Good Guy Plumbing

Superb experience with John. He really, truly is a Good Guy.
He had given me a quote over the phone: $ 125 to clear our sink drain. When he got here, he cleared it quickly, then caulked a loose faucet in the kitchen. AND ONLY CHARGED $ 40 FOR THE WORK. He says he hates to see people get ripped off. He is also prompt, takes his shoes off in the house, and totally personable. What a great guy, and what fabulous service. I wish I could give him 10 stars.

John installed a pressure reducing valve in my water main… Did it quick and at one third the cost that I was quoted by Puget sound plumbing and heating… I strongly recommend him!

I wanted to work with John after all the great reviews on Unilocal,and another reviewer described my exact problem, so it seemed like a perfect fit. Unfortunately, when I described the problem on the phone to him, and that another reviewer had said he had helped her with the same problem, John still couldn’t describe for me what the appropriate solution would be (not the price mind you, but just what was involved in fixing the problem that he had apparently already fixed for someone else). That was frustrating… but I still wanted to give a small business a chance. And he was local.
Woke up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday (my least favorite thing to do) in order to run all my errands, clean the bathroom (where John would be working — yes, I cleaned for the plumber to come), get the dog exercised, and all that jazz so that I could be ready for the 10am appointment as I had other committments later that day. I had scheduled the appointment on a weekend because John was not available during the week (despite apparently just having taken 2 months off he said). I literally, ran around like a madperson for 2 hours prior in order to be ready.
He called at 9:57am stating he would be «2 hours late». Excuuuuuuse Me? 2 HOURS? No apology, no nothing. He said «Well, I’m at this job and you know how it is.» ummmmm no I don’t. I am not a plumber. I stated that it was a huge inconvenience for me and that I had things to do later that day, and I reminded him I scheduled this time at his convenience, not mine. Again, no apology. He then stated «Well, you gotta understand I am a small business — it’s just me and one other person.» Yeah, my parents run a small business — that doesn’t give you an excuse to be 2 hours late for a customer who is paying you money. AND had he called at 9am, or even 9:30am I would have maybe been more forgiving, but when you call at the time you are supposed to be pulling up in my driveway, and you can’t even as much as apologize, you don’t get another shot.
Thumbs down.

After a terrible leak in my condo bathroom which made it to the unit below, I searched on Unilocal and found John with Good Guy Plumbing. Over the phone I described the issue being the neighbor informed me about lots of water coming from their ceiling in their bathroom, most likely from my bathroom, and John had a pretty good idea of what the problem was just from my brief explanation.
The next day he came over and patched up the problem and I was good to go — no more leakage. In terms of pricing, John was definitely reasonable, he was very quick to solve the problem and I appreciated the attention to urgency with the issue, being the week of Thanksgiving even.
I would recommend him to anyone looking for a knowledgeable, professional, fast plumber. I will definitely use him again if we ever run into issues like that!

Life-​saver! Not only was he friendly, fast, respectful of my home (didn’t track in leaves/​muck/​left the work area clean) — he was totally understanding when it turned out my husband had left for the day with my checkbook AND the carseat for the toddler. He held on while I went to get cash and even offered to watch my little guy if necessary.
Cleared my drain in less than 15 minutes, even with a drain plug that some previous plumber (or resident) had cemented into place. Advised me as to the state of the pipes but didn’t try to upsell me on service that can wait. I’ll definitely be calling for the work that needs to be done!

My non-​yelping friend used his service recently and this is what he had to say: «He had to postpone the appointment by a few hours due to an emergency elsewhere, but was great about keeping me posted. It turned out my problem was very minor. He laughed a bit, fixed it, and wouldn’t accept payment for the trouble of making a house call. Honesty goes a long way!»

I called John and explained our problem over the phone (broken glass fell into garbage disposal so it quit working; then dishwasher quit draining). Over the phone he could tell me we’d either need a new pump, or just to clear out the disposal. Made an appointment for the following morning.
He was on time, a little early even. Came right in and got to work. First, he needed to make sure the dishwasher’s pump wasn’t broken. He unhooked the drainage tube running out of the dishwasher from the garbage disposal and pointed it into the sink; we turned it on to check if it would drain and it did! Lucky. No replacements needed there.
Then he took off the garbage disposal and shook it out upside down. Sure enough, glass fell out. Lots of banging on the disposal and cranking this thing in the middle with an allen wrench followed. He put the disposal back on and voila — it worked like new.
That was it!
$ 135 seems pretty high to me for about 15 minutes of work, but I guess you’re also paying for 1) immediate knowledge of what needs to happen, and 2) the confidence which makes it possible for the work to happen in minutes instead of wobbly hours trying to figure it out on your own.
P. S. In case you’re wondering why there’s so many pictures of boats on a page for a plumber, it’s because he’s also an avid boater — we had a nice little chat about that.

He’s A-​Ok!
1. Answered the phone prompty.
2. Scheduled an appointment for the next day.
3. Called to let me know he was running late — this was good for me, too!
4. Showed me how to remove my tub’s drain so I can clean it in the future.
5. Quick and efficient.
6. He washed his hands in my sink and I did too after cleaning up the tub after he left. This made it back up till the water was just standing in it… the sink wasn’t running slowly *at all* before this.
7. I went to the store and got some liquid plumber gel and got the sink working again. I usually only use earth friendly enzymes so this felt like a huge step backwards and made me sad… but maybe my sink was just a few pieces of debris away from a clog anyways???
8. I’d call him again because of his communication skills and his great sense of humor and because he repaired my tub — no problem. I appreciate the call when he was running only 1 hour late… instead of just showing up late like some people would.
9. The price was fair.
10. The work was done in less than 30 minutes.

