Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Drain Services

I had a water line break in my house and had to have DC Water turn me off at the road. They said to have a licensed plumber come out and turn me back on. Called Roto-​Rooter this morning because they offer free estimates. They came when scheduled. It cost $ 120 to have my water turned back on, which was pretty expensive to stick a pole in the ground and turn the water main back on in my opinion, but the fact they showed when they said they would was impressive to me. The technician I had was Jonathan, I would definitely recommend Roto-​Rooter based on this experience, just be prepared to spend more than you would want to.
I am updating my review after speaking to a guy in the office… apparently plumbers make a ton of money per hour so $ 120 for 15 minutes is normal. :)

A little under a year ago I called to have Roto Rooter fix a drain in my kids bathroom that was leaking into my kitchen. The guy came out and charged over $ 300, however the same problem has resurfaced multiple time and I just don’t have the money to keep paying Roto Rooter to do the same job over and over again. I feel as though I wasted my money because Roto Rooter doesn’t seem to guarantee the quality of their work. I tried to fill out the survey on customer service but for some reason I kept hitting errors. So I was unable to get the issue completely resolved. I would never recommend using any Roto Rooter company services as they are way over priced and the quality of work is not guaranteed.
CORRECTION: The company reached out to me and it was clarified that the work was done 3 years ago, however they only guarantee their work for 6 months to 1 year. So on this issue I am just out of luck as the issue began after the guaranteed date of 6 months later. If you’re going to use Roto-​Rooter I would suggest find out the guarantee warranty on their work first.

Extortion-​level, dishonest pricing
I have a slow drain in my yard that is partially clogged from mulch. I called Roto Rooter DC to get the drain snaked. I’ve used them before for a simple disposal replacement in DC and they were premium priced for that to say the least but I was in a bind so had to agree.
They wanted $ 400 to snake an outdoor drain that is only slow – not clogged. This is a 10-​minute job. Unbelievable and dishonest price gouging. Find an honest plumber before you turn to these people.

I would like to thank Joe Ogle with Roto Rooter for coming out to Hamilton and helping us with a sewer inspection. We had a awful expierence with a different sewer company. Joe ended up saving us thousands of dollars in unecesaary repairs.

Update to review 1:54pm 02÷13÷15
Today has been a totally different experience. The tech, Will, that they send today seemed to really know what he is doing and he put a lot of effort into finding the root of all the problems. Thank you Will, and thank you to Stacy and Christy at Roto Rooter for doing everything you could today to change my opinion of your company and it’s service.
WAS IT JUST MY DRAIN THAT GOT REAMED?
First let me say that I am not sure which branch came out to service my drain. The request for feedback came from the Baltimore Branch Manager. There is nothing on my invoice to point to a certain brand or technician. I completed the survey on Wednesday stating how dissatisfied I was and no one has attempted to contact me to ask why. I had put in my survey that they really DID NOT want me to put my review on Unilocal,but I guess they really don’t care or they would have been in touch.
My recommendation is to first go to Home Depot and rent a snake. I have done it before and snaking a drain is not rocket science. The only problem with renting it yourself is that you have to be able to lift the machine in and out of your car. Being a woman in my 60s, I opted to call Roto Rooter this time instead of taking my usual do-​it-​yourself route. What an expensive mistake that was.
I did try and call around for prices for various services, and no companies want to give that information out. So here it is:
The Roto Rooter price quoted for snaking my kitchen drain – $ 495.
The Roto Rooter price quoted for snaking my main drain if a 100 ft. snake would reach was $ 729.75. If they had to add an additional snake for over 100 ft. It would be $ 929.75
The charge for putting drain cleaner down your drain is $ 55
The technician snaked my kitchen drain and it didn’t fix the problem. He said he needed to snake the main drain for the $ 729.75. He snaked that drain, loaded everything on his truck and then tried the kitchen drain again and it still didn’t work so he had to snake it again. So did I need the main drain snaked? Maybe, maybe not. I was obviously distressed by the cost so he said he would just charge me for the main drain, but would not guarantee the kitchen drain unless I paid $ 200. No mention of guaranteeing the main drain. He wrote the bill up and applied a «discount» and the total was $ 936.33 for approximately three hours of work… so that works out to about $ 313/​hr. Is that a standard cost for work like this? It seemed excessive to me. I have seen in other reviews that Roto Rooter is one of the only companies that doesn’t charge a trip charge, but I feel like they more than make up for the $ 80 trip charge by being so expensive.
During the service, the technician took a number of personal calls, was rude to my neighbor, and then walked out while talking on his cell phone without so much as a goodbye or a thank you for your business, and left my front door standing wide open in February.
Update as of 8:40 2/​13/​15 – Kitchen drain still now draining properly!

Such fast & easy service! I called at 6:30a because we had no hot water and someone was at our home by 9a. Zaw was so professional and trustworthy. We had to get a new water heater. He called Nyi and together, they were able to get us a new water heater installed by 3p. They were observant and told me about the setting of the new heater because we had an infant at home & they both had children too. They were both professional and cleaned up our laundry room too very well (and if they had any dirt on their shoes).
I would definitely use Roto Rooter again.

As advertised! Called Roto Rooter at 10am to have a technician come out and swap out my garbage disposal. By 10:30am, William had arrived and began working on the job. He was very friendly and knowledgeable and finished before noon! A bit on the pricey side ($ 239 after $ 50 Unilocal discount) but it’s a flat fee and William had to do a little bit of work to adjust the pipes since the new disposal wasn’t a perfect fit.

