Best Drain Systems in Chicago IL

Needed plumber ASAP for rental. The only ones who actually answered the phone! Came out right away and fixed a more complicated problem on a toilet. Good price and left the place clean clean, clean!!

Seems like this company is hit or miss. I called them to come out and do as assessment of my condo unit prior to renting it out and they were quick, seemingly thorough and it was free! They didn't find any issues in my unit - great. I called them the following week to assess a leak in the ceiling of the retail space below our building's units. I spoke to the owner on Saturday and discussed having someone come out to look at it Monday morning. As of Monday morning, I hadn't heard from anyone so I called around 10am to see what time frame I was looking at. Obviously no one was planned to come out, so they sent someone and they arrived within the hour. As they arrived, I was told by the crew that it would cost $285 for them to set up a ladder and remove 1 ceiling tile to be able to see where the leak is coming from. After that, I basically had to stalk the owner to send us an estimate for any work that would have to be done. We had him look at another item (booster pump) that needed to be removed and capped too, since I had already paid $285 to have someone there. They said the work was too commercial because it was copper pipes and said they would not do the job. Keep in mind their truck, sweatshirts, and website says residential AND commercial - AND FREE ESTIMATES. After hounding them down for a full day, the owner told me they do not want to take on the commercial part of the work. Then, I asked if there was a chance they would cut the drywall to find the source of the leak that they may decide the work is too commercial and refuse to do it. At that point, he suggested I find another plumber who does commercial and residential work to have the work done. So much for my $285 that I have nothing to show for...and no refund offered, obviously.

Long story short: if you have MINOR residential repairs or issues, they might be okay. But if you live in Chicago and it's anything related to a building issue, STEER CLEAR!

Excellent in every way. Easy and timely communication. On time. Courteous. Excellent and quality workmanship. Very professional and reliable.

Antonio and David were top notch professionals. Great communicators, excellent work quality, and kept the house clean while they worked. End result was catalog perfect and clean. Alex, who did the assessment initially was also great at explaining the process and reasons for recommendations. Goode Plumbing is who you should hire to get good old fashioned honest quality work with a professional attitude. Thumbs up, dudes!

I cannot say enough good things about Edwin and his company. He takes what he does seriously and respects his customers’ time and needs. His work is outstanding, his prices are always reasonable, he is on time and he is easy to reach. I highly recommend him!

Came out to do annual maintenance on my hot water boiler. Hard to find many companies that service residential home boilers. They were knowledgeable and professional. They also answered all my questions. I felt the cost for the service was appropriate and honest.

Prompt and professional service, with reasonable pricing. Great family owned company, will definitely hire again.

I called Plumbers 911 for a clogged tub. The plumber showed up when promised and did a great job, quickly with no hassles or mess. I will definetly use them again when i need a plumber.

Juan did prompt professional repair to our front flood control basin to get it back in working shape. Thanks.

I called Right Away plumbing to help solve my water hammer issue.

Day 1- Plumber Jorge shows up, drains water system, still have issue. He assures me that his colleague Tony, a master plumber will come the next day to help solve the issue. If he can't do it no one can.
I pay the pre-agreed price of $250 for the hour of work draining my system.

Day 2- Tony is convinced my issue is from air in the lines. Drainage #2 does not help. Tony tells me that removing the air chambers may help. Reading through many plumber forums, I never saw anything about air chambers causing water hammer. In fact, the reason they are installed is to prevent water hammer.... Interesting. But what do I know right? This is the master plumber we are talking about here.

Day 3- Jorge quotes me $388 to remove 4 air chambers. He removes them in 45 mins (and only removes half of 1 of them because it is hard to reach... Charge top dollar and only do half the job... what a joke). While the water is shut off and he is removing the air chambers, I tell him I want a shut off valve installed in between the shower and the sink to see if that helps isolate the issue. They scoff at the idea but I insist. This took another 45 mins. In fact, when they were installing the shut off, they almost put it in the wrong spot! I had to stop them as they were putting it in and tell them it was wrong!

They turn the water back on. Removing the air chambers did nothing. However, once they turn the shut off valve that I suggested, no more water hammer!

Jorge writes up the work order and charges me $650 for 1.5 hours of work. I am frustrated because removing the air chambers for $388 was already insane (but I was willing to pay for an EXPERT'S opinion). They add $250 for the new shut off valve install. I was NOT told that adding the valve would be an additional $250 charge. They should have told me before putting it in. Tony agrees to give me a $45 discount. I tell him that is not enough. He turns to Jorge and says, ok, pull out the new valve, we are leaving. Things were tense. I was frustrated with the price, and Tony was frustrated with me. Tony pulls out his licensed plumber card and puts it in my face to intimidate me. Very unprofessional. He says 2 plumbers for all this time, we are losing money! Well, removing air chambers and putting in a shut off doesn't require 2 plumbers. And neither of you figured out the cause of my issue, I did. I remain calm and collected the entire time, even though I am deeply frustrated.

I pay over $850 for them to drain my system, remove 4 air chambers, and add a shut off valve. And on top of being overcharged, I was bullied by Tony.

If it took their expertise to diagnose the problem, then I wouldn't have had an issue with the price because I wanted the water hammer gone. They are more knowledgeable than me with plumbing, I humbly respect that. But, it is painful to pay so much money knowing that in the end it was my suggestion that isolated the issue (while getting bullied).
Now, I am out $850 and I still have water hammer. At least I know now that my shower is the issue.

