Serving Harper, TX and surrounding areas
In business since 2006
Emergency services offered
Credit card accepted
"Mr. Lane responded to my late Sunday evening call within 15 minutes and stated he was on another job in progress but I would be next and would take about an two hours. However, he called back in one hour and said he was on his way and gave me a GPS estimated time of arrival of 30 minutes. He was at our home almost within a few minutes of that despite the time being 11:00PM. We anticipated someone tired and grumpy at that hour but he was very clean-cut, direct, yet courteous. In fact, he was working a commercial restaurant issue in Kerrville so we knew he was in demand.
He listened to our situation and immediately opened the clean out and it was full to the threads. We advised Van Delden pumped our septic for it's five year service and there were no problems and our drain field.
We have a long line between the house and the septic box (we are outside the city limits and house was built in the 80's) plus had a curved portion that routes the waste water almost 180 degrees. He first snaked the line and his snake hit some of the debris but the water barely moved. He then retrieved his video snake and locator sensor and saw our pipe was oddly curved but no issues or blockage.
I figured he was going to give up since it was so late but he said "No- I'm going to get this water drained so you can at least get a shower in." He used the sensor to get as close as he could before the line went under our deck and then asked for permission to dig a spot (in some pretty rocky soil and in the dark since we had no patio lights) and to tap a hole in the line. It was already close to midnight and he was sweating but never stopped working for a minute. He then ran the snake and within seconds the water dropped right away.
Where the last plumbers we hired to snake it out left it at that but Mr. Lane said the snake didn't feel right so he ran his video snake back down the hole and invited me to watch the screen as he had a hunch what the problem was. We got within about 10 feet of the box and he showed me that our waste line had a pretty severe 'belly' and you could see the line was compressed noticeably, most likely from a large, old oak tree that used to be in the vicinity.
When that was all done he said he has an excavation crew and could replace the line sometime during the week but we'd be better served having Van Delden or other septic company do it for peace of mind and considering the close proximity to the septic tank. By then it was almost 12:30AM.
While there are a lot of plumbers that do after-hours emergencies, my wife and I were amazed at his integrity, can-do attitude despite a long day with jobs scattered over several counties, the fact he was clean cut and professional, wrote up an estimate before even starting the work, and the fact he was so clearly tired but did the job fully and never up-charged us, didn't clear the drain and walk away. I told him we were grateful for the attention to detail and he said he'd rather have a good referral for a thorough job than trying to add charges to one. He also said, that he respects boundaries as some plumbers cross over into septic territory and vice versa and he said if we are happy with our septic company, it's best to stick with them (and we are).
In summary, it's nice to give a kudo to one of the good guys. We usually use Rittimann Plumbing for our non-emergency work but we know they are short-staffed and tend not to do after hour emergency calls. think Mr. Texas Lane (his actual name) and Texas Plumbing is outstanding and saved our sanity.
I don't submit reviews too fast but I've wanted to do this for over a week now.
I feel my fellow Angie's Listers would be very pleased working with Mr. Lane.
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