BOSTON DRAIN COMPANY

We discovered a sewer back up in our basement last night. The main clean out pipe was leaking sewage back into our home and I was frantic. Having had a good experience with Boston Drain Company in a rental home years ago (our Landlord recommended them) I gave them a call. After speaking with a dispatcher I received a call from Mark, the plumber on call within five minutes. Mark explained that he was finishing a job nearby and would be at my home within an hour. He arrived as committed and got to work right away. The first thing we discovered was the old cast iron clean out pipe was cracked. Mark pointed this out and shared that whomever left it that way wasn't doing us a favor should a backup happen again. Using a power snake he pulled large clumps of roots and other unmentionables out of our sewer main. He then capped off the cracked clean out as best he could and departed. A few hours later we returned home from dinner and discovered that the backup returned with a steady drip. I contacted Mark on the cell phone number he provided and he immediately answered. And though he was in a foot of sewer water at another job he never complained and said he would come back as soon as he was done with the other job. And he did just that. He snaked the drain again and capped it off. Given the recurring issue he recommended that we get a camera in the line to figure out why the drain wasn't draining properly after having been snaked twice. He said he was putting us on the docket for first thing in the morning. This morning Chris from Boston Drain Company arrived with his See Snake camera system. As I watched the video monitor of the camera inching its way down the piper it was strangely fascinating. Chris was giving me a sewer main 101 education while commentating on what we were looking at every step of the way. We discovered root clumps, chunks of fat and well, you know, along the way. There was also a section of clay pipe that had settled and was creating a shallow pool of water. Chris explained that this creates friction for the water flow. Similar to a pool at the end of a water slide. Seeing this I was anticipating the sales pitch for their need to dig up my front yard and replace the section of pipe for thousands of dollars. After all, replacing sewer pipes is a major revenue generator for them. But nope. Chris was completely open and honest and shared that the pipes have been working for over a hundred years so a little settling isn't a major issue. But he did recommend a third party to perform a high pressure cleaning that will get rid of the roots and fat chunk blockages. A service that they stand to make no revenue from. He also arranged to have someone come over to cap off the cracked clean out pipe so it won't leak if there is a future back up. Oh, and since I paid for the initial cleaning last night there was no charge for the follow up camera visit. So while no one wants to be in a sewage back up situation feeling helpless and vulnerable to service companies. Thankfully if you are there is Boston Drain Company - professional, reasonable, informative and honest. Thank you for making a $#@%^ situation a relief.

Perfect he was quick and professional.

Everything went well - prompt, courteous, polite and helpful.

No leaks or cracks drain had been replaced with PVC pipe from house to main in street by previous owner

These guys were great. Worked into the evening to get the job done.

Excellent. Worked into the evening to get job done.

On the same day as my call, the plumber came in the middle of an at-home appointment, so I gave a very fast explanation and walked away. He quickly and professionally solved the problem by snaking out hair and rust, plus did the same for the sink that I hadn't noticed was draining slowly. Now that it's fixed, it should have been obvious so I'm really glad he checked it. Would definitely hire again! Thank you!

It went well but he had to come twice

Great! Very professional, fast and pleasant plumber who did the job.

It took them three hours to do the work and it is working well ever since. I would recommend them.

It went okay. They ended having to come back, and they didn't record the video. But I will say they guys who came back the second time were better then the first. The first visit took about an hour and half. They also took the toilet apart, and didn't have the correct parts so they came back to fix the toilet. And the second visit took about 45 minutes.

What more could you ask for? Show up on time, complete the job, and leave the job site in the same condition as they found it.

Provider was recommended by another plumbing co. when contacted they were quick to respond. tech showed up quickly and got right to work snaking the drain. within 5 minutes he tells me the snake is stuck. he works on getting it out for approx 1 hour then calls the office and asks for help to be sent. when the next tech showed, together they tried to remove the snake from the drain. I had to leave for a little while and when I returned they were gone. They left a note saying "snaked bath sink line possible bad rust problem in galvinized pipes need plumbing repair". when I called them to see about repairing the problem they said they could come in 2 days. when that day came they called and passed me off to another plumber, T-Mechanical. Tommy from T-Mechanical came quickly and described what he would need to do, to the tune of maximum cost $2500. I called other plumbers to get estimates.

calling for weeksThey left things very messy and when they gave estimates for the sewer lateral job they provided estimates for other companies as well. When I called other companies for estimates they never called back or I heard from the same guy as BOSTON DRAIN. Most likely these companies are subcontracting with the same few people. That doesn't seem to work in favor of the consumer in this case. The experience left me ''drained'' after calling for weeks.

I recently bought an older house. There was a problem in the bathroom where when we'd run the sink water, the water would run into the tub. When we ran the tub water it would drain very slowly. We had another plumbing company in who said it was a frozen drain and they would have to get behind the wall and basically made it sound like a super complicated job. When I was referred to Boston Drain they came out the same day, a couple hours after I called, got rid of rust or something and it works perfectly fine now. In our second bathroom, a separate plumbing company told me the slow draining in the tub was due to a drum drain or something along those lines and that it couldn't be fixed even with a snake. Boston Drain fixed that drain as well. If you have any type of complicated drain issue, I would definitely recommend Boston Drain.

