Big Blue Plumbing

I can't say enough good things about this company. They are professional, friendly, efficient, and hard working. We have a pretty serious plumbing situation that will require more work, but on day one the team came out and worked their you-know-whats off for about 8 hours. They explained everything to us clearly and gave us multiple options on how to proceed before starting anything. I have never had such a positive experience with any plumbing company before, and I would definitely recommend Big Blue to anyone who needs a plumber. Totally top notch.

So yesterday I decided to resolve a minor issue in the bathroom. I called Big Blue Plumbing, fully expecting an appointment in 1-2 weeks. But, I was offered a 1-3pm window THAT day. Nathan arrived 5 mins early, spent 2 hours repairing the problem and giving me options should it recur. He was very personable and I loved the little biography I was sent before his arrival. My dog loved him. Thanks Big Blue

prompt, professional reasonable service.

Do not recommend. Horrible communication. I had to repeatedly call them back to get scheduling confirmations, which kept getting delayed. It is very clear that if I had not followed up, they never would have.

Called these guys with an emergency when a water heater flooded my condo in the evening. They confirmed they could make an appointment the next morning. Overnight they texted me that they were “canceling the appointment due to a scheduling change.” I can’t speak to the quality of the actual work they do, but I certainly wouldn’t depend on them in the case of an emergency. They might just decide they won’t be coming after all.

Terrible plumbers. Predatory sales techniques. Big marketing budget. Stay clear of Big Blue, they are totally inept. ^ Is the short version. The long version: They installed a hydronic hot water boiler/forced air system for my inlaws, and the owner Paul turned up and applied some pressure and his slimy sales routine to get them to sign up with him. My father in-law was early stage Alzheimers, we would later come to understand. Paul instantly gave both my wife and I chills when we happened to be there one time, and we completely regret not stepping in and getting rid of him from the outset. All our fears came true. He got my in-laws to install this system and sign up for his ridiculous plumbing subscription scheme, then proceeded to do some of the worst plumbing we've ever seen and never be able to get this hydronic system up and running properly. Every time they were subsequently called there were ridiculous mistakes and shenanigans. Even the basic plumbing was so bad. In particular one day, they broke more things than they fixed. We turned on the tap, water poured out under the sink. Went to do load of laundry, they had repositioned it so that the lid could no longer open. Went to make dinner, they had tripped the gas shut-off so we couldn't use the stove. Pretty much everything they did didn't work first time round. On the hydronic side, they have no business claiming any expertise. I just finally found a competent hydronic plumber -- Albert Nahman Services -- and they diagnosed that Big Blue plumbed this system incorrectly from the get go. Completely bypassing the efficiencies of a hydronic system altogether. They're fixing it now, in one visit. Explained it to me in plain terms I could understand--check valves in the wrong places, return plumbed to the wrong place. I highly rate them so far. Compare Big Blue, who we called multiple times to diagnose the system they installed. All the explanations they offered made no sense. On one visit they went around changing every mixer valve in the house, with nothing to show for it--the problem remained. Lucky for them, they didn't even have the guts to charge us for these calls when they tried to follow up about the invoice months later. They had zero response to our critique of their services and comped their fees. The HVAC equipment they installed was also a complete joke. We had the system overhauled when we moved in and the technician who helped me with it laughed out loud at the state of it. Huge holes and air gaps around the furnace. Things hidden behind flaps of insulation. The sheet metal work looked liked it had been done by a preschooler he said. He took pictures to add to his personal wall of shame. Maybe I'll see if he can post them here. It's not just him. Multiple professionals we've since brought in concur that this company has no valid expertise for meddling in HVAC when they're barely middling plumbers. Somehow they got the City of Berkeley to sign off on all this and I'm completely confused how they managed it. And it wasn't cheap--they charged my in-laws tens of thousands of dollars for what I now understand is low-grade equipment installed by amateurs backed up by nothing. As far as I can tell, all their attention and budget goes into draping life-size pictures of Paul on their trucks and equipment, and shooting cringey marketing movies. Where's Paul? Who knows. I got a different answer every time I spoke to someone there. He never answered for any of this. Seems like he's done ripping off the older generation of Berkeley and is trying to retire on it. Doesn't seem like they can get anyone decent to work for them, and the working environment seems pretty unpleasant and dysfunctional for those that are there. They're forced to make excuses for Paul and the trail of incompetence he leaves behind. Do not hire this awful awful company.

