When to call. What happens. Where to find us.
If you have an active emergency — water on the basement floor, sewage backup, audible flow under your slab — call the dispatch line at (716) 783-4488. We respond inside 4 hours during business and inside 6 hours after-hours. If you are not in an emergency, the rest of this page is the operating manual.
How to reach us
Phone, email, or in person.
The phone is the fastest channel. Linda answers it during business hours; one of us answers it after-hours. The voicemail is checked every 90 minutes during business and every 6 hours after-hours.
- Phone: (716) 783-4488
- Email: dispatch@reuterknapp.example · 24-hour reply
- In person: Mon–Fri 8 a.m.–4 p.m. at 2131 Niagara, Bay 4. Knock on the office door (the second roll-up bay from the corner). Charlie may bark; this is normal.
- Estimate request: /estimate/ — we reply within one business day
Hours
| Mon–Fri | 7:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET |
| Saturday | 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET |
| Sunday | Emergency dispatch only |
| Holidays | Closed (NYS legal holidays) |
| Emergency | 24/7 · 4-hr response |
Where the shop is
2131 Niagara Street, Bay 4, Buffalo, NY 14207.
On the east side of Niagara Street between Forest Avenue and Hertel Avenue, in Black Rock. The building is a 1953 cinder-block service garage with three roll-up bays; ours is the second from the south corner, painted navy blue with the RKT mark stenciled in cream. The yard is gated; pedestrian entry is through the small office door to the right of Bay 4.
- By car: NFTA Bus 5 stops directly outside; parking is available on the north side of the building.
- By bike: The Riverside Park bike lane runs along Niagara Street. Bike rack at the entrance.
- By transit: NFTA Metro Bus routes 5 and 14 stop at Niagara & Forest. nfta.com
- From I-190: Exit 13 (Niagara St / Hertel Ave). Two minutes to the shop.
What happens on a survey day
- Morning of: Linda calls or texts the customer at 7:30 a.m. with a refined arrival window (typically a 90-minute window).
- Arrival: The CCTV truck (a 2019 Ford Transit, painted shop-blue) arrives. Two crew members — typically Seth and one other — knock at the front door, introduce themselves, and ask where the access cleanouts are.
- Setup: 15 minutes. Crawler powered up, sonde calibrated, marking pins staged.
- The survey: 60–120 minutes depending on lateral length and complications. The customer is welcome to stand at the truck and watch the monitor; we don't ask anyone to leave the room.
- Surface trace: 20–40 minutes. The lateral path is marked at the surface with chalk and flagged pins.
- Verbal walk-through: 10–20 minutes. We tell the customer what we found, what we'd recommend, and what the rough cost would be. We do not write the formal estimate at the door — that comes by email within one business day.
- Departure: The marked pins remain in the lawn for 14 days for the customer's reference; we collect them at follow-up.
Emergency dispatch protocol
Calls between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m. weekdays, or any time on Sunday or a holiday, ring through to the on-call cell phone (rotated weekly between Al, Marie, and Dani). The on-call person answers in person — there is no answering service and no triage call center. Inside Buffalo city limits and the immediately adjacent first-ring towns, the response standard is:
- Active basement flooding from sewer backup: 4 hours from the call. We bring the vactor truck, the camera, and Al.
- Suspected service-line break with no water in the house: 4 hours from the call.
- Ongoing slow drain that became a backup overnight: First-thing next morning, before any other scheduled work.
- "Should I be worried about this": Phone consult immediately; survey scheduled within 48 hours.
If you are calling from outside our regular service area (e.g. Tonawanda, Niagara Falls), we will help you find the right contractor; we will not drive to a job we cannot reasonably warranty.