Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

Chad was fantastic! He took a thorough look at our water heater and helped explain what was going on in a way that was very straightforward and easy to understand. He helped to get us a new water heater under our warranty which was super helpful. He definitely is experienced and I couldn’t recommend him more! He was great and did an amazing job!

A Roto-Rooter technician came to our home at 11:00 pm last night in stormy weather to assist with our plumbing emergency and advised me to wait until I had our septic tank pumped out before using their service. I was not charged for that service visit and really appreciated their honesty. The Roto-Rooter crew came out again the next day after the pump out and were very, very persistent in locating and eliminating a clog in our main sewer drain line, which took many, many tries and eventually relocating their equipment from outside to an upstairs bathroom . I really appreciate they they did not give up and got the job done. They definitely earned their fee. (The $100 off coupon on their website was helpful .) They provided me with texts and emails confirming their service appointments and the progress of their technicians driving to our home. Job well done!

Awesome techs! We were told a service window of nine to eleven and they arrived promptly at nine. A refreshing change from the norm of most businesses who leave you hanging until the last moment. Friendly, polite, sociable, and clean workers. Had the quote ready in less than ten minutes, and had a pipe removed, fixed, and replaced as well as a faucet changed in less than three hours, including the time it took them to run to the store for parts. Adie and Charlie are a credit to the profession!

3 days ago I called Roto rooter at 9:00 PM to snake my 4 inch main drain pipe, in the basement. It was a straight 60 feet run in direct line to the street. The tech guy was prompt, he explained the possible problems that could happen and I signed quite a few documents. He told me the cost of snaking the line was $531.00 Dollars. That was an exhorbitant price that I never paid before in my life. But since it was an evening call and I needed to do the work I agreed. He brought down the tool and he snaked the line to the street in less than 15 minutes. I was expecting he will run the snake again but he was too busy trying to sell me further services. He refused to run the snake twice but he threatened me that if I did not agree to a free video inspection there is no warranty for the next 6 month on his work. He said if any thing happened before 6 month the service is not warranted at all because there could be a problem in the line that only a video can find. This was a totally new approach to snaking the sewer line. I have done it 25 years ago. The company at the time did it twice to make sure all waste was pushed out. Not Roto rooter. He packed his tool and left. I knew he did not clean the sewer well so I am calling my regular plumber to do another snaking of my line to assure all waste is removed. Roto rooter is gouging its customers and will not do a decent job of cleaning the pipe i will have my line snaked in the day time for about a hundred dollars. Once Roto rooter steps in your house they want to make a big issue of snaking a sewer line, they want to do much more unneeded work to fatten their bottom line. I will not recommend this gouging Company who refuses to give a tentative cost of snaking a sewer line on the phone. They keep it as a surprise. also any plumbing company who refuses to run a second run should be always rejected. Once the first run is done, the second is much faster and all decent companies will do it especially when they are charging the rate of a brain surgeon. This is standard plumbing customs.

They gave me a quote of $400 to unclog a basic kitchen sink. None of the other drains in the

