Zaraki KenpachiThere are so many joys that come along with being a homeowner. Not only do you get to have your own space where you make the rules, and you also get to decorate it as you see fit without having to answer to an ornery landlord at the end of the day. The only downside to being a homeowner is the financial responsibility that comes when something goes awry.
Regardless of our best intentions, issues tend to come up with our homes from time to time. When it comes to residential plumbing repair, how do you decide who to pick to perform the work? Read on for some tips that’ll help guide your search!
1. Do You Have a Warranty or Insurance?
Before you pick up the phone to start calling your local plumbers, you need to take some time to review whether you’ll be using a home warranty plan or home insurance to cover the issue.
Many of these companies require you to call them before having someone come out to perform the work. This is because they often have an existing relationship with certain local plumbers, and those are the only plumbers who can come out and perform the work. Failure to do this might mean that your home warranty plan or insurance won’t cover the work, and you’ll need to eat the cost.
If you contact your warranty or insurer and they don’t cover the work that needs to be done, then you can proceed to find a plumbing repair service on your own.
2. How Urgent Is Your Plumbing Repair?
Another thing to consider is the urgency of your plumbing repair. Many residential and commercial plumbing services offer emergency assistance, but any time you call them out on an emergency, you’ll pay significantly more for the service. For this reason, it’s important for you to determine whether you really need someone to come out right away to perform the repairs.
For example, if you find that you’re dealing with flooding in your home because of burst pipes or you have a sewage backup, then it’s absolutely an emergency. However, if one of your home’s toilets is clogged, and others are available for use, it can probably wait until normal business hours.
If you have an emergency on your hands, be sure to filter your search for a plumber in order to find one who performs emergency services.
3. Do You Have a Tight Budget?
Every homeowner knows that they need to have a healthy amount of savings set aside to tackle things like residential plumbing repairs. However, our good intentions don’t always come to fruition, and we find ourselves bound by the money we have on hand to get the work done.
If your budget is tight, be sure to ask potential plumbers about their costs before agreeing to the work. What is necessary to be done right away, and what can wait until later? When is payment due, and do they offer any type of payment plan?
You might be surprised by how many local plumbers are willing to work with people who can’t afford expensive repairs.
4. Ask for a Recommendation
If you don’t have previous experience with plumbers in your area, then it can feel pretty overwhelming looking over the local listings and trying to decide who to call. When this happens, it’s time to reach out to people who have worked with local plumbers in the past and ask for recommendations. Maybe your friends or family know a guy, or your boss at work recently had work done on their house.
Asking people you trust for recommendations helps give you a little peace of mind in a stressful situation.
5. Check Online Reviews
Another great way to find a high-quality residential plumbing service is by checking online reviews. Sites like Yelp! and Google have tons of ratings and reviews to sift through in order to find the best in your area.
One caveat about online reviews is that they should be taken as a whole and not on a one-by-one basis. Every plumber is bound to have a bad review every once in a while. It’s when there are trends across multiple reviews that it’s time to consider moving on to another prospect.
6. Verify Their License
Depending on the state in which you live, your plumber might need to have a license in order to perform any kind of service on your home. As a result, many plumbers list their license number on their website to demonstrate that they are competent to perform the work you need to be done.
If you want to be extra vigilant, don’t be afraid to look up the plumber on your state’s registry to verify that their license is valid.
7. Explore Your Options
Once you have a handful of plumbers in mind, it’s time to start contacting them. Don’t limit yourself to your top contender! Instead, spend some time speaking with a number of different plumbers in your area to get a feel for how they work.
This is often done by having them come out and evaluate the issue you’re having. Ask them how they’ll approach the repair, how long it will take, and how much it will cost. Knock any plumbers who are charging too much or whose prices seem too good to be true.
Are You In Need of Residential Plumbing Repair?
Even homeowners that take meticulous care of their homes find themselves in need of residential plumbing repair from time to time. It’s important not to panic and hire the first plumber you come across to do the plumbing repair work. With a little due diligence, the work will get done and your home will be in much better shape!
Do you want to learn more great ways to manage your life as a homeowner? We’re here for you. Scroll through the rest of our blog for tons of informative content to keep you up to date!
Hugh Hay
Patrick Soft
