The Plumber We Trust: McDowd Plumbing
We're septic folks. Always have been. But homeowners don't always know which side of the wall their problem lives on — and when the issue turns out to be plumbing instead of septic, we send them to one crew and one crew only: McDowd Plumbing.
The Line Between Septic and Plumbing
Here's the short version: anything inside the house, in the walls, or in the supply lines is plumbing. Anything past the foundation — the tank, the drain field, the aerobic treatment unit, the leach lines — is septic. The two trades meet at the wall, and that handshake is where confusion lives.
A homeowner calls us about a slow drain. Sometimes it's the septic system backing up. Sometimes it's a clogged P-trap under a single sink. The fix for one is a $400 service call from us; the fix for the other is a fifteen-minute job a plumber will handle for less than that. We don't want to charge you a septic visit if the answer was always plumbing, and we don't want a plumber pulling on a problem that's actually our job. So we draw the line clearly — and when it's their side, we hand it off to McDowd Plumbing.
There's another wrinkle worth naming. Some folks in the Austin area have what's effectively a hybrid setup — an independent septic tank that's been retrofitted, or a property that sits on city sewer but still has the old septic infrastructure buried in the yard. When you've got a sewer line on city service and you're dealing with backups, low flow, or a smell coming up through a floor drain, that's plumbing — not septic — and McDowd is who you want for the diagnosis. Their sewer services team handles camera inspections, line repairs, and trenchless replacements on those city-service lines all day.
Why McDowd Plumbing, Specifically
Austin has no shortage of plumbers, and we get cold calls from outfits looking to be on our referral list. We've stayed with McDowd for the same reasons we'd want a contractor in our own homes:
- Texas Master Plumber License #45308. Not a handyman. Not a freshly-licensed apprentice. A master-plumber crew that knows the code and works to it.
- Family-owned with deep local roots. Same family, same name, same answering machine. The person who quotes the job is the person who does it — or the person who answers for the person who does it.
- "No salespeople. No surprise charges." That's their line, and we've watched them honor it on dozens of jobs we've referred. You get a real number up front. You get the work done. You pay that number.
- Specialty certifications that matter. Rinnai-certified for tankless water heaters. NITC-certified for medical gas (rare, but tells you about the depth of the bench). The kind of credentials that suggest a crew that's invested in their craft.
- Spanish-speaking support. A real plus in Greater Austin — and a sign they actually serve the whole community.
- Same-day service when it's available. They don't make promises they can't keep, but when their schedule allows, they'll get out fast.
- Warranties on the work. One-month drain-cleaning warranty, one-year water-heater warranty. Iron-clad work, with paperwork to back it up.
If you want to read more about the family behind the company, their About Us page covers it better than we ever could.
What They Cover
McDowd handles every standard plumbing service we run into — and a few specialty things most outfits won't touch. Here's the breakdown of what we'll send you to them for:
Drain Services & Hydro Jetting
Clogged kitchen drain. Slow shower. Backed-up laundry line. McDowd's drain services handle every drain inside the house. When the clog is deep or grease-soaked, their hydro-jetting service blasts the line clean without tearing up the wall.
Sewer Services
If your home runs on city sewer and you've got slow drains across the whole house, a sewer-line problem is the usual suspect. McDowd's sewer services team camera-scopes the line, finds the break or root intrusion, and either spot-repairs it or runs a trenchless replacement. (If your home runs on septic instead, that's our wheelhouse — call us first.)
Leak Detection & Repair
That mystery wet spot in the yard, the water bill that doubled, the warm spot on the slab. McDowd's leak detection uses thermal and acoustic tools to pinpoint the leak before any concrete or sheetrock comes out — saves you thousands in unnecessary demolition.
Water Heaters & Tankless Installation
Tank water heaters fail every 8-12 years. Tankless units last longer but cost more up front. Either way, McDowd installs both. They're Rinnai-certified for tankless installations — meaning they know how to size, vent, and gas-feed one without cutting corners.
Water Lines
The line from the meter to the house has been buried for decades on most Austin properties. When it cracks, you find out fast — water in the yard, low pressure inside, or both. McDowd handles water-line repair and replacement, including the trenched and trenchless options depending on what your yard will tolerate.
Piping & Repiping
Older Austin homes — anything pre-1990s and a lot built after — still have galvanized or polybutylene pipe in the walls. Both are failure-prone. McDowd's piping and repiping crew swaps the bad pipe for PEX or copper on a planned schedule, room by room, with the house still livable while they work.
Sump Pump Services
Basements aren't common in Central Texas, but crawl-space sumps and yard drainage pumps are. When yours fails right before a Hill Country thunderstorm, McDowd's sump pump team can get a replacement in and running same-day in most cases.
