Peck Plumbing & Heating

At 1:30 in the morning my wife woke me from a sound sleep to say we had an emergency. There was water dripping from our ceiling in the dining room. We placed a pan under the drip and wiped up the puddle. I then turned the water to the house off and opened the faucets to drain the water out of the lines.

The drywall ceiling had a huge bulge from the water where a bubble had formed between the drywall and drywall's paper covering. The next day I checked the Spokane Revdex.com website and contacted Peck Plumbing. Within an hour Jerry returned my call and said he was just finishing a job and could be at my house within the hour.

He arrived as promised, and efficiently began troubleshooting the leak. Just above the dripping was an upstairs bedroom so it was evident that the leak was somewhere between the upstairs bath and the hot water heater. An examination of the water heater, bedroom, and bathroom showed no evidence of leakage. Everything was dry under two bathroom sinks, on the opposite wall of the shower, (in the bedroom,) and around the hot water heater.

Jerry removed a section of drywall where the water leaked through the ceiling so he could determine where the leak originated from. (This hole also provided the needed space to properly dry out the area above the ceiling and prevent the build-up of mold.) The area was dry in both directions and the area where the ceiling was soaked had no PEX, sewer drains, or other other pipes. There was a PEX pipe several feet away but it and the area around it appeared bone dry. Using his flashlight he observed water stains along the lower ridge of the TGI joist. From this he determined the leak originated at the shower valve some 20' away. He removed the shower valve cover and with the water turned on isolated the leak to a crack in the valve.

Cause of leak: Poor workmanship. When the contractor built the house he applied excessive force to a fitting driving it too far into the brass valve. The forced fitting caused stress on the valve and it took 6 years for the damage to result in the leak. His son Jerome installed a new valve and Jerry provided me with a contact name to get the ceiling repaired.

The work was performed efficiently and no time was wasted in the process. As a retired engineer I observed Jerry and his son's workmanship and their layout, soldering, and quality, were excellent.

In addition to the leak I had another problem that I had been delaying for some time. I knew the contractor that built this house had installed the wrong type of sewage pump and that the check valve was incorrectly mounted above the manual shut-off valve. Since the house was purchased on a short sale when the bottom fell out of the real estate market, we purchased the house new and in a “as is” condition. Because of these issues we just didn't use the downstairs bath.

I was so impressed with Peck Plumbing I had them prepare a bid to install a new discharge sewage sump pump, check valve, and alarm system in the basement. Jerome provided a professionally written bid documenting exactly the work to be performed. Once again I hired them and the work was performed as before with efficiency and excellence. I now have peace-of-mind that the basement plumbing was performed properly.

Peck Plumbing is a small family run business. According to their website Peck Plumbing has operated in Spokane since 1910. Jerry and Jerome have preserved and carried on the businesses name and reputation. I highly recommend them for quality workmanship at a very reasonable price.