I will start by saying the field staff were friendly. Aside from a threat at then end of the job by the field manager. I had an alleged clogged lateral leading to a city main. Roto Rooter performed a camera scope and a limited clean out. Their diagnosis was that may ceramic pipe had "drastically" shifted and that my line was full of root structure. I was returning to Utah from out of state work (so trying to diagnose over the phone); I asked: Did you take a look at the main city vault at all, to make sure this is not in the city line? Answer: Yes, we took a look and it is definitely in your lateral. $400 for 40 minutes on site to camera and snake (which did not work). A bid was submitted to dig up my line and either spot repair or full line replace. I did have a 2nd camera scope and found that my ceramic pipe was in great shape. Due to having the home occupied, I made the mistake of working with Roto Rooter. Total project was $7100. Day 1 was a total work time of approx 3.5 hours. The use of the Mini-X was approximately 40 minutes (total) Field tech was convinced it was the Tap, and (in Roto Rooter style) started the whole speech about more $$. They stopped for the day, and rescheduled for a Monday (3 days later). Arrived Monday at noon. This time with a "manager". Lo' and behold, the issue was in the city line. The Roto Rooter staff had no idea how to contact the city or move forward. Thankfully I spent both days on site to observe and was able to quickly get the city on site and take care of the problem. Total work time on day 2: 3 hours. **Had they actually taken a quick peak at the city line (accessible from my lot); they could have seen the obstruction back on the very 1st site visit. Sadly, they added a clean out right in the middle of my driveway; thus creating a future failure spot. I will have to dig down again and remove this to avoid breaking the lateral line (Thanks team!!). Having a career in construction, there were quite a few things that occurred in the field that were "way off base" but they were trying to "sell it to me". Lastly, when I tried to politely discuss the $7100 total bill, I was threatened by the Manager. Very unprofessional. This company may be good at the very basic/simple unclog a toilet, sink drain, take a picture of your line. I do not recommend for anything beyond that scope of work. Pricing is way out of line for service rendered (borderline users).

CONSUMER BEWARE! ALWAYS get a second opinion! I SAVED nearly $6k by seeking a second quote. Roto-Rooter will try to take advantage of people whenever they can. They immediately went to the extreme rather than logical, seemingly easier ways to fix my problem. On 12/16/2024 I contacted Roto-Rooter because of a draining issue with my bathtub. A technician came out about 7:30 pm and evaluated the situation. We crawled in the crawl space and concluded that he was going to snake the line. He removed the toilet adjacent to the bath tub and preceded to snake the line. He claimed he went the extent of his line (100 ft) and didnt resolve anything. The distance from the main to the street was no more than 35-40 feet. He proceeded to call a coworker who was going to camera the line. At his arrival, it was clear that he had jurisdiction over the initial technician and started calling the shots. This second technician began painting the story that would require exploratory excavation of my front lawn with no guarantee that it would resolve the situation. In his explanation, he began telling me that this would have cost nearly $20k but because of their "new" pricing scheme, it would be "significantly" less... more like $10k. He continued to try to bait me with invalidated pricing anywhere from $17k to $10k which I assume was to try to get to a number I was comfortable with. I held my ground and refused to agree to their proposed work on the spot. I asked him to email me his quote. His official quote was $6750.00 of which 50% was expected up front and was not comprehensive. In the quote they provided, it indicated "if further damage is found we will discuss options at that time." Additionally, they would not be able to start work until 12/18/2024. I was able to resolve the issue for $1k WITHOUT exploratory excavation. Moreover, the work was completed on 12/17/24. There is NO WAY I will call on these guys again!

Warren at the Salt Lake Roto-Rooter did an objectively great job, but it especially stands out as wonderful because we were recommended by a friend to call them after it seemed another plumber could be hosing us and I needed a second opinion. (Won't bad-mouth the other company by name in this review because it's the circumstance that matters and I hope they will yet rectify a good portion of their charges.) He listened to the stress and frustration we had experienced over the previous two days: a local plumbing company charged us $800 to try 20-feet of a couple different snake machines; then a water-jet today; and then a camera tech (maybe 3 hours tops for all the visits) on a clogged kitchen sink only to tell us it would be another $4000 to tear out carpet and cement in our basement to replace pipe. Otherwise they said they "did everything we could do on that clog." After only a couple hours since our first call to Roto-Rooter, Warren was at our home. He did brace us that such extreme plumbing fixit problems do happen, though pretty rarely, and said, "Let me try. If I can fix the clog the price is $399, and if I can't well you don't have to pay me anything unless you want to give me $75 for the effort." He used a 3/8" snake machine similar to the other plumber but without the 'knife' on the end saying experience has shown him that works better in this circumstance. He fed out 40-feet of snake, boring through the clog in less than 30 minutes. Plus he took another $75 off the price when done "because it's a coupon we offer," and reminded us the work is guaranteed. I'm so frustrated and exasperated to feel like the other plumbing company was half-heartedly stringing us along, billing more and more charges along the way, just to pitch a hugely expensive service. Yet I'm so thankful that Warren helped rescue us! (He was also wearing his Covid mask to be extra considerate.)

