Hear from Our Customers
When a plumbing problem gets fixed right the first time, the relief is immediate — no more slow drains backing up into your kitchen, no more watching a water stain spread across the ceiling of the unit below yours, no more guessing whether that low water pressure is a minor fix or a major one. You get your home back.
For Campus Commons residents specifically, that peace of mind carries some extra weight. The Villages of Campus Commons and the Nepenthe Association were developed in the 1970s, which means most of the plumbing infrastructure throughout the neighborhood is now approaching 50 years old. Galvanized supply lines from that era corrode from the inside out. Aging drain lines narrow over time. And in a shared-wall community, a plumbing failure in your unit can quickly become your neighbor’s problem too.
Sacramento’s hard water compounds this. The Sacramento and Central Valleys are well-documented for elevated calcium and magnesium mineral content in the water supply, and that mineral scale builds up inside aging pipes and water heaters faster than most homeowners realize. Addressing these issues with quality repairs — not temporary patches — is what keeps a 1970s plumbing system running reliably in 2025.
We founded Murray Plumbing in 2009 after earning our contractor’s license and building the company one job at a time out of Placerville. More than 15 years later, we serve El Dorado, Sacramento, and Placer Counties — and Campus Commons falls squarely within our core service territory.
We’re not a franchise dispatching whoever’s available. When you call Murray Plumbing, you’re calling a locally rooted company with a 4.7-star Google rating built on 93 real, named reviews. Customers cite specific moments: a Sunday morning call answered within minutes, a sewer repair completed in under 24 hours for significantly less than a competitor’s quote, a final invoice that came in under the original estimate.
For a community like Campus Commons — where educated, long-term residents know the difference between a company that talks a good game and one that actually delivers — that track record matters more than any marketing claim.
It starts with a call or a booking request. We respond fast — documented reviews show responses within minutes of an initial inquiry, with same-day appointments available for most plumbing repair situations. You won’t be put on a callback list and forgotten.
When our technician arrives, the first step is a thorough diagnosis. In Campus Commons, that often means looking beyond the obvious symptom. A slow drain in a 1970s-era condo might be a simple clog, or it might be the early sign of root intrusion from the neighborhood’s mature tree canopy working its way into an aging sewer lateral. A camera inspection can tell the difference in minutes, and that matters before any repair work begins. Because the homes throughout Campus Commons are within the City of Sacramento, any work requiring a permit goes through the City of Sacramento Community Development Department — and we handle that process as part of the job, not as an afterthought.
Once the diagnosis is complete, you get the price. Not a range, not an estimate that shifts once the work starts — the actual cost, agreed upon before anyone touches a wrench. That’s how every job works, whether it’s a pipe repair, a water line repair, or a full drain cleaning. After the work is done, it’s backed by our commitment to standing behind what we fix.
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We handle the complete scope of residential plumbing repair — which matters in a community where the housing stock is aging and the issues that come up tend to be more varied than in a newer subdivision. Plumbing repair and emergency plumbing services cover the urgent calls: burst pipes, backed-up drains, failed water heaters, and anything else that can’t wait. Drain cleaning, hydro jetting, and camera inspection address the root intrusion and buildup that’s common in a neighborhood with mature landscaping and 50-year-old sewer laterals running beneath it.
Water line repair and waterline replacement become relevant when aging galvanized supply lines finally reach the end of their lifespan — something that’s increasingly common in Campus Commons units that have never been repiped. Trenchless sewer repair is available for situations where the sewer lateral needs more than cleaning, and it typically costs less than traditional excavation once you factor in what you’d spend restoring landscaping and hardscape.
For Campus Commons residents dealing with Sacramento’s documented hard water issues, we also offer water softening, water filtration, and reverse osmosis systems — services that address the water quality at the source rather than just treating the symptoms in your pipes and fixtures. Every service comes with upfront pricing and is performed by fully licensed, insured technicians who carry a valid California C-36 Plumbing Contractor License.
This is one of the most common questions that comes up in HOA communities like Campus Commons, and the honest answer is: it depends on where the problem is. Generally speaking, plumbing inside the walls of your individual unit — supply lines, drain lines, fixtures, and the water heater — is the homeowner’s or tenant’s responsibility. Plumbing that serves the common areas or shared infrastructure is typically the HOA’s responsibility.