I have previously reviewed Big Blue, giving them a glowing 5 STAR. This is a follow up review. Big Blue has done work for us on a two large jobs (replacing water lines, gas lines, and sewer line for two seperate houses)a year ago. When the technicians were working on a job they were professional, courteous, thorough, and informative. The work has been done extraordinarily well and the job sites were left clean (in one instance the tech went above and beyond, cleaning up the site from previous plumbers' work) Their technicians are why they received a 5 star. HOWEVER There is NO follow through. Calls are not returned. Appointments are scheduled and then seem to disappear from the system. When I call to confirm an appointment, or to verify follow up issues, my information is taken and I am ALWAYS told I will receive a call back that day. Two days later I call the office, explain what the issue is, that I was told I would receive a call and have not, and request to speak to someone present in the office. For some reason only the technician I initially spoke to can handle my call but I am sincerely assured he will call me back. I do not receive call backs. I call the office again asking to speak to anyone. The person answering the phones has been consistently pleasant, sympathetic and reassuring but I am again told everyone is out in the field but they will call me back. I never receive call backs by anyone in the office or the technicians. To be clear, my questions were not technical in nature, but either verifying quotes or asking about invoice discrepancies. Due to those reasons we did not feel confident to contract with Big Blue on a larger remodeling project. However we had a small plumbing job and I felt Big Blue could be counted on to understand the time sensitive nature of the project and be able to fulfill the schedule. I contacted Big Blue, spoke with a technician, Paul, discussed the scope of the job, told him we do NOT need a quote as we would like Big Blue to handle the job (disconnect plumbing and gas in prep for countertop installation, and then a reconnect 2 days later) and arranged the schedule. True to form, I received a phone call the day before the job was to begin asking me when I would like to be put on the schedule. When I told this person I was on the schedule, they checked and no I am not on the schedule but they would have someone call me back to clear this up. 24 hours later, no call and I am unable to reach anyone in the office beyond an answering service where they will take my number and call me back. Another side note, be sure to check any quote or invoices from Big Blue. We found mistakes in both which would have resulted in overbilling.

Big Blue 7/16: Hired Big Blue to install replacement water system booster pump. Failed to notice 220 voltage in home, pump 110 voltage - Big Blue had to send an electrician to resolve discrepancy between voltages. We also discovered that the pump could not be isolated form the main water supply. Thee was no valve on the water intake side of the pump. This should have been a red flag that the company has incompetent employees. 1/13/18: Notice leak from pump and contacted Big Blue, client emailed photos to assist Big Blue in diagnosis of the issue. Client wanted Big Blue an apt to resolve issue to prevent a larger problem. Original appointment was for a week from contact, however client insisted upon a sooner appointment as leak was continuing. (1/18) Big Blue sent out RJ and he turned off pump, said our pump was defective and we needed a new one. He also wanted to up-sell us with a $5,000 water purification system. Client checked other neighbors in the area, none recommended that as EBMUD water quality is good; one neighbor being a toxicologist. Big Blue processed a $745 credit card charge (deposit) even though we emailed that we decided not to order the $5,000 water purification system within 24 hours (Saturday); and found we had to reverse a charge when we called the credit card company Sunday noticing it had been charged. Emails were sent to document all of this to Big Blue. 2/2/18: As of today, we are with minimal water pressure (15psi) for a second story house. From 1/18/18 - 2/2/18 two weeks: Big Blue has had to: 1. Look for the original invoice to prove to themselves the warranty issue 2. Numerous emails and phone call messages to Karla (Receptionist), Zack (Service Manager) and an email to Paul (Owner) were sent to resolve and understand when the pump would be ordered and when the warranty / refund situation would be resolved - as Big Blue is the original purchaser and the refund would be given to them for warranty. 3. Our latest understanding is that Big Blue wants the client (US) to order the pump and if/when the refund is given, they would receive it and in theory, pass it on to the client. This isn't standard business practice and the customer service is non-existent. It is unacceptable that the client has had to pursue/follow up and request information without satisfaction. The client has now had to order more durable pump and contact an alternate plumber to resolve the issue that Big Blue should have taken care of promptly and without conflict. Obviously, Big Blue doesn't care. We want them to compensate us what they paid for the pump ($874.67).