UPDATE: I search online forums and read that faulty cartridges can cause this issue. I replace the shower cartridge myself, and problem FIXED. You would think a master plumber would know this. Based on my reading it doesn't seem to be that uncommon of an issue. Now I'm left wondering if they purposely ripped me off, or just aren't very good at their jobs. What a shame. Be careful who you hire! It's sad that they have such good YELP reviews, they certainly don't deserve them.

I hope this review is helpful to others

-Peter Monteagudo, MD, MBA

I want to start off by saying that the plumber who actually completed the repair did a fine job, but every step leading up to that occurence was needlessly stressful. I had a horrible experience with various people who worked in the office over the course of the day, each of whom gave me different and conflicting answers to my questions, which included real head-scratchers like What time is the plumber arriving; according to you they were supposed to arrive two hours ago? I wasted an entire day alternating between calling and waiting. I got a lot of empty excuses and apologies, when in fact if anyone had just told me at any point We're swamped, so we'll have to send someone tomorrow, I would have been annoyed, but at least within reason, and able to plan ahead for my own sake.To make a long story short I am never going to use J. Blanton again because of my circa 8 hour wait and the totally ineffective communication between the main office and the plumber(s).I also think I was overcharged to boot, so I can't even say I got what I paid for. But thanks for all the free frustration!

I am so pleased with the quality and honest service I recieved. Henry, the owner operator, shows up with a great attitude even in the middle of the night for emergency plumbing needs.

We needed to have a plumber on call for a very important event. Robin and the team were wonderful and helped us every step of the way to ensure we were ready if anything happened. I appreciate the team and will be using them again in the future.

Excellent experience with Patrick - he diagnosed a problem we were having, established a plan, came back and fixed it. he was on time, courteous, and honest. We'll call and request him specifically for any plumbing services needed moving forward.

Mike and Dan are very knowledgeable and honest! We were having problems with our sump pump . They came explained problem and fixed it quickly. I never recommend people, but I would definitely recommend them!

Highly recommend! Professional. Responsive. Will certainly call again for my plumbing needs.

On time, very knowledgeable, professional cleans up after himself, explains the problem. All around great plumber!!!

I thought working with Apex was the best option after reading all the positive reviews, but that was a costly mistake. I called them for two things, to fix a leaky gas shut off valve to our furnace and to install a flue pipe from our water heater out to our chimney

The technician said he couldn't fix the shut off valve and had to use a new one, which was fine. It was a small part and the cost was more than I had expected but I went along with it. The flue pipe is the project that infuriates me more. He said he could do the project and gave me a quote of almost $800. (I'm just going to round up) I thought that would include a liner that would go up our chimney in order to properly ventilate out. He went out to buy more material, came back, and got to work. I gave him his space to work and didn't supervise.

Once he left and I inspected the work, I had instant regret. I had paid for something that looked like a handyman job and did not look professional at all but at least we were safe from inhaling any exhaust.

Today, I had another professional company come out to install a new water heater. They informed me that there is no properly installed liner and that all the exhaust is traveling up and has nowhere to go but to come back down. We have to properly have the chimney lined and then they can install the new tank. So now, I will have to undo the work that the APEX technician did and have it done right. I'm especially infuriated because this is a safety issue. We've been inhaling exhaust for the past three months without even knowing it! I would seriously consider using another company when it comes to issues with furnace and water heaters.

In response to Apex support’s comment:
“Apex took you out of your dangerous situation and can not be responsible for the condition of your water heater or chimney.”

Connecting a flue pipe to an unlined chimney is not fixing a problem and does not take us out of a dangerous situation. Also, I did not blame Apex for the condition of my water heater or our chimney, my comment is about the work itself and service.

Had the technician recommended for me to have our chimney lined first, I would have done that considering it was October and the weather was more suitable for that type of work. Instead your technician had no qualms about moving forward, charged us an inexcusable amount of close to $800 to add a flue pipe to an unlined chimney, which does nothing to fix our problem. (photo attached)

He also said our water heater was a 20 gallon heater and gave me the impression that it was in worse condition than it is. He also said he could install a new water heater (apparently he thought it was OK to install a new heater without a liner) but I had my misgivings about having any additional work done.

Our water heater is actually a 40 gallon, and the new technician Im working with assured me that while our heater is old, it’s a good brand and will fortunately last until we do the proper repairs to our chimney. His words were more or less, if you’re going to do the job, let’s make sure we’re doing it right.

In addition, I would have much rather preferred a phone call or direct message to discuss the matter instead of posting this response publicly, but your customer support decided to follow up on this post instead. Considering that I sent a message directly to your website with my contact info, I find the handling of this unprofessional and will not be recommending your company.

Fast, professional & reasonable. Called to have the flapper replaced on my Koehler toilet. Within an hour he was here & my toilet was fixed! I highly recommend Matt!

My parents were visiting from out of the country and when I was out of the house, they called me in a panic with the toilet overflowing and flooded basement. I called Dominic during this stressful situation, and not only did he give me a quick fix over the phone, he was able to come home and diagnose the issue and repair it immediately. He was awesome , very professional and provided great service. He also gave us insider tips to avoid future plumbing issues! He is your guy when you have any plumbing emergency. I would never hesitate to call him again.