ZesBro Plumbing

Upon first look, I have to say that while I understand family and holidays, the fact that they are CLOSED from 25 November through MID JANUARY seems a bit excessive, and definitely told me that unless I have something I want done NEXT YEAR, I need to find a different plumbing company!

We have used ZesBro Plumbing three times now, all for little things (my husband is NOT handy). This last time, they said they’d be over first thing Thursday morning and BOOM! 8am onThursday morning the doorbell rang! I appreciate that they return calls, show up on time, and do the job we ask them to do. We have definitely found our plumbers :-)

Called them at 8:30 a.m. because of a broken water main. The woman who answered the phone gave me the best possible response, «Let me see if I can rearrange a couple of things and get someone out to you right away.» Fructosa was there by 10 a.m. and we had water within a couple hours. Polite, professional, and fast. I really don’t know how they compare from a cost standpoint, and the invoice wasn’t itemized, but it ended up close to the range I had in my head.

Called them on a Monday, they said they could get someone here at my house, for a completely blocked kitchen sink, on about Saturday! Saturday, really? Did you hear the part about a COMPLETELY backed up «Kitchen» sink, where I try to make food, etc.
So, needless to say, I called someone else, who came out in an hour… It’s all good now.
Just sharing my own personal experience. Good luck to you all.

I called James about installing the pipes for my powder room sink. He came out same day and had all the right parts to install on the spot. I would call James again in a heartbeat. His price was reasonable and he gave a discount if you paid right away.

I had a mains leak that needed fixing or replacing that had to be done urgently as I was not able to use my water at home. My regular plumber was unable to do such a large task and thus I called Zesbro after the great reviews at Unilocal.I contacted them via email on a Wednesday and they were very prompt coming to my home on the same day. James seemed helpful and even provided options and promised to send me an estimate within 1 – 2 days. By Friday, I had not heard from him and I called on Saturday, only to be told that he’d have a quote that was ready but needed approval and I should have it by Sunday latest. Next Monday night I had not heard and I even sent and email but have not received any replies. I had not got quotes from other plumbers as I felt Zesbro could the job but, that was my mistake and had to call another plumber to help me later on. I would have thought that as a professional courtesy, they’d at least call me and say they can’t do the job or tell me when a quote would come. As a result this has led to delays in having the problem fixed at my home and still have not heard from them. I am not impressed at all by this company’s level of responsiveness.

We had a remodel plumbing job that we were told would be very difficult and expensive, James and his journeyman showed up, James explained the job and left for another appointment. Five hours later the «difficult and expensive» job was done.
Very competitive rates, expert work and was done in half the time I expected.

Unresponsive! I called and got no answer, so I sent an email as requested on the voicemail. After a couple days and hearing nothing, I called and left a voicemail. I heard ZERO responses from either. Not impressed. Called Bob Oates next and they’ve made a new client for life. They were awesome and incredibly prompt. Call them instead.

I am very happy with the service: fast (same day), efficient, courteous, clean. James was very observant when working, being quick to clean up anything around him and very cautious when moving equipment.
He called to confirm the appointment, called again to say he’d been slightly delayed and gave a new ETA, and then called again when he was 10 minutes out. He arrived at the door in slippers, shoes in hand. When I thanked him for coming, he said, «No, thank you for choosing us for the work!» When was the last time you heard that?
He provided a rough estimate of basic charges over the phone with the obvious proviso that it could change if the work was more extensive. In fact, it was more extensive and he explained what was going on every step of the way. He worked intensely for several hours. The bill was pleasantly well within expectations for such a job. He cleaned up very well after the job and thanked me again for choosing him for the work. He also pointed out that his work came with a 1 year warranty. He gave helpful suggestions on how to avoid a similar problem in the future.
i would definitely choose him again for future work. I was very pleased.

We are so happy that we finally found a reliable plumber! James asked us to text him pictures of our leaking shower head first, then came over to work on it. He worked with us to keep the cost reasonable but provided an accurate diagnosis, reliable and timely service. Highly recommended!

