Water Filtration
Filtration deals with what is in the water rather than its hardness. What you need depends entirely on what is actually in your supply, which is worth establishing before buying equipment.
Water Filtration
When to call
What usually brings people to this
Ground movement is a real factor in this valley, and it shows up as offset joints in sewer laterals that were perfectly fine a decade ago.
These are the symptoms that usually prompt the call. Any one of them is worth a conversation, and most of them get cheaper to deal with the earlier they are looked at.
Taste or odor complaints
Sediment in the water
Concerns about a private well
Staining on fixtures and laundry
Wanting treated water at every tap
Ignoring an early symptom does not save money. It moves the spending to a worse moment and adds restoration work to it.
How we work it
We document what the camera sees so you are not taking our word for the condition of something buried in your yard.
Find out what is in the water
Testing first. Equipment chosen without knowing what it is treating is a guess.
Match the system to the problem
Sediment, taste and odor, and specific contaminants all call for different treatment.
Install at the right point
Point-of-entry treats the whole building; point-of-use treats one tap. Which you want depends on the goal.
Set the maintenance expectation
Every filtration system needs servicing and you should know the interval before you buy.
Worth knowingWhat water filtration actually involves
Sometimes the right recommendation is the cheap one. A shop that has been in one family for four decades cannot afford a reputation for anything else.
Deciding what you need starts with knowing what is actually in the water, which is why we test rather than sell a system off a shelf. Municipal supply here is treated and safe, but treated is not the same as free of sediment, taste, odor or hardness. Well water is a different matter entirely and is not monitored by anyone except the owner. Either way, the right equipment follows the test results.
We carry what it takes to finish the common jobs in one visit, because a return trip costs you time you did not plan to spend.
The service footprint reflects where our customers are rather than a radius drawn on a map. If you are outside the usual radius, call and ask. We cover more ground than most shops our size.
We document what the camera sees so you are not taking our word for the condition of something buried in your yard.
Keeping it from happening again
Ignoring an early symptom does not save money. It moves the spending to a worse moment and adds restoration work to it.
Look behind and under appliances once in a while. Washing machine hoses, dishwasher connections and ice-maker lines are common leak sources and they are all hidden from normal view.
For commercial property, a maintenance schedule on drains and interceptors costs a fraction of emergency response, and it is the difference between planned work and a closure.
If a drain has slowed, deal with it while it is slow. A slow drain is a partial blockage announcing itself, and it will finish the job eventually at a less convenient moment.
If you have had a line cleared more than once, ask for a camera inspection rather than a third clearing. Repeated blockages nearly always have a physical cause worth finding.
Who you are calling
For commercial and industrial customers we schedule around operating hours as a matter of course.
When you call, a person answers, day or night. That has been true since Big Mike ran the phone himself, and it is one of the reasons people keep calling us.
We hold plumbing, sanitation and general engineering contractor licensing, which is what allows one shop to take a job from the fixture in the bathroom all the way out to the leach field.
The same family has been doing this work here since 1982, through three generations of Inland Empire housing stock.
Big Mike's · Yucaipa, California
Questions we get about water filtration
If yours is not here, call and ask. We would rather talk it through than have you guess.
Do I need filtration or softening?
Different jobs. Softening handles hardness minerals that scale your pipes and heater. Filtration handles sediment, taste, odor and contaminants.
Whole-house or under-sink?
Whole-house treats every tap including showers and appliances. Under-sink treats drinking water at one location for much less.
How often do filters need changing?
Depends on the system and your water. We set the interval and tell you what to watch for.
Should I test a private well?
Yes, and regularly. Well water is not monitored by anyone but you.
Do I need to be home?
Usually yes, or somebody who can make decisions about the work. We will not authorize additional work ourselves without talking to you.
Will you tell me if I do not need the work?
Yes, and we do regularly. A shop that has been in one family for four decades cannot afford a reputation for selling people work they did not need.
Do you charge for a quote?
No. Quotes are free and they come after we have looked at the actual problem, not over the phone from a description.
How do I know it is an emergency?
If it is actively causing damage or has made the property unusable, treat it as one and call. Water through a ceiling, sewage backing up and any gas smell all qualify.
How this fits the rest of the system
Most residential plumbing failures give warning before they become emergencies. Drains slow before they stop. Water heaters make noise before they leak. Pressure drifts before a pipe fails. The customers who spend the least on plumbing over the years are the ones who call when they notice something odd rather than when something has clearly broken.
Before we come out
Make sure someone who can make decisions about the work is available, so we are not waiting to get approval on what we found.
We work across three counties from a base in Yucaipa, which in practice means the San Bernardino valley, the Riverside side of the region, and the eastern San Gabriel Valley communities. The territory grew the way most things here grew: somebody called, we went, and their neighbor called next.
Related work and where we do it
Other work we do in homes
- Leak Detection
Finding the leak before anything is opened.
- Drain Cleaning
Slow and stopped drains, cabled and cleared.
- Kitchen Plumbing
Sinks, disposals, supply and drain work.
- Copper Repiping
Copper supply repipes.
- Boiler Repair
Residential boiler and hydronic faults.
- Sewer Line Repair
Cracked, offset and root-invaded laterals.
Where we go
We run water filtration out of Yucaipa across Yucaipa, Palm Springs, Victorville, Hemet, Adelanto, West Covina and Baldwin Park, and the rest of San Bernardino, Riverside and the eastern edge of Los Angeles County.
Call the shop. A person picks up.
Tell us what it is doing and we will tell you what it takes to fix it. Plain language, no sales pitch, and the number before we start.
Yucaipa, California · Serving San Bernardino, Riverside and eastern Los Angeles counties · Open 24 hours