I don’t want my first review to be negative, yet my experience with Good Guy Plumbing was negative. On the first appointment, the plumber called last minute to cancel the appointment. We re-​scheduled for the following week.
I took the afternoon off. And they never showed. I left a message for them and they never return the call.

Unfortunately my fist review has to be negative.
I emailed good guy plumbing, explaining the work I needed done. I got a response saying to call, so I called. We talked about what I needed and was quoted a reasonable price and was told he would be by between 9 – 10 Tuesday morning. I wrote it down on my calendar as we were speaking and then got the day off of work.
On Tuesday by 11:30 he had not shown up or called so I called him, but it went straight to voicemail. I left a message asking if he was coming and if not, to please let me know. I did not know what to do, do I call another plumber who might not be able to come out for a few days? Do I hope that he is just really late? Well, he never showed up and I called a few more times but all went right to voicemail.
The next day I get a message from him, «hey, just returning your call, I was out of town on a job yesterday». Really? So after my email, our conversation, and my voicemail you didn’t acknowledge that we had an appointment that you missed and I had to take a day off of work?! I just don’t understand customer service like that.
I would not recommend good guy plumbing if you want someone to actually come to your house and fix your pipes for you. Don’t count on his word, it will only frustrate you and you will lose a whole day just waiting.

John is a great guy and becoming a very popular Seattle area plumber, which can make wait times for service a little longer, but that is okay with us. We have used him on several projects and he does great work at a very fair rate. He is an NY’er and will tell it to you straight so if you are a whimpy native from Washington you might be taken back… but Fear Not he is one good plumber.
T
Seattle Area

I adore this man. I have had a tub full of spaghetti sauce (after disposal backed up) for two days. He couldn’t get to me on day one, but on day two he was on time and over $ 100 less than the other company quoted.
KEEP HIS NUMBER!!!

I live out in Redmond and Good Guy was great about coming out to the east side on one of his slow days. We made an appointment and he showed up on time! Then he quickly diagnosed the problem and gave me a fair price. He proceeded to do the work on my busted pipe and got everything done within 30 minutes! he even recommended a few solutions to prevent the problem from reoccurring.
I definitely would call Good Guy Plumbing again because of their great on-​time service and pricing. A+

John is truly a good guy. I spent 4 days wrestling with a snake and chemicals because I’m stubborn. He came out and fixed the problem with a pressure hose. My wife is happy. That makes it possible for me to be happy, and it cost far less than the other bastages charge. The Roto people even told me that if I could get it done for his price, I should go with it. Give him more than he asks. Good people are worth it.

I’m so DONE with the Roto Rooters and Beacon Plumbing (s?). Good, honest service from a local guy (and his uncle) for a surprisingly low price and speedy delivery is not easy to find. Luckily, I found a good plumber and can sleep peacefully knowing that I no longer have a leaky toilet.

This is now my second time using Good Guy Plumbing. They came out and replaced my Water Heater for much less than I could find elsewhere. Additionally, I got a high quality commercial grade unit as a replacement. John, the plumber, is very cordial and works quickly and efficiently. I can’t recommend him enough. Also important to me was the fact he created very minimal mess while working, and left the room as clean as it was when he arrived.
A few years back I bought a fixer-​upper, so I’ve had a lot of experience with contractors and a lot of disappointments. I wish all contractors were as timely and honest as these guys. Life would be so much easier.

Again I’m on Unilocal to find me a good plumber. John turned out to be the winner — I tried out another one and they gave me the wierdest quote — it was $ 20 more an hour bc I live in Wallingford and their territory seems to be up to Fremont.
anyhow, he helped to install a water heater, removed the old one and also unclogged a few sinks (this was done gratis).
danke!

i was hoping to have a good experience with this after reading so many good reviews, however it must have been a bad day for him.
Each time I called he was super short on the phone, but booked time for me later in the week… I took time off work to be there, and waited… And waited… and waited.
I called, and he said he was delayed at another job and that he called my wife to let me know. However, I don’t have a wife… he then realized he forgot to call me at all.
Frustrated, I asked him to call me back the next day, and I never heard from him again.
I ended up calling Becon Plumbing and had an amazing experience.
This stuff happens, but just wanted to share my experience.

On the advice of fellow Unilocalers, I had John came install our new kitchen faucet. It looks fabulous and he stuck to his estimate. Before he took my money, he let me try out the faucet for myself to make sure I was happy with it.
I’d definitely call John again for plumbing-​related services.

I’ve only dealt with one of the good guys, and I can confirm– he’s a good guy. John is a native New Yorker and proud of it– and I like that, he tells you straight up what’s going on; shooting mainly from the hip. He saved me a considerable amount of labor time and money– I appreciate that. Plus, he made room for me when he was extremely busy. I will definitely recommend him to anyone and know they’ll be pleased too.
***Sidenote– John was unable to get a job for me done in the time frame he had originally provided (he had a huge problem come up on a separate job) anyhow, he would not accept payment due to his tardiness– I tried to convince him otherwise, and he wouldn’t budge… the guy’s a genuine plumbing hero– thanks John