So happy! When we first moved in our house last year we had the entire place snaked by James because everything was a little clogged up from previous renters. But we fell into an issue because our bathroom sink wasn’t draining at all even with the several attempts at it. I recall James working on it for a good hour on this one sink. So he gave us a quote on replacing the pipes. We hadn’t called for 9 months because unfortunately my husband got laid off right after that so we waited. We used the kitchen sink in the mean time and finally got our chance to fix it. Called them just a couple days ago and Fructoso came this morning right on time. I was a little hesitant at first because James was the last one working on out pipes. But Fructoso did an AWESOME job! He worked the darn pipes and now its draining, no need for breaking any walls or replacing any pipes! Ahhhh jumping for joy right now!
I highly recommend this company, their prices beat the other 3 plumbing companies I called for quotes and they show up on time and get the job done professionally! Thank you guys!!!

Let me pre-​empt my review by saying that, if you are scanning my review and looking for words like «great price» or «cheap!» then let me save you some time… plumbers are expensive, inherently. ZesBro’s prices are not unlike many other quality plumbers out there, but in an emergency, I was provided with effective, quick, and courteous service.
I was woken up around 1 am by the piercing sound of a water sensor that was placed next to my water heater. After stumbling around in a half conscious state for a couple minutes to find the source of the sound (and on the verge of taking a bat to my fire alarm) I discovered that my water heater was leaking. It took me several minutes to determine the actual source of the leak — the expansion tank that sits above the water heater itself. I shut off the water supply, then decided to get a couple hours sleep after confirming the leak stopped.
Later that morning, I found ZesBro on Unilocal after seeing it had 100+ reviews and a 4.5 star rating, and felt confident that I would get good service. James picked up immediately, and was pretty much able to confirm my suspicions just from the brief description I gave him.
James stopped off quickly on the way to another job close he had close by, hence my opinion about ZesBro’s quick service. He only brought the replacement part, a tool bag and his plumbing knowledge, so he seemed confident that his diagnosis was correct. 15 minutes later at my condo, he replaced the part, inspected the rest of my water heater, and did it all with a great demeanor. At the close of the service, he said «Look, so I don’t have to go down and come back up, just give me your email and I’ll send you the bill.» Very nonchalant!
The total transaction with ZesBro, from the initial call, to the service, and finally the call to pay for the invoice, took a total of 25 minutes. There are no more leaks from my water heater and associated parts, so James can chalk this up to a mission-​accomplished. Thanks, ZesBro.

I would sincerely recommend to avoid this guy if possible.
Pros:
— Identified and fixed the problem in about 1.5 hours.(but the problem reappeared)
Cons:
— Charged me $ 425 for 1.5 hours, it’s like $ 284/​hour (even though our original agreement was $ 130/​hour). His claim was he was the fastest plumber in Seattle and any other plumber would spend double time for the same work.
— Charged me $ 54 for a $ 6.99 parts in Home Depot.
— The problem came back in 2 weeks and I had to call another plumber to fix it.
— Had to reschedule the appointment twice as he did not show up the first time.
— Did not cleanup the messes he created.

It’s been below freezing around Seattle for the past week. So how many people besides us have frozen pipes that have burst. A couple thousand? A couple hundred thousand?
Who knows, but it has to be so many that it’s nothing short of a miracle when you call a plumber at 8 pm in the evening, and they actually call you back the next morning, and then they come sooner than they said they would, and then they fix the problem in no time at all, and then they give you a bill that seems way too small for the work they did.
Thanks for a great, prompt, professional, reasonable job, ZesBro. And my friends thank you because now I can take showers again.

I first got to know James as a past instructor of his at a local community college. I found him to be a mature, professional and very respectful student. Well after our time together in class ended, I had a bathroom not working and gave his company a call. James was efficient, diagnosed the problem effectively and got our family back on track in no time at all.
Recently, James came back out to fix a major sewage related problem in our house. I can’t say enough good things about him and his company. James is a hard working, respectful, honest person who will do his best to educate the customer and provides fair rates for his services. I would highly recommend him to anyone who has any sort of plumbing related problems.
Keep up the great work James — your are definitely appreciated by our family.
Best wishes,
Matt Edwards

