Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

A basement sewer line flood was not something we expected to happen. The sewer line was scoped and 5 support sleeves were installed. Problem fixed. Everyone (supervisor, cleanup crew and pipe repair) were professional, knowledgeable, respectful and very reassuring that the job would be done correctly. We are extremely grateful for Jack. He went above and beyond to make sure we were satisfied and comfortable knowing the problem was fixed/repaired. Bravo to everyone involved. THE BEST!

Payton was so fantastic! Professional and personable. I had a similar service done with a different company and they didn't go through the detail that was done through this job. Even got a level out to check a PVC pipe. I was so impressed. I cannot recommend this service enough. Never will use anyone but Roto ever again. Also the call center is super friendly, no issues and had a couple good laughs.

Amazing work on a nasty lil job. Tight spaces and old plumbing. Donald made quick work of the issue with no disruptions to home life. Antoine was a masterful communicator and keep me informed for a few days as a master plumber was required to complete the job. Dispatch was courteous and attentive. Rotorooter showed up the day I called, the competition could only schedule me 5 days out. They are now my go to solution for plumbing needs. 5 stars all the way around!

Do not call Roto Rooter, unless you have done research on your plumbing problem yourself. I called to have them unclog a toilet that a plunger couldn't take care of and the plumber tried to tell me they had to pull the toilet and when I suggested they run a toilet auger through it he said, "I've never heard of such a thing in my life." A toilet auger, he, a licensed plumber had never heard of it... When I said I was unwilling to pay $215 to have him pull the toilet, he told me he could run a toilet auger for $115. This, the tool, he had never heard of in his life. I had no choice really but to have him run the toilet auger which took care of the clog, of course and pay the fee. Needless to say, I won't be calling roto-rooter for any other services, which is too bad because we need to have our basement plumbing repaired.

F*** ROTO ROOTER. Worst company I have ever dealt with. They came to my house twice to fix a minor issue. Caused a much greater issue and now are refusing to give me a refund. I called them twice and the second time the woman who answered the phone yelled at me saying "YOU ALREADY CALLED SIR!!!" and then proceeded to hang up. How does a company like this survive with this type of customer service?

5/16/26: I called last night for an appointment to repair the first floor toilet, since it no longer flushed. I spoke to Rocco, Scheduler,, and he was friendly and definitely top rate for customer service. Rocco lined the appt. up for the next morning. Sean Lipp was our service technician and he did a nice job replacing the parts in the tank. 5 Stars for Rocco and Sean. 1/27/2026: Brad (Tech 2957) did a terrific job today installing a new faucet in the 1st floor bathroom. The previous faucet clogging due to hard water. Hooray for Brad. My initial phone call today was with Alanna, who was ver helpful setting this appointment. 8/24/2025: Brad did a great job fixing a leaking toilet. We have used the Cincinnati Roto-Rooter branch before and they always do a super job. They deserve 5 Stars. 8/23/2024: A new repair surfaced today with a leak under the sink in the first floor bathroom. Shareef Muhammad was the service technician and he showed up right on schedule and solved the problem. I like that Shareef and the other Roto-Rooter technicians explain their recommendation for the best possible service to fix the problem --- in this case, a leak with the faucet and pipes under sink. 5 star service and they sure know how to take care of customers. 8/21/24:Jacob Rogers made two visits this week for a few jobs, including a new expansion tank for our water heater / water pressure adjusted / install a pressure inducing valve / repair toilet. He repaired and installed the items on our list and the explained the repairs and upgrades. He's an excellent service technician too and we continue to highly recommend Rotor-Rooter on Montana Ave in Cincinnati. Update on 3/21/23: Roto-Rooter detected the source of a leak in our outside spigot for the garden hose. The water pipe had frozen from the cold and Clayton, Technician, replaced the damaged pipe and faucet. It was same day service and Clayton did an excellent job. This was our 1st job with Roto Rooter on Montana Ave in Cincinnati and they were Excellent! Water was dripping from the ceiling and by the closet doors near the hot water heater and furnace last Sunday morning.. After I shut off the main water supply, I checked again for the source of the leak. It was from the Expansion Tank that was on top of the water heater. The age of the expansion tank was unknown, but there was a rust ring around the circumference and the weater pressure forced a hole in that tank. I'm sure glad I called Roto Rooter after searching for top rated plumbers on the computer!! Within just a couple hours, Kaila Statt, Field Supervisor, was out to assess the damage. She was Excellent = very thorough, answered all my questions... even called our home insurance company to file a claim for us. Kaila's expertise included taking pictures, assessing the damage and setting the water remediation appointment. She really put me at ease by taking great care of various details! Cortaiz Parker removed the leaking expansion tank and installed a new one later in the afternoon. He was fast, polite and easy to work with too. The next day, Anthony Jordan setup the fans and drying equipment. He was very helpful and explaine the drying process and goal of eliminating the humidity in the damaged area. Ron and Robert individually checked on the drying statistics on appointments during the week and Anthony returned to monitor the drying. Yesterday, Romario Burrell and Darrin removed all the drying equipment. We were very pleased with the customer service from Roto Rooter on Montana Ave in Cincinnati and Highly Recommend them if you need / want professional service.

