Licensed & Insured · CA LIC #982663
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Pacifica, San Francisco, Burlingame, CA · Serving the Bay
PACIFICA, CA • LIC #982663 • 24/7
We answer the phone day, night, weekends, and holidays, with same-day service across the Peninsula.
Works Plumbing is a licensed and insured plumber in Palo Alto, CA, family owned since 2009 and working under California CSLB #982663. We serve Craftsman homes in Professorville, Eichlers in Greenmeadow and Fairmeadow, and everything between. Same-day visits and 24/7 emergency service are available, and each job is priced upfront before work begins.
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Palo Alto’s housing was built in distinct waves, and each wave left its own plumbing to maintain. Census estimates (ACS 2020 to 2024) show the 1950s as the largest decade at 25.1 percent of units, with 13.3 percent built in 1939 or earlier.
Professorville was laid out in 1889 as home sites for Stanford professors, with houses ranging from Colonial Revival to Craftsman, including brown-shingle homes and the Dutch Colonials on Kingsley Avenue. Century-old houses often carry several generations of repairs. We identify every valve and fitting before ordering parts and open walls only where we must.
City guidelines count well over 2,000 Eichlers in Palo Alto, built on concrete slabs with radiant heating pipes cast into the floor. Tracts went up in clear phases: University Gardens in 1949 to 1950, Green Gables and Greer Park in 1950 to 1951, Fairmeadow in 1951 to 1954, and Los Arboles from 1959 to 1961. A warm or damp spot on an Eichler floor is the classic call. Slab leak detection in Palo Alto tells us whether domestic water or a radiant loop is leaking. We repair supply lines ourselves; when the leak is in the radiant system, we pinpoint it and refer that repair to a radiant heating specialist.
City of Palo Alto Utilities runs water, sewer and gas. Water is Hetch Hetchy supply from SFPUC, treated with chloramine, averaging 62 ppm hardness in 2025, and the City’s inventory confirms no lead service lines in its system. On the sewer side, Rule 23 gives the City the lower lateral only when an accessible City cleanout exists; otherwise the owner holds the whole line to the main. A sewer camera inspection in Palo Alto shows which case applies.
City guidelines describe the whole city as sitting in a flood zone of some type, mostly Zone X, with larger zones near the bay and along San Francisquito Creek. The largest AE zone runs generally from Middlefield Road to the bay, and an AH zone west of Middlefield roughly follows the 1998 creek overflow area. Low fixtures need a backwater valve under Rule 23, which keeps a sewer surge from rising through a ground-floor drain.
Because the City owns the gas, water and sewer utilities, many Palo Alto jobs involve CPAU at some step. Here is how our main service groups work in this city.
Drains and sewer laterals
For clogs and backups, drain cleaning in Palo Alto includes a camera check before cutting, since the City runs a cross bore program to find gas lines accidentally bored through laterals. Roots near protected trees call for hydro jetting. When a lateral needs replacement, trenchless pipe repair in Palo Alto follows Rule 23 on cleanouts and realignment.
Water heaters
Same-location tank replacements can qualify for an Instant Permit. Tankless conversions that raise gas demand need a Utilities Application, so our tankless water heater service handles the gas sizing and CPAU paperwork. For a dripping relief valve or no hot water, see water heater repair in Palo Alto. We also install heat pump water heaters.
Leaks and supply lines
When an in-slab line fails, rerouting is often the better choice than breaking concrete. Read about water line repair in Palo Alto, including how Eichler reroutes respect the City’s design guidance.
Gas lines
City of Palo Alto Utilities has operated the local gas system since 1917. Our gas line repair work covers house piping, appliance connections, permits and inspections.
Fixtures and groundwater
We repair toilets, faucets, disposals and shower valves, including original valves in historic homes. See shower repair or sump pump repair for homes with basements or low floors. Disposal and kitchen line clogs are cleared on the same visit whenever possible.
Two recent accounts, in the customers’ own words.
James L., 5-star Google review
“Works Plumbing came for my water heater, water heater is still under warranty, they took care of the process on how I can get coverage. They are very knowledgeable and a big help. Thank you guys”
Lam H., 5-star Google review
“I called several places for quotes to clear my shower drain and landed here for not only best service but also best price. Will came out within the hour and fixed the issue in no time.”
Find your City sewer cleanout, usually in the planting strip near the sidewalk. If it is missing or buried, the whole lateral may be your responsibility under Rule 23, and a camera check is worth doing before trouble starts.
See how we handle it:
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From Professorville to Greenmeadow, tell us what is going wrong and we will book a licensed technician, with same-day appointments whenever the schedule allows.
Pipes, faucets, fixtures, toilets, garbage disposals we fix what’s broken, fast.
