Your neighbor's plumber. Now yours.
Ray Espinoza has been fixing Central Coast plumbing for over twenty years — hard-water heaters in Paso, galvanized pipe in the old part of town, wells and septic out toward Creston. You get Ray's crew, Ray's phone number, and a price before the work starts.
Move your cursor across the water — go on. Drag your finger across the water.
Tell us what's going on
We'll get back to you the same day. If water is actively running somewhere it shouldn't be, please call instead — that's faster.
Everything from a drip to a repipe
Houses, ranches, tasting rooms and restaurants. If it carries water or gas, we work on it — and we do it ourselves rather than handing it to a sub.
Drain Cleaning
Slow drains, backed-up sinks, and stubborn main-line clogs cleared with cable machines, hydro-jetting, and camera confirmation.
Learn moreWater Heaters
Repairs, same-day replacements, and tankless conversions — sized properly and installed to code, with our hard water in mind.
Learn moreRepiping & Water Lines
Galvanized, polybutylene, and failing copper replaced with PEX or copper — planned around your household, not the other way around.
Learn moreLeak Detection
Slab leaks, under-sink drips, irrigation losses, and mystery water bills — located precisely before anything gets opened up.
Learn moreSewer & Camera
Camera inspections, root removal, spot repairs, and full sewer line replacement — including pre-purchase inspections for buyers.
Learn moreFixtures & Faucets
Repairs and clean installations — faucets, toilets, sinks, garbage disposals, shower valves, and hose bibbs.
Learn moreGas Lines
New gas runs for ranges, firepits, BBQs, pool heaters, and generators — plus leak testing and repair, permitted and pressure-tested.
Learn moreRemodel Plumbing
Rough-in through trim-out for remodels, additions, and ADUs — coordinated with your contractor and scheduled around the rest of the trades.
Learn moreCommercial
Restaurants, tasting rooms, retail, offices, and multi-unit properties — service, repairs, and tenant improvements that respect your operating hours.
Learn moreA plumber from here, not a call center somewhere else
When you call Ray Espinoza Plumbing, the person who answers knows which jobs are on the calendar today, and the person who shows up is the one accountable for the work.
Ray has been in this trade for more than twenty years, most of it on the Central Coast. He started the company under his own name because that's what he's putting behind every job — and in a county this size, that's not a marketing decision. It's just how it works. You run into your customers at the Mid-State Fair.
We tell you when you don't need the big job
Sometimes a water heater needs a $180 part and not a $2,400 replacement. Sometimes a drain wants a cable and not a jetter. You'll get the options and the real numbers, and you'll get our honest read on which one we'd pick if it were our house. We would rather have your next ten years than the biggest possible invoice today.
A price before we start, not after
You approve a written number before any work begins. If we open something up and find a rotted flange or a corroded shutoff underneath, we stop and show you before we touch it. Nobody likes surprises on an invoice, and we don't like the conversation either.
We know what this water does
North County water is genuinely hard — the city's own 2025 report puts Paso Robles at an average of 15.6 grains per gallon, running as high as 28.7, drawn from nineteen wells and Lake Nacimiento. Atascadero averages 21.5. That's three to four times the threshold where water is called “hard,” and it's why water heaters here quit years earlier than they do elsewhere.
It's not a safety problem — the water passes every standard. It's a scale problem, and it changes what we recommend, how we install, and what we tell you to do once a year to protect what you paid for.
We pull the permits
Water heaters, gas lines, repipes, remodels. Permits exist for reasons that become obvious when something goes wrong, and unpermitted work causes real problems at resale and at claim time. We do it properly and we meet the inspector.
The water here is the whole story
Paso Robles is named for its springs. The town grew up around mineral water, and the same limestone that makes this country good for grapes makes the water hard on everything it runs through.
What that means for your house
Scale drops out of hard water every time you heat it. It coats the bottom of a tank and insulates the burner from the water it's trying to warm, so the heater runs longer and harder for the same shower. A tank that should give you twelve years quits at seven. A tankless unit that nobody flushes can be in trouble inside three.