BEWARE!!! PLEASE READ! Cincinnati Branch This company does not care about fixing your plumbing issues, they only see $$$$. I called Roto rooter because of back up in my basement floor drain and downstairs bathroom. There was sewage coming from the sink, toilet, and shower and basement floor drain. By the time roto rooter showed up there was no blockage anymore and drains were flowing freely. The plumber tells me it was probably a "soft clog", insurance purposes, that has since passe. He would auger the main line under the floor and send a camera guy out free of charge. Other companies charge 300-400 dollars to camera a line. Why does roto rooter do it for free? Because if your house has cast iron pipes they see an opportunity to make money. They told me the reason for the back up was a "soft clog" due to the scale and corrosion inside the pipe. They told me that "insurance will pay for water cleanup" but I had to pay for the work to remove the scale and corrosion. The Tech was so eager to get started with the claim he literally took my phone and filed the claim for me on the app. IT COST ME $12,700 to descale and epoxy the inside of this pipe. The tech that did the epoxy txt me after he left and ask if I would go downstairs and remove a rag he had left inside the pipe. I never found a rag and im sure its just sitting downstream somewhere at this point. The water restoration crew came in the next day and removed the drywall cleaned up the mess. I went downstairs one night to check on their dehumidifiers, as they had instructed me to do. When i went in to the bathroom, there was water all over the floor again. I called roto rooter and they sent out a plumber who wanted to charge me $600 to pull my toilet. I removed the two nuts and disconnected the water line mysef in 5 mins for FREE. This plumber tells me the clog must be in the branch line and wants to charge me to unclog it. I told the plumber im not paying anymore money to fix this problem, he calls is boss and eventually snakes the line and sends a camera down. NO clog, just rust like the other pipe. After calling and complaining again, Roto rooter agrees to descale the inside of this pipe for free, "out of the goodness of their hearts," they literally said that! The man that came to do the descaling was a field supervisor. He came and looked at the problem in the bathroom, went back to his van, and after a 1hr long phone call returned to start the work. He descaled my pipe free of charge but wanted to show me on the camera a 4ft section of pipe that is now littered with holes. He does not apologize or offer to fix the issue, instead he tells me "just let it be or bust the floor up and replace the pipe yourself." I call the administrative office to complain and speak to a gentleman named Scott (Fuck you SCOTT). Roto rooter defense against me is that they quoted me for a job, I singed for it, and they did the job they quoted. This company does not care about you, correctly diagnosing plumbing problems, or fixing damages that they cause. In my case they saw cast iron pipes and that means $$$. This company is sneaky, manipulative, dishonest and will take full advantage of you. PLEASE PLEASE do not make the same mistake I did.

