Once you’ve dealt with a broken plumbing system, you will easily understand just how important it is to find the right plumber for your house. Toilets, faucets, boilers, and pipes—all of these things can drive you mad when they don’t work properly.
Many homeowners are guilty of skimping on home repairs and maintenance simply because they could not afford them. Unfortunately for them, these result in more expensive problems in the future.
Finding the best plumber for your needs can be quite tricky. Aside from finding the right price that you’re willing to pay, you also have to take into consideration the plumber’s expertise, certification (where required) and overall trustworthiness.
Why Should You Find A Decent Plumber?
To understand the importance of a good plumber, let’s take a look at the stakes. Your system will need repairs and replacements once in a while. Extended use can lead to the deterioration of your piping system or fixtures, not to mention minor damages can accumulate and transform into major issues.
These things affect your personal hygiene, home cleanliness and warmth (depending on your home’s heating system). When you neglect your system, they can lead to health-hazard problems like water damage, flooding, mold, gas leaks, and fires. It seems so hard to see the connection, but it is there!
What Are The Top 10 Plumbing Problems?
- Dripping tap (14%)
- Leaking pipe (11%)
- Slow or clogged drains (10%)
- Running toilet (9%)
- Burst pipe (6%)
- Water temperature issue (5%)
- Noisy pipes (5%)
- Frozen pipes (4%)
- Flooding (3%)
- Water storage tank failure (2%)
According to the Water Regulations Advisory Scheme (WRAS), these are the top ten common plumbing problems reported by 2,000 families. Imagine how these things can affect your daily life. Mix that with the regular struggles of living in the city and what happens? Your home and work life is at the mercy of your plumbing.
A broken boiler or water heater will mean cold showers which could be quite unpleasant. This, in turn, could translate to a bad morning. You don’t know just how huge of a deal a good shower is until you‘ve gone without. Before you know it, your entire day has gone to the dogs.
How Does Bad Plumbing Affect Your Budget?
A lousy plumber is not just a waste of money since a poorly done job can damage your system further. Instead of finding the right solutions, you have to spend more to correct their mistakes. However, if you don’t fix it, you are also making the situation worse.
Besides the repair and replacement fee, think about the water bills that slowly add up. Brits already underestimate their water use by 55%. It is a waste. You are eating into a budget that could go to home improvements instead of repairs.
Get To Know Their Credentials
There is no shame in asking, especially in trade work. When you look for plumbers, get to know them a little bit better before allowing them into your home. Plumbers under the APHC and CIPHE are safe bets if you live in the UK. If you live in the Finger Lakes region of New York, www.FindTheHomePros.com members will help you out. In other areas, check with local professional organizations for recommendations too.
There is no one-size-fits-all license for plumbing work in the UK. Plumbers slowly work up the ranks, and their backgrounds can vary. Generally, gas-related work needs a Gas Safe ID, and water-related work can be under WaterSafe. Both organisations have registers you can browse to check your plumbers are there.
Looking for local plumbers can be quite tricky if you don’t know where to look. It would be best to hire a trusted plumbing company like Plumbingforce instead of hiring one of those self-employed, freelancing plumbers.
You really do not have a guarantee on how good their services would be unlike a plumbing company. On top of following the Gas Safe regulations, these companies also have internal inspections where they ensure that all of their plumbers are skilled and more importantly, trustworthy.
Look For Reviews And Recommendations
Word of mouth is a powerful thing. In this digital age, endorsements are now online reviews and recommendations. While you cannot guarantee if a review is fake or not, go through them anyway.
Read a little bit of everything to get a complete picture. See what they highlight as strengths and weaknesses. It does not hurt to be aware of the possible problems.
If you have a little experience with plumbing work, you can also judge the information in these reviews. You can try to ask your friends and family about the service as well, for good measure. Keep in mind that all businesses online have mixed reviews. It isn’t natural for these things to be too positive or too negative.
Take Note Of Their Personality And Character
As much as you want to judge the work alone, keep an eye out for friendly and patient plumbers. Not only will they be a joy to work with, but they also make overhauls more bearable. The simplicity of working with professionals is worth the price since they are more likely to help you, help yourself. They can be a valuable partner in understanding your home.
Price-Check Their Services
It is difficult to find the right plumber that delivers quality service at an affordable price. However, when it comes to your plumbing, you should always prioritize the quality of service over price. To put it more clearly, a cheap plumber with barely any credentials may be cheap, but their service might also be subpar.
They may even require more repairs in the future. At best, it would require another service repair in the next 6 months. Add up those costs and compare it to paying a one-time fee to a highly-skilled, well-experienced plumber and you will soon realize that you save more with the good plumber.
Besides the price quotes that you got, think about the final bill. How far off was the quote with the final payment? Were they transparent about the other fees? Some shady deals can shock you with hidden fees and charges.
While plumbing can be unpredictable, find people who can give proper estimates. Since living expenses steadily increase, you cannot afford to misjudge plumbing work. It helps if they can work with your home warranty or insurance cover.
There is always a bit of trial and error when looking for your plumber. Trade workers in can come and go, but with the right questions, you can find trusted plumbers that can help you keep your home running in tip-top shape.
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