EDITED to add… you can see below that after this review, they sent a generic message asking me to send in the details of our service. I did this over a week ago and never heard back. THEY DON’T TAKE ANY PRIDE IN THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE. THEY JUST WANT TO APPEAR ONLINE THAT THEY DO. CHECK THE REAL REVIEWS ON YELP. AVOID THIS COMPANY! DO NOT USE!!!! If you need a late night or simple fix they are probably fine but don’t use them for a big job. We had a sewage pipe overflow and flood and we used them for clean up and to repair the pipe. Communication was terrible! We never knew what was going on or when anyone was going to show up. They made it sound like a big deal that we get started right away- got us to sign a contract and submit an insurance claim- then no one showed up for 4 days to cleanup. Then they sent one guy for cleanup that obviously had no idea what he was doing that unnecessarily banged and scratched up our walls in the process and has made the reno guys job much harder than it should’ve been. For the repair the main plumber was great and did a good job but he brought along a guy seemingly in training that did most of the labor. We had to pay $7725 for one day of work ($460 hourly rate 🤯) because he spent a lot of the time explaining how to do things to the trainee and they charged us double rate for “two plumbers” even though only one was working at a time. Customers should not pay to train staff imo We made the mistake of not getting another bid and spent thousands more than needed. Posting this here in the hopes that we help someone else not make that same mistake! Good luck with your plumbing needs and use someone else!!!

I called Roto Rooter one evening for an emergency situation (sewer backup into the basement) and they came to the house the following morning. Snaked the line, resolved the clog and then ran the camera through the line for an additional &100.00. I was told there were potential breaks in the pipe joints, the pipe needed to be repaired, and it was recommended that they re line the entire underground pipe from the house to the sewer. The total cost to clean out the line and send a camera was approximately $850.00. They then quoted me $14,000+ to re-line the pipe and suggested that I re-line the pipe “immediately” otherwise it could cost me approx. $30,000 if something were to happen to the pipe. Fast forward. I requested a copy of the video pipe inspection and was denied a copy, “due to their corporate policy”. I then called a reputable long standing local plumbing company, scheduled another video pipe inspection, for a second opinion. This plumbing company sent out one of their owners with a technician, ran a camera in my sewer pipe and said my pipe looks great, no visible issues and said there was no need to re-line the pipe. That cost me $240.00 which was money well spent. The other plumber’s service and honestly was so impressive. I will never deal with Roto Rooter again. FYI, Roto Rooter did clear my pipe but your dealing with a big corporate mentality and their techs are out to upsell and happily take your money.

I had somebody come out last night to take a look at a drain that wasn't draining-right when he got there, he first asked if I had been quoted the after hours fee over the phone (I hadn't) and that he had just driven over an hour to get here (so basically, I had no choice at this point!). He then gave me the price for cleaning the drain and I asked what would happen to that price if the clean didn't work to which he replied that it would most definitely work...welp, it didn't. Then he asked me what he thought was fair to pay him but then ended up declaring the price I needed to pay after speaking to his supervisor. At first he offered to come back to camera the drain at no charge but then once I clarified that there wouldn't be a charge he told me it would be probably $200 just to camera it? Fast forward to this morning, I am waiting for them to come out here (between 8am-10am is what I was told). I rescheduled appointments to accommodate this time! Called at 10:10 am and the operator said that they would be on their way soon, called again at 12 pm and was told that someone wouldn't be here until after 2 pm. Just unreliable service that didn't make you feel comfortable or like they were actually trying to help you. Update: Roto-rooter reached out and made things right-definitely appreciate the customer service! Thank you!