In March of 2019, my tenant informed me that he had a clogged sink drain. I called Big Blue. Nick Mini arrived and proceeded to take apart the offending drain under the sink to "hook up a customer supplied p trap and cold slide angle stop." In the process of completing this "repair", he claimed to be unable to extract the p trap from the drain. He claimed that in order to complete the extraction he had to cut the p trap from the drain. He proceeded to do the cutting, that included a process of cutting four slits in the remaining end of the p trap pipe and turning them into the pipe thus almost completely obstructing potential flow through the drain. Mr Mini then told me that the remaining section of the p trap could not be extracted and that he needed to complete additional repairs. He needed to "Open wall or cabinet to expose sanitary tee and dirty arm. Cut out existing tee and dirty arm. Replace drain to floor level, connect with existing vent. Replace P-trap and dirty arm". Big Blue charged $272.80 for Nick's "repair", i.e. the obstruction of the drain. Big Blue then proposed to charge an additional $985.30 for the proposed next step. I have a good relationship with my tenant and he offered to help. He is not a plumber or a repair-person. However, given the additional expense, I believed that I had not much to lose by having him try. Having completed his effort, my tenant sent me the following note: "I went to the sink and cut the offending metal out with a Sawzall. My total repair time was definitely under fifteen minutes. The final photo here is the piece if metal that big blue was trying to con you with. This was a non-issue repair." Also included was a picture of the nicely repaired drain, completely reassembled. I made Paul the owner of Big Blue aware of this situation. He dismissed my compliant. He told me that Mr Mini was a fine plumber and had just received an award for his work. It is now 18 months since my tenant restored the drain. It is working just fine. If you take any estimate by Big Blue seriously, you are at risk of being conned. If Nick Mini works on your plumbing problem, it is likely to grow in scope and cost, for which he will be accordingly recognized by his company with another award. Beware the Big Blue con! Big Blue is now offering a $100 drawing for the "best" review written about the company. No criteria for victory have been specified. I do not see much chance of winning,

I'm sorry to have to write this, as BigBlue was formerly a fine company that I was very happy with. They installed a radiant heating system 6 years ago and their CS was excellent on the rare occasion that there were issues with the system. They responded quickly and got things fixed quickly. However, when we had a massive failure of the system In early November 2024, they completely let me down and left me with a freezing cold house for 5 weeks. They initially came out pretty quickly (2 days) to inspect and at first told me that there was a problem with the boiler and it would have to be inspected - something they couldn't do, and basically told me I was on my own to find someone to do the inspection. BS. I called back repeatedly and finally got a manager and not just an outsourced CS worker, and found out that yes, they had a more experienced tech who could do this. He came out a week later and confirmed that the boiler was indeed fried (but still under warranty!!) and that they could get it a new one installed in a week or less. This is where things got dodgy. They never were able to give me a date for the new boiler installation and they stopped returning my calls or texts. and on the few occasions that I was able to get through to them by phone, they said they would have the new boiler in a day or two and would text to call or email to confirm a repair date later in the day. Then nothing. This "We're working on it and will update you by EOD" happened three times in two weeks - with no update or follow through. Basically, they ghosted me. Three weeks total went by with no communication from BigBlue on a repair date. Meanwhile, my house is a chilly 54 degrees with no hot water for bathing or doing dishes. I finally got through to the owner (who had been so great in the past) and found out that 4 days prior to my system failing, he had sold his company to some large plumbing company. He was out of the loop an could do nothing. So i was 5 weeks in with zero communications nd. freezing house. I finally just found another plumbing company that wanted the work and found and installed a new boiler for me in two days. Stay away from BigBlue, it was the worst experience of my life dealing with this slipshod and dishonest company.

