I called Curoso Plumbing at 7am on a Wednesday for a plumbing emergency that happened in the middle of the night. We had never used Curoso before, but our normal plumber couldn't do it. I called someone else, but they couldn't send someone until next week. We were without water until it could be fixed. They recommended Curoso.
When I called Curoso, Sterling told me he could send Ramon to us between 10am and noon. A short time later, Sterling called back to say that Ramon's 8am appointment had canceled. He could be there between 8am and 9am. Ramon arrived ~8:30am. He seemed very knowledgeable, got the job done professionally, and cleaned up very well.
The long story: Maybe about 12 years ago, the city of Santa Rosa installed a pressure-reducing valve for all the homes in our neighborhood. In 2017, the PVC pipe they installed blew apart and water was gushing out into the street. This same thing had now happened again (Dec 2024). Around 2am, the PVC pipe pulled apart, but we couldn't figure out the problem until the next morning (~6:00 a.m.) when I found a geyser of water gushing out into the street from near the water meter. [After I shut off the water, I called the city. They sent Rick out within ~30 minutes, but he explained that it was our responsibility because the break was between the meter and our home.]
When Ramon got there, he diagnosed the problem very quickly. As Ramon explained, there were at least three problems with the original installation (by whoever the city contracted to install these values for all the homes on our street).
First, they glued the PVC pipe together, which does not conform to plumbing code (in a high-pressure situation such as this, Ramon said the glued joint is too weak; consequently, it had come apart...twice in the last 12 years!).
Second, Ramon said it is not a good idea to put a pressure-reducing valve like this in the ground. Normally it is put just below the gate valve that shuts off the water to the house. It is hard to access when it is in the ground. Also, when the contractor installed it, they added four 90° elbows in the PVC. All those turns create more potential problems (they are weak links).
Third, the biggest problem is that when they installed the pressure-reducing value, they should have also installed a thermal expansion tank (which is normally placed above the hot water heater, on the cold water line). That would allow for any pressure that builds up in the water lines in our house to be released. With the current set-up, there is nowhere for the pressure to go. Consequently, it blew out the glued PVC connection (the weakest link).
After he re-glued the PVC joint, he tested the pressure-reducing valve, and concluded that it had failed (the pressure was wildly fluctuating, which is probably why it blew out the PVC connection). Since it had to be replaced, he advised us that it would be better to move it to the more logical position (just above the new ball valve, which he installed to replace the very old gate valve that was not fully functional). [I had to call the city to get permission before he could do that.]
After he installed the new pressure-reducing valve, he straightened out the tangled mess from the original installation, removing some of those extra PVC elbows and replacing the PVC with copper pipe and a new shut-off valve. Finally, he installed a thermal expansion tank above our water heater.
They charge $275/hour. It cost us $2,000 (including parts and labor), and it took him nearly all day to fix the mess. But, I feel reassured that it was been done properly and will not happen again in another 5-7 years. Ramon says there is a 1 year guarantee on the work he did.
