Hear from Our Customers
When a plumbing repair is done right, you stop managing symptoms and start trusting your home again. No more running the shower for two minutes before the pressure builds. No more wondering whether that slow drain is going to back up on a Tuesday night when you have nowhere to put it. You get your house back — not a patch job that holds for six months.
For Citrus Heights homeowners specifically, that matters more than it might in a newer neighborhood. A significant portion of homes here were built in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s — which means original galvanized steel pipe systems that have spent decades corroding from the inside out. When those pipes finally get addressed properly, the difference is immediate: better water pressure, cleaner water, and no more guessing what’s hiding behind the walls.
The other thing that changes is your relationship with the next repair call. Homeowners who’ve worked with a plumbing repair company that communicates clearly and prices honestly tend to call sooner the next time something comes up — before a slow leak becomes a flooded cabinet. Catching a water line issue early in a Citrus Heights home this age can be the difference between a straightforward pipe repair and a much larger problem.
We founded Murray Plumbing in 2009 after the housing market collapsed, earning our contractor’s license and building this company one job at a time. There’s no franchise behind us, no corporate dispatch layer, and no commissioned technicians incentivized to find problems that aren’t there. Just a licensed plumbing repair contractor who built a reputation across Sacramento County by doing the work right.
Citrus Heights sits squarely in our Sacramento County service area, and we’ve worked on the kind of homes that define this city — post-war construction off Greenback Lane, older neighborhoods near Auburn Boulevard, properties where the landscaping has had 50 years to grow and the sewer lateral has had 50 years to age. That context isn’t something you get from a national chain.
Our Google rating is 4.7 out of 5 across 93 reviews, and the reviews are specific — customers naming the technician, describing the problem that got solved, and noting that the final cost came in at or below the original estimate. That’s the standard we hold ourselves to on every call in Citrus Heights.
It starts with a call. We respond fast — most calls are handled the same day, because a plumbing problem in a family home doesn’t get better with time. When our technician arrives, we assess the situation before anything else. That means actually looking at what’s going on, not defaulting to a worst-case scenario to justify a bigger invoice.
Once the diagnosis is done, you get a flat-rate price before any work begins. That number doesn’t change when the job is finished. If you’ve dealt with hourly billing before — where the clock runs while someone drives to get a part — you know why this matters. The price you agree to is the price you pay.
For Citrus Heights homeowners dealing with sewer-related issues, there’s one local step worth knowing: the Sacramento Area Sewer District handles the public sewer main, and the city recommends calling SASD first to rule out a problem on their end. Once SASD confirms the issue is on your private lateral — the line between your home and the main — that’s where we come in. Camera inspection, hydro jetting, trenchless sewer repair, or traditional pipe repair depending on what the line actually needs. Because Citrus Heights is an incorporated city with its own building department, any permitted work is handled with the proper documentation — no shortcuts that create headaches when you go to sell the house.
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We handle the full range of residential plumbing repair in Citrus Heights — from a clogged drain or a failing water heater to a full water line repair or sewer lateral replacement. The scope of the job is always determined by what’s actually wrong, not by what generates the largest invoice.
For older homes in Citrus Heights — and there are a lot of them — pipe repair often means dealing with galvanized steel that has spent decades narrowing from the inside due to corrosion. The symptoms show up as low water pressure, discolored water, or slow drains that don’t respond to standard cleaning. When the pipe itself is the problem, the fix is replacing it with materials that will last. We use quality parts designed to hold up through Sacramento Valley’s seasonal extremes — the long, dry summers that push tree roots toward sewer lines, and the wet winters where clay soil shifts and stresses underground pipe joints.
Water line repair in Citrus Heights also comes with a specific local consideration: the Citrus Heights Water District serves this area, and any work that touches the supply side has to account for CHWD’s service infrastructure. Our team understands how the local water system works, which makes leak detection and waterline repairs faster and more accurate. Whether it’s a trenchless solution that preserves your yard or a traditional repair that calls for excavation, the approach is always based on what the actual conditions require — not a one-size-fits-all method.
In Citrus Heights, the Sacramento Area Sewer District (SASD) is responsible for the public sewer main — the line that runs under the street. If you’re having sewer problems, the city actually recommends calling SASD first at 916-875-6730 so they can check the public line before you spend money on a private plumber. SASD has 24-hour maintenance staff and will inspect their side at no cost to you.