My neighbors hired these guys to replace a sewer lateral that went under my yard. The initial communication was "We'll have to dig a hole in front of your house to connect the sewer lateral. It won't affect you otherwise." Cool, no problem. The first morning of work one of their guys was wandering around in my yard at 8:15am with some kind of beeping surveying equipment. If I had been wearing pants at the time, I would have run out to yell at him. Maybe the neighbors forgot to relay the "we'll have to wander around your yard" info, but no matter what, ring the doorbell first and introduce yourself before you go wandering around someone's yard. Then two days later, they knock on my door at 9am "Hey we goofed up, we have to dig a hole in your yard today." WTF!? I mean, I let them dig it. I'm not going to prevent my neighbor from having a sewer lateral replacement. But you're supposed to figure these things out ahead of time, so you can let people know a day or two (or preferably, weeks) ahead of time that you are going to be digging a hole in their yard. Or if you're not sure, at least warn that it might be a possibility. If it was just one act of unprofessionalism I would have let it slide. Two is a pattern, and gets you a one-star review. *** Response to Big Blue's 12/22 comment: (1) You did not ring the doorbell before wandering into my backyard at 8:30 am in the morning. It's loud and I can't miss it. You say you knocked; it must have been quietly. (2) You did not communicate with me directly before doing the work. The first time I heard anything from you directly was beeping from your detector in my backyard. (3) I'm not sure what you mean by "We did inform you there was a possibility that there may be some digging in the easement at the back of your property." The notice I got from my neighbors weeks ahead of time, by email, was "neither your nor your neighbor's property will be dug up or affected in any way." The first I heard that digging would happen in my yard, or any possibility thereof, was the morning-of, when your person arrived at my door and said "we made a mistake in measuring, we need to dig a hole in your yard today". ***

I'm someone who leaves reviews -- and most of them are very positive. I believe in acknowledging good service when it's earned. Unfortunately, this is not one of those times. In early 2020, I contacted Big Blue Plumbing for an emergency plumbing issue involving a leak from the shower pan and drain line. Their website advertises 24-hour emergency response and emphasizes thorough assessment by licensed, insured professionals. The estimate was $10,147, but the final cost came to $16,215 -- a 60% increase as the scope expanded. I also purchased the required materials myself. The work was completed in March 2020. A few years later, I had to completely remove the shower installation after discovering that the floor around the shower had become dangerously weak. I realized something was wrong when my foot nearly went through the floor -- you could press with a shoe and see the basement below. During removal, several serious issues became clear: The original water damage was never fully assessed The surrounding subfloor remained rotted and unsafe The shower installation was crooked, with uneven support planks Moisture had continued spreading for years, causing further structural damage These are precisely the kinds of issues an emergency plumbing repair should catch -- and the kind their website claims they thoroughly evaluate. Considering the amount paid and the urgency of the situation, Big Blue Plumbing should have identified the full extent of the damage before installing a new shower. Instead, the most critical safety and structural problems were ignored. I now face significant additional costs to repair the area and make it safe again. I've reached out to the company for a resolution and am awaiting their response. I rarely leave negative reviews -- in fact, most of mine are highly positive -- but consumers deserve transparency. Based on my experience, I urge homeowners to proceed with caution. The lack of proper assessment and the long-term safety hazards that resulted were extremely disappointing and costly.

