Hear from Our Customers
Living on a private well and septic system in Somerset means when something goes wrong with your plumbing, you don’t have a utility company to call. You have no water. No backup. No one dispatching a crew from across the street. What you need is a licensed plumbing repair contractor who understands how rural El Dorado County properties actually work — not someone who’s only ever touched city water connections.
When your plumbing is working the way it should, your mornings run without a second thought. No low pressure at the tap, no discolored water from aging galvanized pipes, no slow drain quietly signaling something worse underneath. For homes in Somerset’s ZIP code that were largely built in the 1960s and 1970s, that kind of quiet reliability doesn’t happen by accident. It takes someone who knows what to look for in a 50-year-old system on a 10-acre lot.
At over 2,000 feet of elevation, Somerset also gets real winters. When overnight temperatures drop and an exposed crawlspace line or hose bib freezes, the damage can be fast and expensive. Getting that fixed the same day — by someone who already knows the roads and the terrain — is the difference between a manageable repair and a week without running water.
We founded Murray Plumbing in Placerville in 2009 after earning our contractor’s license from the ground up. We’ve built this company one job at a time across El Dorado County, with Somerset and the surrounding Fair Play area as core parts of our service territory. Placerville is the closest major town to Somerset — roughly 19 miles away — which means when you call, you’re not waiting for someone to drive up from Sacramento or figure out which road gets them to your property.
We’ve been doing residential plumbing repair across El Dorado County for over 15 years. That includes the foothill terrain, the private wells, the aging housing stock, and the freeze events that catch exposed pipes off guard every winter. Our name is on the business, and that personal accountability shows up in the reviews — a 4.7 out of 5 on Google, built on real feedback from real homeowners who needed a plumber they could actually count on.
Our pricing is flat-rate and agreed upon before any work begins. No surprise charges, no rural service fee tacked on at the end. What you’re quoted is what you pay — and documented customer feedback confirms that final invoices have come in at or below the original estimate.
It starts with a call. You describe what’s happening — low pressure, a pipe that’s leaking, a drain that’s backing up, a water heater that stopped producing — and we give you a same-day appointment in most cases. For Somerset homeowners, that first conversation also covers access: which road to take, how to find the property, what to expect on arrival. These aren’t small details when most driveways in the area are dirt or gravel and addresses aren’t always visible from the road.
On-site, the first step is diagnosis. Because so many Somerset homes are on private wells and septic systems, our diagnostic process accounts for the full picture — not just the symptom you called about. A pressure drop could be a pipe, a pressure tank, or a well pump issue. A slow drain could be a household clog or a sign the septic connection needs attention. Getting the diagnosis right the first time is what prevents a second service call.
Once the cause is identified, you get the full price before anything is touched. We carry common repair parts in service vehicles, which means most repairs are completed on the first visit. For any work requiring a permit — water heater replacements, repiping, or septic-adjacent connections — those are pulled through El Dorado County Building Division, not a city department, since Somerset is unincorporated. Everything is done to code, documented, and inspected where required.
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We handle the full range of residential plumbing repair services that Somerset homeowners actually need. That means pipe repair and water line repair for aging galvanized systems that have been corroding from the inside for decades. It means drain cleaning and hydro jetting for lines that have accumulated mineral buildup from the area’s moderately hard well water. It means emergency plumbing repair for burst pipes after a freeze event on a night when temperatures dropped hard at 2,000-plus feet.
Water heater repair and replacement is a significant part of our work in this area. Homes built in the 1960s and 1970s often have original or near-original water heater installations that are well past their service life. We handle both traditional tank and tankless water heater systems, and all replacements are permitted through El Dorado County Building Division as required by California Plumbing Code. If your water heater has been struggling to keep up — especially heading into a Somerset winter — that’s worth addressing before it fails completely.
Trenchless sewer repair, camera inspection, leak detection, and water softening and filtration systems round out our service list. For properties in the Fair Play and Mount Aukum areas where water quality from private wells varies and mineral content is a known issue, filtration and softening aren’t optional extras — they’re part of protecting your pipes and appliances long-term. Whatever the repair, our approach is the same: diagnose it accurately, quote it upfront, and fix it with parts built to last.