I bought replacement toilets from Amazon (Toto Drake II’s — the best toilets on the market and saved me 40% in water usage in one month!). I was tempted to use the Amazon installation, but they wouldn’t let me buy more than 3 (I had 4 builder-​grade toilets replaced), so I was forced to look elsewhere. Our house was new and I was concerned that it would look like we swapped them out. James isn’t the best communicator on email, but he sure knows customer service and plumbing. Since I needed 4 toilets swapped, he brought in a helper.
The two guys unboxed, staged and then replaced all 4 toilets in less than 3 hours. They wore booties or took off their shoes. Cleaned up all the boxes and took everything to recycling/​dump for just a little extra. The installer spent a good deal of time cleaning and prepping each installation and even removed the promotional stickers on the tanks.
I couldn’t recommend anyone more than ZesBro’s plumbing. The entire process took less time and cost less than I expected. Their quote was less than Amazon’s installation price and much lower than Green T (they wanted over $ 1100 to install all 4! and it seems they lost their license in WA state).

My husband and I are first-​time homebuyers. Late on a Friday evening I returned from a business trip to find mounds of laundry and stacks of dishes awaiting me. While I was gone my husband couldn’t figure out what to do, so his work-​around was was showering at the gym and getting his clothes dry cleaned.
I called ZesBro on a Friday at 7pm in a panic (surrounded by stinky clothes, cold water and dirty plates) and he came out right away. Our hot water tank was at the end of its life but he made a quick fix so that I could get through the weekend.
Sunday afternoon our old trusty hot water heater took its last and final breath. But ZesBro was there bright and early Monday morning and I had amazing new tank by the end of the day.
Outstanding customer service and officially by go-​to plumber!

Everybody knows that if you have to call a plumber, it’s going to cost you more than you want to pay… nobody likes to pay out for these services! That being said, I’ve had other plumbers come out for quotes, and Zesbro is by far the most reasonable.
This is the second time we’ve had Jimmy (James) out to our house to fix our clogged bathtub drain. It never takes him long to fix it, but we’ve seen the disgusting proof that he pulled out the «rat!» He’s a friendly and professional guy and always has great tips to avoid future plumbing problems. This time he even had an extra drain trap in his truck that he threw in for free!
If you’re going to have to pay a plumber to come out to your place, this is the guy to call. Thanks James for the fix!

The main line water pipe to our home started leaking sometime last week. When I called Zesbro for an assessment and repair, I was initially told that it would save me time and money if I contacted a leak detector first and then called them to repair the leak. When that was done, Zesbro gave me a quote over the phone and came out the same evening to fix it!
Not only that, but despite the fact that the detector was off by about 3 feet and the pipe was 4 feet deep instead of the standard 2 (which meant alot of extra digging for Zesbro), I was not charged more than my initial estimate! James also took the time to explain to me in detail why the detector was wrong and what I could expect from the continued lifetime of my pipe.
While he was writing up the bill for services, I asked about the cost to estimate a leak that was an inconvenience, but not critical, so I hadn’t followed up on having it fixed. He offered to take a look right away and determined that a faulty seal was the source of the leak and caulked it for me at no extra charge.
James and his assistant absolutely went above and beyond to take care of us today. Much appreciated!!!

Update — ⁶⁄₂₅ James came by my house and apologized personally. Totally unexpected but I really appreciate him coming out personally and also January apologizing via message a week ago. Kudos to Zesbro for taking customer service seriously. i’ll give Zebros another chance! Changing the ratings to 4 stars for responsiveness to feedback.
Wow. What a difference a few months makes. I thought I had my plumber for life, but I guess I’ll be looking for another.
I called James couple of months ago to install a PRV and kitchen faucet. He scheduled it on a Thu morning. He didn’t show. Ok, no problem. We reschedule for the week afterwards, and no show again! But he called back and said he’ll come later in the evening. James shows up with his worker and I show them what to install. Then James says he has to get something from his house, a part of something. Before I can ask him about the price, he takes off. Ok, no biggie right? He is going to charge me his standard hourly rate. After his worker finished in about an hour, his worker gave me the invoice. the labor cost is $ 325! WOW. Not only he no showed twice (I had to take off of work to meet him), he didn’t tell me how much it costs before he left and charged way over his hourly rate!
I paid the bill but felt disgusted. Its safe to say we won’t be calling Zesbro anymore unless it’s to fix their work.