I had posted a positive review for Big Blue back in 2020. This is the first time I have, unfortunately, had to delete the positive review and post a negative one. Our experience with Big Blue in 2020 was a postive one. More recently we had a subsequent positive experience, and had for all intents and purposes hoped to have Big Blue as our go to plumbing service going forward. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case based on our most recent experience. Big Blue replaced a toilet for us fairly recently. The toilet began leaking due to the seal under the toilet failing. This was under warranty since the toilet was recently installed. The Big Blue Rep came by and initially wanted to charge us for installing a new seal on the toilet until I explained that they recently installed the toilet and we should not be charged for this. He called the office and this was agreed on. However, a small angle valve on the back of the toilet was also leaking and replacing this was not part of the initial toilet replacement so we were informed that we would have to be charged for that. After the seal was replaced and the angle valve, we were informed the charge would be over $500.00. The Angle valve, which sells at home depot for $9.94 and which took just minutes to install, resulted in a bill of over $500.00? The replacing of the seal and the labor involved in that should not have incurred any labor costs since it was under warranty. We have tried repeatedly to call and get an answer as to why we were charged over $500.00 for a $9.00 piece to be replaced in just a few minutes, and we have received no reply. We were attempting to either get a reasonable justification for this or a reimbursement. I paid the amount at the time since my wife was having surgery the following day and the last thing I had to worry about was the toilet leaking. After multiple attempts to work with Big Blue regarding this, and getting no cooperation at all, I have resorted to posting this and will no longer support this business.

We were out of town on vacation and were notified by a house sitter that we had an emergency water leak outside of our home. We contacted Big Blue Plumbing by telephone due to their Google Reviews and requested an immediate onsite inspection and repair action. We were initially quoted a flat rate of $3,950 for the repairs without their doing any investigation work of the failed water leak source. The firm tried to talk us out of doing the repair and instead tried to get us to do a complete water line replacement in the amount of $14,000, to which we replied that was out of our available budget. After much discussion the firm agreed to do the water line repairs, and provided a final cost of $3441.11, (to which they knew we were out of town and were stuck with an ongoing leak, so we were left with little choice but to accept the repairs and pay for it). Our neighbor and our house sitter notified us that the repair person, who was competent, was onsite a total of approximately 3 hours for the repair action, meaning that we paid a plumber about $1,000 per hour for the repairs. Also, both the repair person and his supervisor verbally inferred to us that since we did not agree to do the $14K water line replacement, they would not warrant these repairs because of the PVC/copper line connection interface possibility of failure (which is clear violation of California Civil Codes 896 and 900, which requires a licensed contractor to provide a minimum warranty of one year for any work completed and paid for). So, please be advised of this scenario when requesting any work from this contractor. NOTE: Regarding the discussed warranty issue above, irrespective of what was verbally discussed between the contractor staff, myself, and my wife regarding a potential lack of warranty (due to the PVC/copper line connection interface possible failure) prior to the completion of the work, the invoice received from the company indicates a two-year warranty for the completed work, which is acceptable.

Love, love, love Paul and his customer service! Yes, he might be a little bit more than the competitors but it's SO worth it on the customer service side. He knows his stuff inside and out and is willing to take the time necessary to educate you so that you are very clear on all your options. I had a unique need because I the previous had installed a radiant floor heating system. Although I didn't use it, I wanted to maintain its integrity for resale purposes. Paul Gerrard (owner extraordinaire!) came out to do the estimate. He spent over two hours explaining everything to me which I really appreciated because I like to be extremely educated on every project I take on. He explained my three options and was very thorough in understanding how the radiant floor unit came into play. He was the ONLY provider that discussed how a tankless water heater would work (or not) in coordination with the radiant floor unit. After receiving three other bids (some of which were cheaper) I chose Paul and Big Blue because of his knowledge and his customer service. It is so hard to find a contractor for projects these days that you can truly trust that they will do what they say. Yes, I paid more than I would have with another provider but I really needed to know that the project was going to be done right the first time and that I was very clear on how it worked in my current setup. Paul made me feel very comfortable. Hell, he even offered to allow my engineering father who was questioning every part of the project, to call his cell with any questions! He sold me with that. The team was meticulous and Paul was sure to oversee everything from beginning to end. We are happily enjoying a much needed extremely hot shower thanks to the tankless water heater!