:
Aaron came to the rescue and replaced the shower cartridge in less than 2 hours (included the trip back to the warehouse to get the piece). The service wasn’t really cheap but not too expensive and I saved tons of money calling them and not breaking all the tiles in my bathroom.
Those guys are professional, friendly and reliable. I will call them again when needed.

I called these guys when my toilet refused to flush when I told it to flush. The next day at 11 am Guy 1 showed up. He seemed to not know how to do anything other than basic unclogging which is not what my toilet’s problem was, so he left.
At around 3 that same day Aaron came by to finish up what Guy 1 started. Aaron was friendly and explained what was wrong. Apparently one of the pieces had corroded and needed to be replaced.
He gave a $ 25 discount for Guy 1’s incompetence.
A few months later the faucet on my bathtub would not turn off. It wasn’t just leaking, the thing was on full blast in the off position. I called Dave’s and they sent out a guy right away (20 minutes from hang-​up to doorbell ring).
I opened the door to find Aaron, my friend from two months ago. He remembered me and asked about updates from our conversation prior.
40 minutes later he had replaced every washer in my bathroom, performed surgery on one of the faucet’s, and showed me where the various water shut off valves are throughout my house. He asked what I wanted him to do with my extra 20 minutes (they bill by the hour) and I jokingly asked him to fix my keychain. He actually did it for me.
Aaron does not leave a mess behind, in fact he said «I want it to look like I was never here.» After going into the yard he puts shoe covers over his boots so as not to track mud through the house.
Aaron is the man.

i called them at 9:30 and there were there within the hour! it was good prompt service.

We have now used Dave’s Custom plumbing twice and both times they have been awesome. The first time we called them for an emergency — a friend accidentally ran over the main water line to the house with her car, severing it. I called Dave’s plumbing and they immediately sent someone out who was professional and expert at their job. They explained the possible solutions to me and suggested that we try a less expensive fix first before a more extensive approach. I thought it was great that he was trying to save me money. Turned out that the minmalist approach fixed the problem and we didn’t have to do that much to get the water back. yay!
The second time I called them to install a new toilet. I was expecting to have to schedule the job for sometime next week but they told me they had someone available to come and install within an hour. Wow! The person who showed up was as courteous and professional as first guy I worked with. He not only installed my toilet, he took away the old one. And, their receptionist volunteered to find out if I was eligible for a low flow toilet rebate.
All in all Dave’s Custom Plumbing is a full service, cost effective, professional company that goes the extra mile to do thing in a fast and expert manner. I highly recommend this company.

Great service! I ordered a plumber 2 weeks ago. They sent Aharon. He came just on time and fixed everything quickly and efficiently. When something got broke he went to a close store got the relevant part and took care of it as well. Highly recommend!

They sent Brian out to look into our dishwasher (we suspected that the drain was clogged causing some water to pool in the bottom of the dishwasher at the end of each cycle). After a thorough inspection of the plumbing and the dishwasher, he couldn’t find anything wrong with the drainage. He checked the pipes and the pump and even fiddled with the dishwasher where he would start a wash, interrupt the cycle and see if water was collecting (he did this a few times). Since we could actually hear the water draining at the start of every cycle, we hypothesized that it might be the machine itself, perhaps the control panel is off-​sync.
The services that were rendered were pretty straight-​forward and for the sake of keeping it real in terms of my Unilocal star ratings, I’m giving these guys 4 stars. I’ll definitely call these guys again for my plumbing needs.