I cannot recommend Miller's Plumbing and Excavating enough. I am just so thrilled with the work they have done that I feel like I owe them a meaningful first review. These guys are the real deal. They care about their customers. They work hard to finish difficult jobs (more on that later). They are polite, and they treated my home the way that I treat my home. If they can handle our problem, they can handle anything.
Here's our story:
We (my family and I) have recently purchased an older home in the Frontier neighborhood of Erie, and we were greeted with a major sewer problem within 6 months of living there. Our problems began in the first month. As is often the case, a root had blocked our sewer (sometimes called a lateral) line to the city main line. We called another company to remove the obstruction and everything was fine until the summer snow melt. Our drains slowed until we had the occasional sewer backup. We called this same unnamed company who came with a traditional "drain snake" machine. On the first day, a young man came to remove the obstruction but failed to complete the job. He shrugged his shoulders at 9 pm and left us with a large amount of raw sewage on the floor and walls. He said he could clean it up if we wanted to but made it clear we were paying for the mess he made (having already wasted 2.5 hours). The next evening the owner came with two machines and snaked the line for another 2.5 hours with no result. He claimed he had over 30 years experience, but he couldn't tell that our sewer main was only fifty feet away (I confirmed this with the city the previous day). Instead, he put over a hundred feet down the line and messed around trying to clear the sewer main (which the city confirmed was clear by flushing the line that morning with what's called a "jet."). The line from the house was now completely blocked. We could previously flush toilets and take a shower, but now it was only lowering due to seeping from the pipe. At the end of the day, these guys shrugged his shoulders and left.
That night I called Miller's Plumbing and Excavating (don't be confused by the other Miller's). He immediately called me back and made an appointment for the next day, "Right after my first job of the day." He arrived with a crew of three and immediately assessed the situation. He knew that we had a "sludge line" on our hands. A sludge line, for those uninitiated in this particular nightmare, is a sewer line that has been filled with sediment over the years. After it had been mixed by the other company, without being cleared, our entire 50 foot sewer lateral was filled with a foul smelling sludge in the consistency of wet loose concrete. Miller's identified this in a few minutes, when the other company toiled needlessly for four or five hours.
Miller's used an "eel" rather than a "snake" to pull the sludge out. The snake is the wrong tool for the job, but the other company did not admit it. Instead they worked fruitlessly. They wasted my time and money (keep in mind that we have are a family with no toilets, baths, or laundry for three days...). Miller's spent 7 hours in the basement and corrected the problem without resorting to jackhammers and excavators.
They saved us a great deal of money and time by being committed to clearing the line. Keep in mind, this is a company that also has the tools to jackhammer out basements and excavate sewer lines. He chose to work long and hard to solve the problem without doing this. They even did a good job cleaning up at the end of the day!
Here is an ethical and kind business person. He and his crew worked hard in the worst conditions possible, and they still politely shook our hands as they left. One young fellow even said to my partner that it was "a pleasure to have met you." I was stunned by such kindness and professionalism after what must have been a grueling day.
Once again, I cannot recommend Miller's Plumbing and Excavating enough.
Amazing work guys!
Aaron Mauro
Patrick Kensill
