Tsanko is awesome. I had a leaky upstairs shower valve, it was leaking quite a lot so I was thinking it was going to be a pricey fix. We cut up the back wall to see exactly where the leak was coming from, and we knew which place of the valves it was coming from. Then, I called some plumbers to give an estimate of the fix. Two of the plumbers came, looked at the problem and said they want to change out the entire fauset, which will also mean opening up more wall, maybe breaking our old rusty galvanized lines, costing hundreds of dollars. (It's an old house) It would also continue at least three hours.
T. came and said the fix is very simple, replace out the diverter stem, since that's the part the leak is coming from. I was having doubts since the other two plumbers told me you'd need to swap out the complete valve, and he carefully explained to me that the body itself is just a piece of brass, even if you swap out the brass, it's going to continue to leak. It's the stem that's leaking. It made sense and he fixed it in 30 minutes paying a little more than a hundred. We tested it and there was no leaks.
Couple of days after, another leak starts in the same bathtub after my roommate showered, I was starting to have doubts about his fix. However, I tested the shower, and couldn't reproduce the problem, and was completely stumped. I called the company, and he came right away at 9pm at night, and he quickly diagnosed discovered the problem. The drip only shows up if the faucet is dripping slowly, and my roommate hadn't turned off the handle all the way. It was basically lack of caulking plus the back washer being worn out. He proposed the easy solution of just caulking up the cracks. This visit was completely free!
I was impressed by a few things:
#1. Unlike the other contractors, he was able to exactly find the problem. I'm sure if the other plumbers replaced out the whole set, they would've fixed the problem as well, but that would've been cost more money, and dangerous, since my pipes were old and I wasn't ready to swap out a bunch of pipes right then.
#2. He explains the problem and can show me what's happening
#3. He arrived in the evening as soon as I called, and that it would be on him.
I now have a plumber I can count on explain things to me so I can understand exactly what's the problem and how to fix it. T is knowledgeable and willing to help. I've already recommended him to my friends.
Tracy W.
San Jose, CA 10/05/2011
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