Grease Trap Cleaning
If you run a restaurant, food truck commissary, or commercial kitchen in Greater Austin, you need a grease trap on a maintenance schedule. McDowd handles grease trap cleaning for commercial operators across the area — health-code compliant and on a schedule that keeps the city inspector off your back.
Fixtures Installation & Repair
New faucet. Replacement toilet. Garbage disposal swap. The hundred-and-one fixture jobs every house needs over its life. McDowd's fixtures team handles all of it, plus the trickier installs — bidets, pot-fillers, whole-house water filters.
Plumbing Repairs & Maintenance
The bread and butter. Leaky valve, dripping faucet, running toilet, knocking pipes. McDowd's plumbing repair and maintenance services keep all of it running and catch the bigger problems before they become emergencies.
Grinder Pumps
If your home or commercial property sits below the level of the city main, you've got a grinder pump moving waste uphill — and when it fails, the whole property is in trouble. McDowd services and replaces grinder pumps across the Austin area.
Where They Run
McDowd Plumbing's service area sits squarely on top of ours, which is part of why this referral relationship works:
- Austin
- Cedar Park (they have a Cedar Park service page with local detail)
- Georgetown
- Round Rock
- Pflugerville
- Hutto
- Lakeway
- Bee Cave
- West Lake Hills
- Travis County and surrounding Greater Austin
If you're in our septic service area, you're almost certainly in their plumbing service area too.
When to Call McDowd vs. When to Call Us
| Symptom | Call |
|---|---|
| One slow drain (single sink, single shower) | McDowd |
| Every drain in the house slow at once | Septic Wranglers |
| Sewage smell in the yard, sewage on the lawn | Septic Wranglers |
| Soggy spot in the yard, no smell, you've ruled out sprinklers | Either — call us first (could be drain field failure or a water-line leak) |
| Aerobic alarm going off | Septic Wranglers |
| Water heater quit / leaking | McDowd |
| Toilet won't flush, just one toilet | McDowd |
| Every toilet in the house is sluggish | Septic Wranglers |
| Septic tank lid cracked or buried too deep | Septic Wranglers |
| Galvanized or polybutylene pipe failing | McDowd (repiping) |
| Need a new septic install | Septic Wranglers |
| Need a tankless water heater installed | McDowd |
| You're on city sewer and a line is broken | McDowd (sewer services) |
| You're on septic and the drain field is failing | Septic Wranglers |
The Bottom Line
If you can't tell which side of the wall the problem lives on, call us first and we'll point you in the right direction. We answer the phone, we don't gatekeep, and we'd rather send you to the right trade than charge you for a wrong-trade service visit.
If you already know it's plumbing — water heater, fixture, sewer line on city service, water line, repipe, anything inside the walls — go straight to McDowd Plumbing. Tell them Septic Wranglers sent you.
About McDowd Plumbing
McDowd Plumbing
Family-owned · Master Plumber License #45308 · Austin, Texas
Phone: 737·637·3238
Website: mcdowdplumbing.com
Facebook: facebook.com/mcdowdplumbing
Yelp: McDowd Plumbing on Yelp
Serving Austin, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Round Rock, Pflugerville, Hutto, Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, and surrounding Travis County.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a plumber and a septic company?
Plumbers handle everything from the toilet flange back into the house — supply lines, fixtures, water heaters, sewer lines on city service. Septic companies handle everything from the toilet flange out into the yard — tanks, drain fields, aerobic treatment units, and the ground-level mechanics of treating wastewater on your property. The two trades overlap at the wall, and a problem in one area often masquerades as a problem in the other.
When should I call a plumber instead of Septic Wranglers?
If the issue is on the inside of the house — a slow drain at a single fixture, a water heater that quit, a knocking pipe, a fixture leak, low water pressure — that's plumbing, and we send folks to McDowd Plumbing. If the issue is the whole house draining slow, sewage in the yard, or an aerobic alarm, that's septic and we'll roll.
Does McDowd Plumbing service the same area as Septic Wranglers?
Yes — Austin, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Round Rock, Pflugerville, Hutto, Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, and the surrounding Greater Austin region. We have nearly identical service maps, which is part of why we send folks to them with confidence.
Can McDowd Plumbing help with my tankless water heater?
Yes. They're Rinnai-certified and install tankless water heaters across the Austin area. Tankless installs aren't a swap-and-go job — sizing, venting, gas line capacity, and water hardness all matter, and McDowd does the math up front.
Do you take a referral fee from McDowd Plumbing?
No. We recommend McDowd because we'd want them in our own house. No kickbacks, no commission. They send folks our way when something's septic, and we send folks their way when something's plumbing. That's the whole deal.