If you need a late night or simple fix they are probably fine but DO NOT use them for a big job. We had a sewage pipe overflow and flood and we used them for clean up and to repair the pipe. Communication was terrible! We never knew what was going on or when anyone was going to show up. They made it sound like a big deal that we get started right away- got us to sign a contract and submit an insurance claim- then no one showed up for 4 days to cleanup. Then they sent one guy for cleanup that obviously had no idea what he was doing that unnecessarily banged and scratched up our walls in the process and has made the reno guys job much harder than it should've been. For the repair the main plumber was great and did a good job but he brought along a guy seemingly in training that did most of the labor. We had to pay $7725 for one day of work ($460 hourly rate ) because he spent a lot of the time explaining how to do things to the trainee and they charged us double rate for "two plumbers" even though only one was working at a time. Customers should not pay to train staff imo We made the mistake of not getting another bid and spent thousands more than needed. Posting this here in the hopes that we help someone else not make that same mistake! Good luck with your plumbing needs and use someone else!!!

The shower in the lower level of the house had water backing out of the drain. I called Roto_Rooter and explained the problem and that I heard gurgling sounds in the sinks upstairs as well. They scoped the drains and the mainline to the street and determined it was tree roots in the mainline causing all the issues. The scoped and rooted the roots out and all seemed fine. They charged me $300. Then, 2 weeks later... Thanksgiving day I have water coming out of my sink and water coming up out of my basement vents onto my hardwood floors!! I have lived there for 30 years and this has never happened before. I called them back and they claimed it was a new clog and they would be happy to get rid of it for...another $300!!! What happened to the warranty and fixing things right the first time? I offered to pay for the labor but not the drive out. He called his boss and still: No! the charge was going to be $300!!!! to fix something they should have fixed the first time. All for a grand total of $600!!!! This is simply not ok. I spent Thanksgiving in a flood, 14 days after having Roto-Rooter claiming they fixed the problem. I will tell to all I know and of course to those who check Yelp :) DO NOT USE ROTO_ROOTER!!!!!!! They Rip you off. Word of mouth works.

Horrible and a Joke. Not normally the guy to leave a bad review, but my experience with this company has been horrible at best. Yesterday I called to have them replace a flame sensor on our tankless water heater. Gave them the description of the model, serial number and code that it was giving, simple fix. I called at 8:00am and they said they would have someone out by 10:00am. Well...at 3:45pm the plumber showed up; then walked in and said, "I have no experience with tankless water heaters and I don't know how to fix it" and left. I called their dispatch and they told me that they didn't have anyone working today that has experience with tankless water heaters and that Byron, who has experience would be out first thing this morning, clocking in at 8:00am and heading out. I received a call this morning letting me know that they did not in fact have any tech today with any experience and that the best they could do is tomorrow sometime in the morning. Not sure whom they are hiring and why they can't service a pretty simple repair; they have no notes between dispatched and have no clue who I talked to previously. I would be nervous to have their inexperienced plumbers working on anything in my home with Roto-Rooter. Good luck if this is your go to.

Our shower broke after-hours, such that the water wouldn’t shut off. We had to turn off water to the whole house to get it to stop. Roto-Rooter was the only company available to help with this urgent repair request (with the next best company scheduling us for 4 days out, after the weekend). Roto-Rooter said they were able to come within 1 hour, but when they heard the full story and realized parts would need to be purchased, they rescheduled for first thing the next morning. Cameron was amazing, battling the most stuck tub/shower Moen cartridge he had ever dealt with and emerging victorious. He gave us options for low cost for just completing just that step versus higher cost for just finishing the job. After how much work it was to get the cartridge out, we hired him for the rest. He purchased a new cartridge, managed to get it in, and finished the job. Now our tub/shower works great! When he saw a container of wipes in the bathroom, he double checked that we hadn’t been flushing those in an effort to save us more costs down the line. I didn’t get the sense of any attempts to mark up services or oversell. Thanks Roto-Rooter and especially thanks Cameron for your timely and much-needed assistance! Five stars!!