It also shortens the life of fixtures, stiffens valves, and leaves the spotting on glass that everyone here recognizes.
What actually helps
- Flush the tank once a year — the single highest-value thing you can do
- Replace the anode rod at the halfway mark, before it fails
- Keep the thermostat at 120°F rather than 140°F
- Descale tankless units on a real schedule, with isolation valves that make it possible
- Consider treatment if your water is at the harsh end — often cheaper than replacing appliances early
Out past the city limits
A good share of North County isn't on city water at all. Creston, Shandon, San Miguel, the ranches out toward Lake Nacimiento — that's wells, pressure tanks, and septic. When something goes wrong there it's usually a system question rather than a single broken part, and diagnosing it means looking at the whole chain instead of the one fixture acting up.
The Paso Robles groundwater basin has been formally in critical overdraft since 2014, and wells in the area do fail. We can't drill you a new well, but we can tell you honestly whether what you're seeing is your plumbing or your water source — and that's worth knowing before you spend money on the wrong one.
Two things worth knowing
The City gives you seven days. Paso Robles conservation rules run year-round, not just in drought, and once the City notices a leak on your property you're expected to have it repaired within a week.
The County will replace some fixtures free. If you're inside the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin, San Luis Obispo County runs a no-cost retrofit program covering old high-flow toilets, showerheads, and aerators, installed by licensed plumbers under County contract. It's worth looking up before you pay anyone — including us — to swap them.
How a job goes
Same four steps whether it's a running toilet or a whole-house repipe.
Call or send the form
Tell us what's happening. We'll ask a couple of questions and give you a real arrival window — not a nine-hour one.
We find the actual cause
Guessing is expensive. Camera down the line, pressure test, or acoustic location when the job calls for it — then you see what we saw.
You get a firm price
Written, itemized, explained in plain language. Options where there are options. Nothing starts until you say go.
We do it and clean up
Permitted where required, tested before we leave, and your house left cleaner than we found it.
Actual jobs, actual trucks
No stock photography. These are our jobs around the North County.
5.0 stars across 18 Google reviews
Not our words — theirs. Every review below is published on our Google profile, where you can read all eighteen.
“Ray has been our “go to” Plumber for all our plumbing issues. He is knowledgeable, quick to respond, reasonably priced and honest. I highly recommend him for all your plumbing needs both major and minor. He will absolutely take good care of you.”
“I have used Raymond from Ray Espinoza Plumbing for his plumbing services for over 10 years now. He is trustworthy and I can always depend on his prompt and honest communication. He has helped me with my rental properties as well as my own home. I’m always assured he will fix my plumbing issues.”
“I have used Ray on multiple projects. He is punctual, thorough, clean, knowledgeable and very professional. Everything he has touched or repaired has been top notch quality. I will be using him for the foreseeable future and highly recommend him for your project.”
Where we go
Out of Paso Robles, across San Luis Obispo County — from the ranches east of town to the coast.
Questions we get a lot
Do you charge for estimates?
For most straightforward work we'll give you pricing over the phone or a firm quote at the door with no charge. Diagnostic work that takes real time and equipment — leak detection, sewer camera inspection — carries a flat diagnostic fee, which we credit toward the repair if you have us do the work. You'll always know the number before we start.
What areas do you serve?
We're based in Paso Robles and serve the North County — Templeton, Atascadero, San Miguel, Creston, Santa Margarita, Shandon, and Bradley — plus San Luis Obispo, the coast from Cambria to Los Osos, and South County. If you're not sure whether you're in range, just call.
Are you licensed and insured?
Yes. California Contractors State License Board license #1132312, bonded and insured. You can verify any California contractor's license at cslb.ca.gov, and we'd encourage you to do that with anyone you hire.
Do you offer emergency service?
Yes. Burst pipes, no water, sewage backups, and gas concerns don't wait for business hours. Call (805) 835-2196 and tell us it's an emergency.
What forms of payment do you take?
Cash, check, and major credit cards. We'll go over payment terms when we quote the job.
Need a plumber who picks up the phone?
Call and talk to someone who actually does the work. We'll tell you what's wrong, what it costs, and when we can be there.