Roto-Rooter came out on 6/6/2020 to clear a clog in my elderly parent's drain. On 6/29/30, after going in the basement, it was discovered that the cover to the drain pipe was left off, and the sewage from the septic system had spilled into the basement. We contacted them again regarding the issue, and even though they gave us a window of time that they would show up, they did not show. 1.5 hours after that window of time, I called them again, and they said "the technician was running behind". No one called to state that they were running late. I then asked them to just make us the first appointment in the morning which they said they would schedule us between 8 and 10 am. At 11:15 am, no one had showed again. I spoke with a manager, and he personally called a technician to take care of it. The technician arrived at approximately 12:45 pm, and he wasn't aware that the previous technician left the cap off and they were there to clean up. He said that he would send the clean up team later that day. When I didn't hear from anyone by 6 pm, I called again, and asked to speak to a manager. I spoke to a different manager, who started citing information from an email that had nothing to do with my issue as I never sent an email. He then proceeded to say that he was told to tell me that they would not do the clean up, and when I asked why, he said he didn't know that he was just the messenger. I asked for him to have his superior to contact me, and the manager asked someone in the background if his superior would talk to me, and he said "he is not going to talk to her. He is at home with his family. He may give her a call tomorrow". The next day, someone did call me, Derrick, who once again began citing an issue that had nothing to do with my issue. Derrick called me back later and stated that he contacted the General Manager who stated they would not do the clean up, but would not give me an answer as to why. He also would not give me the name or phone number of the General Manager stating that he was not at liberty to provide this information. Today, 7/6/2020, I was contacted by Scott Dugan, and he stated that the company would not provide the clean up because the work was not guaranteed, the cover was put back on according to the technician,and there was a homemade auger at the location. This is all false information.The issue is the cover was left off causing the spillage, and Roto-Rooter failed to take responsibility for it. I will never use this company again, have already reported them to BBB and will also be filing complaints with the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board and the Ohio Attorney General. They are over priced, have horrible customer service skills, and their lack of accountability is unacceptable. Think twice before using them!

Nice representative came out and gave us a quote on replacing a sewer line that ran under the basement floor. The quote seemed high but they assured me that it would be done in two days and everything in the basement would be protected by them and we needed to remove nothing. They jackhammered for 4 days. We had expected some dust but they assured us they would protect everything. After they were done jackhammering the job sat there for another 4 days. They it needed inspecting but when I called the inspector I learned that they had not called the inspector. I had asked them several times if the crew they sent out to do the work was new and untrained. They assured me that they were experienced. The sewer pipe trench was supposed to be filled with pea gravel. I asked them about this specifically since the concrete chunks and heavy clay was in two large garbage cans setting in the basement. The iron pipe they were replacing hard simply been dumped in the backyard. I never saw the new sewer line before they concreted over it. I only heard two bags of pea gravel being dumped. After the concrete work was done, we started seeing dust everywhere. We complained and a project manager came out and inspected the house. He said the crew was supposed to cover everything with tarps to protect it and put plastic up on both sides of the trench and across the top to contain any dust. They did not do that!! They did not even close the cold air returns in the basement and that is why dust permeated the entire first floor of the house. It even got inside closets with closed doors. The project manager said they would be sending out a remediation crew. None ever arrived. When I called the project manager in this regard I was told to get the work done myself and send them the bills. This I did!!! Then nothing was heard from them. I was told Kevin was thinking about it. After I called the office several times he made a ridiculous offer and threat. He said he would only return the one half down payment and not pay anything else. When I told him this was unacceptable he said if I pursued it further I would be offer even less. Finally he said he was turning it over to someone who handled claims named Cedric and that Cedric would be calling me in 4 days. It is now going into the second week and I still have not heard from Cedric nor has any other offers been made. I may have to use Roto-Rooter to get an acceptable offer. I am still finding more damage everyday. DO NOT CONSIDER CALLING THEM, IN MY OPINION THEY ARE SCAM ARTISTS!!!!! ANYONE CAN CALL ME IF THEY WANT FURTHER DETAILS AT 574-277-3502