Where it gets complicated is in shared-wall situations. If a pipe runs through a wall that’s shared between two units, or if a drain stack serves multiple units, the line of responsibility can get blurry. The best approach is to have a licensed plumber assess the issue and document the location of the problem before anyone starts debating who pays. We can provide that documentation clearly, which makes the conversation with your HOA or property manager much more straightforward.
The most common early signs are reduced water pressure, discolored water (a brownish or rust-colored tint when you first turn on a faucet), slow drains that don’t respond to normal clearing, and visible moisture or staining on walls or ceilings. In a Campus Commons townhome or condo built in the 1970s, these symptoms often point to galvanized steel supply lines that have corroded from the inside out — a process that happens gradually and then suddenly accelerates.
Don’t wait for a full failure. A corroded galvanized pipe doesn’t give you much warning before it goes from “annoying” to “water pouring into the unit below yours.” If you’re seeing any of these signs consistently, a plumber who can run a camera inspection and give you an honest assessment of the pipe condition is worth the call. We offer flat-rate pricing, which means you’ll know the cost of the repair before any work begins — no hourly clock running while someone figures out the problem.
It depends on the scope of the work. Minor repairs — fixing a leaking faucet, unclogging a drain, replacing a toilet — generally don’t require a permit. But larger jobs like water heater replacement, repiping, sewer line repair, or any work that involves opening walls to access supply or drain lines typically do require a permit through the City of Sacramento Community Development Department.
This matters for Campus Commons residents for a couple of reasons. First, unpermitted plumbing work can create complications when you sell your unit, since Sacramento requires a sewer lateral inspection at the time of sale. Second, in a shared-wall HOA community, work that affects neighboring units may also require HOA notification alongside the city permit. We handle the permitting process as part of the job — you don’t need to figure out the City of Sacramento’s requirements on your own.
Hard water is a real issue throughout the Sacramento and Central Valleys. The water supply in this area carries elevated levels of calcium and magnesium, which deposit as mineral scale inside pipes, water heaters, and fixtures over time. In a newer home, this is a slow process. In a Campus Commons unit with 50-year-old plumbing, it accelerates the degradation of pipes that are already at or near the end of their functional lifespan.
For water heaters specifically, mineral scale builds up on the heating element and at the bottom of the tank, forcing the unit to work harder and shortening its life. A water heater that should last 10 to 12 years might fail in 7 or 8 in a hard water environment without regular maintenance. Water softening and filtration systems address this at the source, protecting both your plumbing and your appliances. We offer water softening, water filtration, and reverse osmosis systems — and can assess whether your current setup is working against your plumbing rather than protecting it.
Yes — and it’s more common in established Sacramento neighborhoods than most homeowners expect. Campus Commons is defined by its mature tree canopy, which is one of the things residents genuinely love about living there. But those same trees, planted alongside sewer laterals in the 1970s, have had 50 years to grow their root systems toward any available moisture source. Aging clay or cast iron sewer laterals are exactly that — a consistent source of moisture that roots will find and infiltrate over time.
Sacramento’s hot, dry summers make this worse. When surface soil dries out during the summer months, tree roots drive deeper and more aggressively into the ground, and a hairline crack in an old sewer lateral becomes an entry point. The early signs are slow drains and periodic backups that seem to clear on their own. A camera inspection will show you exactly what’s happening inside the pipe. If root intrusion is confirmed, hydro jetting can clear it, and trenchless sewer repair can address the damaged section without tearing up the landscaping you’ve spent years maintaining.
For most emergency plumbing repair situations in Campus Commons, our goal is same-day service — and the reviews back that up. Documented customer feedback describes responses within minutes of an initial inquiry and same-day appointments for urgent issues including sewer backups, burst pipes, and water heater failures.
This matters more in Campus Commons than it might in a standalone house. When you’re in a shared-wall townhome or condo and a pipe fails, the water doesn’t stay in your unit. A burst pipe or an overflowing drain can affect the unit next to yours or below yours within hours, and that turns a plumbing repair into an HOA dispute and a potential insurance claim. The faster the response, the less damage spreads. We offer 24/7 emergency plumbing services, and the same upfront pricing model applies regardless of when you call — the cost is agreed upon before work begins, not presented as a surprise on the invoice after the emergency is over.
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Other Services we provide in Campus Commons