If SASD clears the public main and the problem points back to your property, that’s where your responsibility begins. The private lateral — the sewer line running from your home to the public main — belongs to you. Repairs to that section, whether it’s a root intrusion, a cracked pipe, or a collapsed section, are entirely the homeowner’s cost. We handle private lateral repairs in Citrus Heights regularly, including camera inspection to confirm the problem, trenchless sewer repair to fix it without tearing up your yard, and hydro jetting to clear root buildup that’s been accumulating in aging clay or cast-iron lines.
Galvanized steel pipe was the standard material used in homes built before the 1980s, which covers a large share of Citrus Heights’s housing stock. The most common signs that your galvanized pipes are failing are low water pressure throughout the house, water that runs slightly brown or discolored when you first turn on a tap, and drains that stay slow even after cleaning.
The issue with galvanized pipe isn’t just surface rust — it corrodes from the inside, progressively narrowing the interior diameter until water flow is significantly restricted. A home built in the 1960s has pipe that is now over 60 years old, which is at or past the end of its functional lifespan. If your home is in an older neighborhood near Auburn Boulevard, Greenback Lane, or the Sylvan Park area, and you’ve never had the plumbing assessed, it’s worth having a licensed plumbing repair contractor take a look. We can evaluate the condition of your supply lines and give you a straight answer about whether you’re dealing with a localized repair or a system that’s approaching broader failure.
It depends on the scope of the work. Minor repairs — fixing a leaky faucet, replacing a toilet, clearing a drain — generally don’t require a permit. But more significant work, like replacing a water heater, repiping a section of your home, or repairing or replacing a sewer lateral, typically does require a permit through Citrus Heights’s building department.
This matters more than people realize. Citrus Heights is a fully incorporated city with its own municipal code and building inspection process, unlike neighboring Carmichael or Fair Oaks, which are unincorporated communities. Unpermitted plumbing work in an incorporated city can create real problems when you go to sell the house — permit records are public, and buyers’ agents check them. It can also complicate homeowner’s insurance claims if a subsequent failure is traced back to work that wasn’t inspected. We are a CSLB C-36 licensed plumbing contractor, which means permitted work is handled correctly, documented, and ready to pass inspection. You don’t have to manage that part — it’s built into how the job gets done.
Low water pressure in Citrus Heights homes most commonly comes down to one of three things: corroded galvanized pipes that have narrowed over time, a failing pressure regulator, or a slow leak somewhere in the supply line that’s bleeding pressure before it reaches your fixtures. In homes built in the 1950s through 1970s — which make up a large portion of the housing stock here — corroded galvanized pipe is by far the most common culprit.
The Citrus Heights Water District delivers water at a measured pressure, so if your neighbors have good pressure and you don’t, the problem is almost certainly on your side of the meter. We can run a pressure test at different points in your system to isolate where the drop is happening. If the issue is a single corroded section, a targeted pipe repair may be all you need. If the pressure loss is throughout the house and the pipes are original, a more comprehensive assessment is the right next step. Either way, you’ll know the answer and the cost before any work begins.
The honest answer is that it depends on what’s actually wrong, and anyone who gives you a number before diagnosing the problem is guessing. What we can tell you is how the pricing works: you get a flat-rate cost before the work starts, and that number doesn’t change when the job is finished. There’s no hourly clock running in the background, and there’s no emergency surcharge that shows up on the final invoice as a surprise.
For context, real customers have noted that their final bill came in at or below the original estimate — which is the opposite of the experience that makes people dread calling a plumber. The cost of a repair also has to be weighed against the cost of waiting. A slow water line leak in a home with 60-year-old pipes can cause mold, structural damage, and a water bill that climbs every month. Getting a straight answer from a licensed plumbing repair company — with a real number attached — is almost always the better move.
The two biggest factors are the age of the infrastructure and the maturity of the landscaping — and in Citrus Heights, both are working against older sewer lines at the same time. Homes built in the 1950s through 1970s were typically plumbed with clay or cast-iron sewer laterals, which develop small cracks and joint gaps as they age. Those gaps are exactly what tree roots look for.
Citrus Heights has had decades for its trees to grow, and the root systems in established neighborhoods near Rusch Park, Woodside Oaks, and Sylvan Park are extensive. During Sacramento’s long, dry summers, those roots actively seek moisture — and a cracked sewer lateral is a reliable source. Once roots get inside the pipe, they grow quickly, trapping debris and creating blockages that get worse over time. Hydro jetting can clear the immediate obstruction, but if the pipe has significant root intrusion or structural damage, a camera inspection will show exactly what you’re dealing with. In many cases, trenchless sewer repair is the most practical solution — it relines the pipe from the inside without excavating your yard, and it addresses the underlying problem rather than just clearing it until next season.
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Other Services we provide in Citrus Heights