Their technician arrived to snake my clogged house drain and advised me it would cost $370 to perform this service. This is a thoroughly ridiculous charge, but I agreed because I was in a jam. He went on to tell me that there was a "special" going on to provide a no charge CCTV inspection of the entire house sewer, so I felt a little better about it. He snaked the main house sewer through a basement floor drain and opened it up. The immediate crisis was resolved. Another person showed up the next day to do the CCTV work and only inspected half the house sewer from a cleanout in the garage that opened easily and allowed him to push all the way to the public sewer in the street. Then he went inside the basement to do the other half from the main plumbing stack to the garage cleanout, took one look at the old cleanout cap and said another technician would have to come back to remove and replace it before he could finish the CCTV work. He didn't even try to open it and went on to explain that he was concerned it wouldn't come off easily and thought it would be best for a technician who regularly does this to come back and perform that task. He left and said he'd call me back later to schedule it. When he called back he told me his boss wanted another $200 to deal with the cleanout cap. I told him that removing, and if necessary replacing, a cleanout cap is standard plumbing work and should have been included in the overpriced fee I already paid, and he said he would talk to his boss about it and call me back again. He never called me back and the balance of the CCTV work was never performed. At this point I have zero interest in having any of their technicians come back into my house to "make it right." The additional money they're asking for is enough to tell me they can't handle this basic plumbing task without screwing it up and possibly doing significant damage to my plumbing. This is a simple job for a qualified plumber that doesn't come close to warranting another $200, so it also tells me their staff isn't qualified. I recommend finding a real plumber.

In the middle of the night, I discovered water in my basement. It was raining heavily outside and had been for most of the afternoon and evening. The water was coming under my basement door, as the drain outside the door was not able to handle the volume of water. I called the next morning (the water was flowing towards a drain in the floor) and was able to get the appointment of my second choice. A four hour window isn't unreasonable, or didn't seem so at the time. Three hours into my four hour window, I called and was transferred to dispatch. I was told that there were two technicians finishing up and I was next on the list. An hour later, I still had not received a call. So I called back. I got the "well, we got behind," bs line that people say when they know they screwed up, but won't admit it. Since it was already 10 pm, I canceled my appointment, and rescheduled for a week later (this was the next day I was going to be home after work). They said that they would give me a 2 hour window. 30 minutes after this window ended, I still had not received a phone call. So I called dispatch and they tried to feed me the same line. I wasn't having it. Dispatch said that they would call their technicians to find out who was at what point. I received a call back 15 minutes later, as I was told I would. Finally, they did something they said they would. The tech was on his way, I was told. The only reason I'm not giving this 1 star is that the tech (Harry) was personable, respectful, and explained what he was doing and finding. He was able to fix the problem (the exit to the drain was blocked by a sod layer that had grown over the pipe end) in a bit over an hour. I called Roto-Rooter because we used them for all of our sewer problems growing up, and they were always great. Now if their scheduling and dispatch personnel could only match the service provided by their technicians, they might be a great company again.

Our main sewer line backed up so we called Roto Rooter. They responded late at night and resolved the issue. The technician was friendly and seemed knowledgeable. Very grateful for this service, particularly on the eve of a major winter storm. The price of $415 to open the drain line was fair. I would have gladly paid more for the technician to have a helper. The helper might have helped him carry in the equipment so they could park on the street, rather than in my driveway resulting in their van trenching up my neighbors yard just beyond my drive. The helper might have helped him carry the sewer machine through my yard, rather than laying deep trenches in the wet dirt that used to be my grass. With a helper assisting, maybe the technician would not have rolled a muddy mess into my basement, leaving mud clods across the floor. Maybe I would not have had to spend an hour from 1-2 AM cleaning up mud and dirt in my basement. Mud not from the drain, but off the wheels of the sewer machine, tracked in by Roto Rooter's technician. A helper might have helped to make this overall experience positive and for that I would have gladly paid more. Instead I am left between relieved that the sewer issue is resolved and utterly disgusted by the mess Roto Rooter left behind. Next time I will call someone else. Hopefully a company I can pay more for better customer service. 2/13/2022 update. The technician broke the sewer lid cap and covered the port with a temporary piece of rubber and a metal strap. He said he would come back with a new cap but never did. Ten days later, I discovered wet carpet in the basement bedroom in the other side of the wall by the sewer main. I had the great pleasure of cutting out padding, treating the carpet back, buying and installing a sewer lid cap, and drying the impacted area. Thanks a bunch Roto Rooter for making a bad customer service experience even worse than I realized.

