E L says, "Background:I have an old house that was built in the 1940s and it has additions that were built later. I noticed in the home's original bathroom that the galvanized steel pipe which connected to the sink was rusting. I contacted a couple of plumbers and the consensus was that I needed to do a partial repipe (i.e. on the oldest part of the house) and replace the galvanized steel piping with copper.When I compared James/Gladiator's estimate to the other 2 companies I noticed the following:1. I was given clear price breakdown rather than a lump sum (for repipe, sheetrock repair, water heater service and code upgrades, main water line)2. Gladiator had the highest amount of liability insurance across all categories (workman's comp, general liability, etc..)3. The inspection permit and passing the inspection was part of the estimate/job4. Gladiator was Diamond Certified (an additional point of reassurance)5. price-wise Gladiator was on par with one of the other companies (but the other company had terrible Yelp reviews), while the third company gave me a much higher price for less serviceAt this point I decided to go with Gladiator.Repipe Day:On the day of the repipe James showed up on time with four of Gladiator's plumbers, as well as his foreman. They worked from 9am to 5pm (exactly as James indicated) and completed the repipe. This included the air pressure test that helped verify that there were no leaks. They also cleaned up the house and minimized the amount of holes done to the sheetrock and plaster (much of the old part of the house has plaster...great :-( ).During the repipe I asked James if his people could also check the sewer drain lines (since they were in the crawl space). Upon checking the drain lines, they found that some of the galvanized steel drain pipes were leaking sewage (they took pictures to show me).James went over the options with me:Option 1: leave it as is (it would only get worse leading to eventual failure; sewage in the crawl space and lots of money to clean-up and fix it)Option 2: add this work to the existing repipe permit and get it done in a dayI choose option 2 since it was the better long-term approach and it was more economical (i.e. since Gladiator was already working on my house).The next day Gladiator's plumbers showed up once again and replaced the old drain lines of the house as well as santizied/cleaned the sewage areas.The inspection:The inspection process involves a "rough" inspection (while everything is opened up so the inspector can see the actual piping) and a "final" inspection (when all the holes are patched). Gladiator's office person (Cynthia) did an excellent job in scheduling the inspector, communicating to me the times of inspection, and making sure that one of Gladiator's plumbers was at the house during the inspection process. Any fixes that needed to be done were done by Gladiator's employees on the spot so both the repipe and drain line work passed both inspections (whohoo).Hole Patching:I have to say that Gladiator's hole patching guy was AMAZING. He patched both sheetrock and plaster with great craftsmanship making the patches look seamless (in terms of texture and smoothness). I only had to do a bit of touch up paint to get the areas back to original shape.Conclusion:Fixing an old home sucks, especially when it comes to copper repiping and sewer drain line replacment. James Baily made the process smooth and predictable. I judge a project on 3 levels: quality of work, amount of time it takes, and cost. Gladiator REPIPE Inc. checked all the boxes:1. Excellent quality of work2. Work done in a day per plan (this one is so rare...I've had so many other companies and contractors tell me that something will take a day and it ends up taking two weeks)3. Cost on par with other estimatesI am very happy with James and Gladiator and will happily recommend them to anyone that needs repipe and drain line replacement."See more