«We’re not landscapers.»
That was the phrase which was uttered, more than a few times, by the Roto-​Rooter representative who came out to perform a video inspection of the main sewer line to my house, as he explained the various options of how to address my old and decaying sewer pipe.
That phrase was beyond prescient.
Synopsis of the scenario:
The basement floor drain backs up. It’ll have to be snaked. It’s the weekend. I have to call Roto-​Rooter, as they are one of the few companies that are 24 – 7 with no emergency call rates. A plumber comes and snakes out the line (around $ 500). He suspects tree roots are the main culprit and recommends a free video inspection of the line. I schedule an inspection. That’s where I meet Andy, who informs me of a crack in my old lead pipe and offers various suggestions as to handle the situation, while also describing how they would perform each task. Cue — phrase: We’re not landscapers. He writes up a few proposals. I call a couple of other plumbers with good reputations. One plumber never show ups to make a bid and the other plumber’s bid is a few hundred dollars more than RR’s.
Roto-​Rooter gets the job.
A crew comes out and tears up my front lawn. This is to be expected and I am reminded of the cryptic fact that Roto-​Rooter are not landscapers.
After Day 1, the new pipe is set and awaits for a WSSC inspection before all of the earth that has been dug up, can be returned from whence it came. I arrive home from work on Day 2 to see that all of the earth is still sitting in the same spots where I had left it that very morning. What happened?
Apparently, they did not pass inspection.
Did I receive a phone call about the failed inspection? No. Did I receive an explanation for what had gone wrong? No. Was I ever given an apology for the screw up? No.
All I did get was a game of phone tag with RR rep. Andy. It’s odd how easy it was to get a hold of him when I wanted to hire his company to do the job. Now that the job was almost complete — all I was ever able to reach was a voice mail box.
On Day 3 the mounds of dirt and back fill was returned to the hole, along with various broken bricks and trash that the crew had left behind. I understand that plumbers are not landscapers, but that is hardly an excuse to leave a person’s yard in such an abysmal condition, and at least have the decency to clean up after yourselves when you leave the work site (aka someone’s home)!
A week later, I had a sink hole garden in my front yard.
It took me weeks of hounding the main office in Jessup in order to get the final paper work and warranty mailed to my house. Inexcusable. A customer should not have to hunt down the warranty and the record of all the work done on their house.
The coup de grâce of my experience with this company was the fact that they automatically charged my credit card with the second half of the total bill without my approval! I paid the first half with my card and was told that the second part of the bill was to be paid upon completion of the job. I expected a bill to be left in my mail box or something to that effect. Nothing ever came and Andy never mentioned anything about the charge to my inquiries in his voice mail messages. All he would say, was to give him a call back, but no matter when I would call — not a soul would answer my call.
It’s a good thing thing that I have a high amount of credit on my card, because not very many people would be able to take a $ 5,500 punch on their card.
I don’t know if this how they treat a majority of their customers, and as much as I would love to say that I will never call these people again, this much I do know ~ it would have to take a huge emergency situation at 2 o’clock in the morning with no other plumber available, in order for me to give these plumbers a call again.
Roto-​Rooter, I hope to never see you again.

When you stand by a warranty like these guys did, you get my business for life. They’ve always been prompt emergency responders, and cost just as much as any other plumber.
We had to get our sewer line replaced 3 years ago– they came out, did what seemed to be a good job, even spared our walkways and driveway by going through parts of old line (new PVC fits inside the old terra cotta lines.) Cost us 10grand, because the old line was flawed and flowed UPHILL partially, causing water to stand in pipes, rotting out under the basement– I watched the cameras to be sure, as I never heard of basement pipe being replaced. Big, big job. I wondered about using parts of old line considering problem, but they were the plumbers, and all seemed to work fine.
Well– County came out a few months ago, as it was running slow due to holding water. Turns out– line was flawed, they didn’t correct all the uphill sloping. Called Roto Rooter– without fuss, the came right out, assessed the situation, ADMITTED they goofed by following original line w/​o correcting grade, and installed a brand new sewer line in a different direction. BIGGER than the last job. ALL FOR FREE WITHOUT ANY HASSLES AT ALL.
Both times, line was working at the end of day 1, by end of day 2 clean up was complete. Including patching basement concrete.
Yes, they messed up first time– but who’s heard of a company willing to give you over 10grand in repairs not only FREE, but completely HASSLE FREE???
Anyone can goof. It takes a big person or company, and a big and HONEST company, to stand by such a costly error and make it right w/​o hassle.
Good for them! They earned a customer for life!!!

Horrible service. Twice did not show up for scheduled appointment. Will not be using them again.

I’ve been lucky enough never to need their services, but someone I knew had a bit of a plumbing emergency and Roto-​Rooter did a pretty good job. They showed up less than an hour after being called at noon on a Sunday and were able to get a main sewage line unclogged without any trouble. The plumber they sent was friendly and professional, and while the service wasn’t cheap it wasn’t outrageous considering how promptly they arrived on a weekend. I can’t say anything about how good they are at major work, but if you have a problem that needs to be fixed ASAP this seems like a good company.

A very inexperienced crew. If you advertise 24 hour service, then the business should respond at any hour of the day. Too bad nobody (except Better Business Bureau) regulates/​moniters these types of claims.