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Hydro jetting, rooter service, camera inspection. Clogs gone, drains flowing.
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Tank and tankless install, repair, and replacement. Hot water within 24 hours.
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Installation, repair, leak detection performed by certified technicians.
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Non-invasive camera inspections find leaks fast without tearing up your home.
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Burst pipes? Flooded basement? We answer the phone day, night, weekends, holidays.
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Whole-home repipe and trenchless sewer repair. Less mess, longer life.
Learn MoreA look at real Works jobs around the Peninsula.
High-efficiency equipment rewards maintenance more than older equipment because tankless units and modern heaters quietly lose performance when neglected.
Rocket Rewards members receive an automatic 10 percent discount on all services with call-out charges waived, plus periodic inspection and flushing of the water heater included in the plan.
Membership also gives schedule priority over non-members and price protection that locks in your agreement rate for its term, making budgeting predictable.
Palo Alto regulates how much groundwater a basement project may pump, and when. Ordinance 5425, passed January 22, 2018, amended the Municipal Code chapter on construction dewatering.
Once construction ends, a below-grade space still raises three plumbing decisions.
First, discharge. Rule 23 bars basement, foundation and under-drainage from the sanitary sewer unless the Regional Water Quality Control Plant issues a permit, and it bans piping that could later carry groundwater into the sewer. Sump discharge must go elsewhere.
Second, fixtures below grade. Rule 23 requires an approved backwater valve to protect fixtures at ground level or lower.
Third, pumping wastewater up. A basement bathroom or laundry often needs an ejector pump. Rule 23 caps output at 100 gallons per minute and limits each cycle to 20 seconds or 33 gallons, with the line changing to 4 inch gravity flow at least 20 feet from the City cleanout.
We size and set ejector and sump pumps to those limits, and we keep a watertight connection between the house and the lateral. Before routing any sump discharge, we confirm the outlet with the City so it meets current rules.
Here are the questions we hear most. Don’t see yours? Give us a ring, a real human answers, day or night.
We serve the whole city, including Professorville, Green Gables, Greenmeadow, Fairmeadow, Charleston Meadows, Greer Park, Los Arboles and University Gardens, and homes along Middlefield Road and Hamilton Avenue. Eichlers, historic houses and newer builds get the same licensed crew and the same upfront pricing on every visit.
Yes. Palo Alto sits in Santa Clara County, while most of the cities we cover are in San Mateo County, but it is part of our regular service area. We work under Palo Alto’s own permit process through Development Services and with City of Palo Alto Utilities for water, sewer and gas questions.
Yes. We book same-day appointments in Palo Alto and handle emergencies around the clock, including sewer backups, burst pipes, gas odors and water heaters that have quit. Request service online and describe the problem. If you smell gas, leave the house first and contact the gas utility, which in Palo Alto is the City, from outside.
We diagnose them. When an Eichler floor shows a warm spot or moisture, we test both the domestic water lines and the radiant loop to find which one is leaking and where. If the leak is in a supply line, we repair or reroute it. If it is in the radiant system, we mark the location and refer the repair to a radiant heating specialist.
Yes. We install heat pump water heaters in Palo Alto homes, and City of Palo Alto Utilities also runs its own replacement program. Either route works. We handle the permit, check the electrical and venting requirements, and set the unit with the strapping, expansion and discharge details the City inspects for.
City staff tested close to 12,000 water samples in 2025, according to the annual water quality report. The water is SFPUC supply treated with UV, chlorine, pH adjustment for corrosion control and chloramine. That treatment protects the pipes, but chloramine still wears rubber parts, so we use chloramine-resistant parts when available.
We also serve nearby Menlo Park, Atherton, Redwood City, San Carlos and Belmont.
We’ve earned our reputation one happy homeowner at a time.
“I had a backed up kitchen drain and David from Works Plumbing came out and cleared the line in a matter of minutes. Very professional and very knowledgeable. Definitely recommend!”
“Great professional and quick service! Shamir was friendly, efficient, and professional. He fixed the leaking problem in my sink and garbage disposal in under an hour. Highly recommend!”
“Thank you again for another job well done, and thank you for responding right away. I will continue to recommend Works Plumbing because they respond right away and get the job done efficiently.”
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Drain cleared or it’s free. Limit one per household.rnrn
Mention this offer when you schedule EXPIRES 12/31/2026Save $500 on a new tankless water heater install.rnrn
Mention this offer when you schedule Expires 12/31/2026With any drain cleaning service over $250. See the problem yourself.
Mention this offer when you schedule Expires 12/31/2026Thank you for your service. Ongoing: no expiration.
Mention this offer when you schedule Valid year-roundLabor only with purchase of new toilet. Includes haul-away.
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