Yes — Somerset and the surrounding Fair Play area fall within our El Dorado County service territory. We’re based in Placerville, which is approximately 19 miles from Somerset, making us one of the closer service providers to this part of the county. Unlike Sacramento-based plumbers who list El Dorado County as a service area but realistically prioritize the Cameron Park and El Dorado Hills corridor, we operate out of the foothills and regularly serve rural properties along roads like Grizzly Flat Road, Fair Play Road, and Mount Aukum Road.
For homeowners on large lots with dirt driveways and no visible street address from the road, our familiarity with Somerset and the surrounding area matters practically — not just in marketing. When you call, the conversation includes access details so our technician can actually find your property and arrive on time.
Costs vary depending on what the repair involves. For reference, drain clearing in the Somerset area typically runs between $200 and $600. Leak or pipe repair ranges from $350 to $1,500 or more depending on location and complexity. Water heater repair generally falls between $300 and $900, and a diagnostic service call runs around $175. Emergency repairs carry an additional cost on top of the repair itself.
What matters most for Somerset homeowners is that we quote the full price before any work begins. Our flat-rate, upfront model means you know exactly what you’re agreeing to — no hourly clock running in the background, and no rural service fee appearing on the final invoice that wasn’t mentioned at the start. Documented customer feedback confirms that final bills have come in at or below the original estimate, which is the real measure of pricing you can trust.
Most homes in Somerset are on private wells rather than a municipal water supply, and our experience across El Dorado County includes working on the plumbing systems that connect to and depend on those wells. That includes pressure tanks, supply lines, water softeners and filtration systems, and the household plumbing that runs from the well connection throughout the home.
One important distinction: well pump installation and repair — the pump itself, inside the well casing — is typically handled by a licensed well contractor rather than a plumbing contractor. However, the pressure tank, the supply line from the pressure tank into the home, and all the plumbing downstream of that point falls squarely within plumbing repair territory. If you’re experiencing low water pressure, pressure fluctuations, or water quality issues, a plumbing inspection is a good starting point to determine where the problem originates.
Somerset is an unincorporated community, which means there is no city building department. All permits for plumbing work go through El Dorado County Building Division — not a city permit office. The types of work that typically require a permit include water heater replacements, repiping, new plumbing installations, and any work that connects to or affects your septic system. Minor repairs like fixing a leaking pipe, replacing a fixture, or clearing a drain generally do not require a permit.
We handle permit-required work in full compliance with El Dorado County requirements. All our licensed plumbing work is performed under a valid California C-36 Plumbing Contractor license, which is verifiable directly on the CSLB website. This matters in a rural market where unlicensed contractors operate — unpermitted plumbing work can create problems at resale, void homeowner’s insurance coverage for related damage, and leave you with repairs that weren’t inspected or approved.
Homes in Somerset’s ZIP code were largely built in the 1960s and 1970s, which means galvanized steel pipes are common. Galvanized pipe corrodes from the inside out over decades, and by the time visible symptoms appear, the pipe has often been deteriorating for years. The warning signs to watch for include consistently low water pressure across multiple fixtures, water that runs brown or rust-colored when first turned on, visible rust staining in sinks or tubs, and pipes that have needed repeated repairs in the same section.
On a rural property where a slow leak can go undetected for weeks — especially in a crawlspace or behind a wall — the damage compounds quickly. Mold, structural deterioration, and well contamination are all downstream risks of a pipe failure that wasn’t caught early. If your home is 40 or 50 years old and has never had a plumbing assessment, that’s worth scheduling before the problem announces itself at 2 AM on a cold January night.
At 2,093 feet of elevation, Somerset gets genuine winter weather — roughly 14 inches of snow annually and around seven days per year where snow actually falls. Overnight temperatures regularly drop below freezing, which puts exposed pipes, outdoor hose bibs, and any plumbing running through uninsulated crawlspaces at real risk. This is meaningfully different from the freeze risk in lower-elevation communities in Sacramento or Placer County, where a cold night is an inconvenience rather than a plumbing emergency.
If a pipe bursts, the first step is to shut off the water supply at the main shutoff valve — on a well-dependent property, that’s typically near the pressure tank. Then call for emergency plumbing repair. We offer 24/7 emergency service, and because we’re based in Placerville rather than Sacramento, response time to Somerset is faster than most regional providers. Once on-site, our repair includes not just fixing the burst section but assessing whether adjacent pipes are at risk of the same failure — because one freeze-damaged pipe in a crawlspace rarely comes alone.
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Other Services we provide in Somerset