I never got the visit I scheduled. Many issues! 1. A water restoration tech showed up at my house an hour before my scheduled service time. I never said I needed that service and never got a call that said someone was coming to my home. So I call Roto Rooter back, they say it was a mistake and that my actual technician would be showing up at my scheduled window with a 30 minute courtesy call. 2. Scheduled window was between 6-8pm. 7:30 rolls around, still no call. I call Roto Rooter at 7:32 to check on the status of my call. I was put on hold for a few minutes then transferred to the dispatcher and had to explain all over again. By this time, it's 7:40 and he says all his techs were tied up and he didn't have an ETA for my call but that I was next in line. I asked why there wasn't a proactive call to let me know to which he says he was actually about to call all the people who were running behind. Honestly, this should have been done at least an hour in advance when you know that your jobs aren't moving as quickly and none of your techs are near being done to make it in time. I shouldn't have to keep calling. The company should be proactively communicating with the customers to show that you respect our time and value our business. I had other things to do that I didn't because I thought RR would be here during my scheduled time. 3. 8:40pm rolls around and still no call to update or say a tech was on the way. I have a school aged child that needed to get settled down and so I just called and canceled. There was no apology given or even a hint of concern in the person's voice who answered. It was like they didn't even care that they lost business. 4. I'm so surprised by the awful level of service I received. I've dealt with RR in the past and was very pleased. Seems like the quality has severely deteriorated since then. I won't be doing business with RR again with this lack of customer service.

DON'T BOTHER CONTACTING THESE FOLKS -- CALL A LOCAL PLUMBER! Roto-Rooter has been corporatized, so you never talk to the local plumbers, and the corporate telephone operators make promises they can't keep. I had a sewer backup just as a severe cold spell was approaching. During cold spells, I need to keep the faucets dripping to prevent pipes from freezing in my 125-year-old house. I can't do that when the sewer is backing up. A "supervisor" showed up within 80 minutes of my call, saying the plumbers were about an hour behind. Over 20 hours, I received 4 texts and made 2 phone calls, each saying I was next in line. We had heavy snow overnight, and 15 minutes after their last "you are next in line" message, they called to say they weren't coming. Granted, a snow emergency was declared about 18 hours after my first call to Roto-Rooter, so yes, it was a real snow. However, snow did not significantly accumulate for 12-14 hours after the first call—well after their initial promises to arrive. So this 67-year-old Professor Emeritus got in his car after the snow accumulation, drove to a big box store, bought an $800 motorized auger, hauled the thing to the basement, read the instructions, and cleared the drain. I called Roto-Rooter back and told them not to bother coming and to cancel the call. Roto-Rooter is no longer controlled by your local plumbers—it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chemed Corp. (CEO Kevin McNamara, 2024 pay: $12,688,480). Do yourself a favor—call a local plumbing company. They are much less likely to lie to you.

We had a clog... a bad clog. I thought I fixed it. I plunged the kitchen sink and viola, it drained beautifully, but next I knew the tub was filling with nasty black water. The two are connected in the basement by a 'Y' pipe. Apparently, I pushed the clog down far enough to allow the water from the kitchen sink to flow directly into the tub. Fantastic! I made a date with Roto Rooter online. That was a perfect option for me. It's not that I mind talking on the phone, but if I can submit a reservation or request for service online, I am an extremely happy camper. Online I was also able to choose the 2-hour time frame for the appointment. I received a call not long after letting me know the service person was on the way. I scheduled for 1:00 - 3:00 and he was here at 1:30. He was very professional and congenial. We looked at what was going on and he went to work. It took a little doing, but he got things moving and after he removed all the equipment there was no evidence anyone had been mucking around in the kitchen. Very clean service. The price was steep, and though I am a fan, I couldn't justify five stars. Who knows, maybe the price is in the normal range for plumbing emergencies. I didn't really mind because I wanted everything fixed, but I must admit I was a bit shocked. Still and all, we call Roto Rooter when we have this type of issue and will again in the future. Oh... this was Roto Rooter in Cincinnati, Ohio.