We had a kitchen sink clog that another highly-rated plumbing company could not fix despite trying for 2.5hours. They recommended Boston Drain, who sent Jim out within 30 minutes. He was able to clear the clog within 20 minutes, charged us their minimum fee of $200, (apologized for the expense), was clean, pleasant, and - successful! Would call first in the future.

BWS came out the next day, verified that their lines were clear. The problem had not occurred again so we assumed that it was a temporary clog that had freed itself. On Sunday, 2/3/13, the problem returned and was even worse. I called BWS again. They verified again that their lines were clear. I called Roto-Rooter's emergency line. They determined that the problem was indeed our line to the sewer. He snaked it out but encountered other problems and suspects that our pipe is cracked. Now on Monday, 2/4/13, I am waiting for their technician to camera the pipe and further evaluate the situation. Short form: Boston Drain said that we didn't have a problem. They were wrong. We have a big problem. It cost me extra money because I had to have an emergency plumber come out on a Sunday. It wasted both my time and that of the Boston Water and Sewer guys. The only positives are that Boston Drain showed up on time, did not charge me and were polite.

Everything went perfectly - showed up on time, found the problem, explained it clearly, fixed it.

We had a clog in our bathroom drain plumbing, somewhere beyond the junction of the sink and shower drain pipes. Running the sink would cause water to back up into the shower. The first plumber we called said this might be beyond the scope of what he was equipped to handle and referred us to Boston Drain. They were able to send someone over within 2 hours. He brought over a very long snake and thoroughly snaked the pipe several times, removing several extremely large clogs.

They were good. They said they would be out within an hour response time and they did. He offered great information on why it was clogged. The price was as expected. They had to come with a special machine designed to get into underground pipes and other companies were not able to do this.

Great crew - nicest people who really knew what they were doing

They were called by the plumber who said the clogged laundry drain was an obstruction in a bigger pipe which this company handles. 2 people came the first day. One said he had migraines, so wouldn't be very helpful. They opened the drain and used my wet vac to vacuum up what came out. They dumped it into my back lawn twice. (Later that day I cleaned up toilet paper debris and human waste from the lawn) They snaked the drain twice and flushed it. They walked to the manhole cover to check things there. When rolling the snake back onto the stand, one person held my towels on either side of the large wheel to catch the sewer spray that was created from the electric rewinding. They left a few puddles on the floor, replaced the drain cap and left with $450. I cleaned up the whole area with a bleach solution, walls and floors, doorknobs and cleaned up the puddles and cleaned out the wet vac. A few days later, when I noticed the leaking drain cap, the plumber called them to come back. This person snaked the drain again with two sized bits, used his company wet vac and dumped the stuff in the sewer and said a city inspector needed to be called and gave me the number to call. There was a minor issue here, the city water and sewer said the company was supposed to call, not the customer and wouldn't let me arrange the inspection. In the basement, I watched as he rewound the snake manually, then turned the motor on and spray was depositer everywhere in the basement. (Again, I washed and cleaned walls and items with a bleach solution) So the city inspector came and watched another person from the company snake the drain out to the street. The man said went 70 feet. He then flushed it. He said there seems to be a dip in the line which most likely will need periodic snaking or a highpower flush and camera inspection. He said future snakings would be an additional charge, but this snaking and the second was covered by the original $450. He started manually rewinding the snake and then turned on the motor. Again, spray went everywhere. Again, my wet vac was used and he left the catch basin full of debris and the drain cap leaking. ( A third time I had to wash walls, floors, doorknobs, etc with a bleach solution.) The service of snaking was done. But the lack of cleanup, the mess of waste spray when the snake was rewound, use of my equipment and dumping of sewage into my backyard lawn do not seem to be professional practice. I haven't been able to find out if electrically rewinding the snake is the usual practice. I will not use this company again.

This job never got finished. I called the owner seven times at the office and never received a return call. I looked to see if they had a required plumbers license and apparently they do not. Mainly I guess they do drain cleaning. I would never rely on them again and do not recommend that anyone use them for work requiring a licensed plumber. No calls back???? The woman in the office said she was just serving as an answering service. I had to hire two qualified and licensed plumbers to come in and complete the job. They found plumbing code violations in the work that Boston Drain did, or tried to do! That had to be corrected. Do your homework better than I did. Do not use this Company for general plumbing work. I do not know about their drain cleaning, but still they were unresponsive when things went wrong for me. Not a good thing.

No complaints overall, he was able to get in and out quickly, and the work he did was guaranteed for three months as well.

This was a difficult job because the pipe was rusted. Despite this the plumbers were very pleasant and even advised on possible ways to avoid the problem in the future.