Plumbers Near Me: Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Service
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Posted November 20, 2020
Did you know that there are more than 120,000 plumbing companies scattered throughout the country right now? This should make it very easy for you to find plumbers in your area to help you with all the different types of plumbing issues.
To track local plumbers down, all you’ll need to do is Google plumbers near me and look at the names that pop up. You should be able to find at least a dozen or so options by taking this approach.
From there, you should try to find references and reviews for the various plumbers in your general area. You should also visit their websites and take a good, long look at the plumbing services that they can provide.
Once you’re finished doing those things, you should then contact a few of the plumbers that you like best and ask them a series of questions. The answers that they provide should be enough to help you choose a service that will be a good fit for you.
Here are some of the questions to ask plumbing companies before choosing one service over all the rest.
How Long Have You Been Providing Plumbing Services?
There are so many qualities that you should look for in a plumbing company when you’re searching for plumbers near me. Some of these qualities include:
- Dedication
- Friendly
- Reputable
- Honest
- Hard-working
But above all else, you need a plumbing service on your side that is experienced. The last thing you want to do is hire a plumbing company to help you with one of the common plumbing issues and have them botch it because they’re not experienced enough.
With this in mind, one of the very first things you’ll want to ask a plumbing company is how much experience they have. In a perfect world, you should try to locate a service that has at least 10 or even 20 years of experience to lend a hand.
You’ll feel so much better when you welcome a plumbing service like this into your home. You’ll know that they know what they’re doing from the moment they walk through your front door.
Which Plumbing Services Do You Offer?
In addition to asking a plumbing service to provide you with an overview of their experience, you should also speak with them about the specific plumbing services that they offer. You want to make sure that they’re going to be able to offer you the services that you need to clear up a plumbing problem.
From routine drain cleaning to water heater installation, your plumbing service should be able to set you up with almost any plumbing service you could ever want and need. This includes services like:
- Plumbing pipe upgrades, replacements, and relining
- Sewer and water line repairs
- Toilet installations and upgrades
- Plumbing fixture installations
- Drainpipe and septic treatments
If you happen to run a business and need plumbing services for it, you should be upfront about that from the beginning and see if a plumbing company can provide the commercial plumbing services you need. It’ll be good to know a company has you covered.
Can You Extend Emergency Plumbing Services?
More often than not, just about all plumbing companies can send a plumber out to your home within just a day or two to perform plumbing services. But there might be times when you can’t wait that long to have plumbing repairs made.
When this is the case, you’re not going to have a ton of time to sit around searching for plumbers near me and weighing your options. You’re going to need a plumbing company that can deliver emergency plumbing services to you right away.
If you’re dealing with an emergency plumbing situation at the moment, don’t be afraid to bring this up right away. You want to ensure that you have a plumbing company that is prepared to take a trip out to your home immediately to help you with whatever issues you’re experiencing.
Some plumbing companies aren’t equipped to provide emergency plumbing services to those in their communities. You should steer clear of utilizing these types of plumbing services if you can.
Are You Properly Licensed and Insured?
It doesn’t matter if you’re calling on a plumbing company, an electrical company, or an HVAC company for assistance with an issue in your home. This is a question that you should always ask those companies that are going to be doing work for you.
You should not, under any circumstances, allow a plumbing company or any of the other companies we just mentioned to work in your home if they’re not properly licensed and insured. They should be more than happy to give you both their license number and proof of insurance before working in your home.
A business license will show you that you’re working with a legitimate plumbing company and not some fly-by-night operation that hasn’t taken the proper steps to create a real business. Proof of insurance, meanwhile, will ensure that you won’t get stuck paying medical bills or repair costs associated with an accident that occurs while plumbing services are being carried out.
If a plumbing company balks at the idea of giving you their license number or proof of insurance, run in the other direction. They won’t be the right company for you and your home.
How Much Do Your Plumbing Services Cost?
It can be a little bit difficult for people to nail down exactly how much plumbing services are supposed to cost. Plumbers charge anywhere from $45 to $150 per hour on average, not including the costs for plumbing repairs.
For this reason, you should ask a plumbing company to be as upfront as they can be when it comes to providing you with prices for their services. You should ask them to give you a quote for the services that you need to be performed so that you can compare the prices offered by different plumbing companies.
Most plumbing companies can give you a general idea of how much plumbing repairs cost. This will make it so much easier for you to plan for plumbing services in a financial sense.
Do You Stand Behind the Work That You Do?
The very best plumbing companies will do more than just come out to your home, perform a bunch of work on your plumbing system, and leave. They’ll make sure that the job they’re asked to do gets done right—and, maybe, more importantly, they’ll stand behind their work and guarantee it.
This means that they’ll send someone back out to your home if whatever problem you were experiencing before pops up again following plumbing repairs. It also means that they’ll work hard to get to the heart of your plumbing issues so that they’re able to make the right repairs from the start.
Feel free to speak with a plumbing company about what kind of guarantee they offer on the plumbing work that they do. If they don’t have a good response for you, you should move on and work with a company that you know will stand behind their work and make things right for you at all costs.
What Do Your Plumbers Do to Keep Worksites Clean?
As you might imagine, having plumbing services performed in your home can result in a big mess. Whether you ask a plumber to tinker around with the plumbing pipes underneath your kitchen sink or have them install a new toilet for you, a mess is going to be made inside of your house.
That mess shouldn’t be something that you have to worry about. Instead, cleaning up the mess should be left up to the plumbing company that you hire. They should have a plan in place for making the necessary plumbing repairs in your home and cleaning them up once they’re finished.
When you’re talking to different plumbing companies in your area, you might catch some of them off guard when you pose this question to them. They might respond with a generic statement about how they always take cleanliness seriously.
But you should ask them to take things a step further than that. You want to know that they’re going to be doing everything in their power to keep your house clean, even when a plumbing project takes a turn for the worst and results in an especially big mess.
Do Your Plumbers Make Safety a Top Priority?
Outside of being considerate when it comes to keeping your house clean while working in it, a plumbing company should also prioritize safety when performing plumbing services. There are some hazards plumbers should be aware of, which is why plumbing companies need to put safety on a pedestal and do whatever they can to keep you and your home safe.
Inquire as to what a plumbing company plans to do to maintain a high level of safety when tackling one of the many types of plumbing issues in your home. They should walk you through the steps that they take to make sure homes are kept safe when working in them.
Some of the things that a plumbing company should do to make safety a top priority are:
- Put down drop cloths to prevent floors in a home from getting wet and slippery during plumbing repairs
- Use the right plumbing tools and equipment to perform plumbing services
- Open windows to ventilate a home and prevent fumes from building up in it while plumbing services are underway
Plumbing companies should also, as we mentioned a few moments ago, be ready to provide you with proof of insurance. This will put your mind at ease by ensuring that your home will be covered just in case something goes wrong during a plumbing project.
Can You Provide References and Reviews for Your Plumbing Company?
We touched on the importance of looking for references and reviews for plumbing companies in your area on your own earlier. You can usually track down at least a few references and reviews for companies when you’re searching for plumbers near me on Google.
But you should also ask individual plumbing companies to provide you with a list of references and reviews separate from the ones you already found yourself. They should have a list of them ready to go for you so that you can touch base with others who have worked with a plumbing company to see what they have to say about them.
You might not have time to call every reference on a plumbing company’s list. But you can check in with at least a few references to get the inside scoop on what it’s like to work with a company.
What Do You Think Sets Your Plumbing Company Apart From the Pack?
At the end of the day, you’re going to find that a lot of the plumbing companies out there are, more or less, the same. They all tend to offer the same plumbing services, charge right around the same prices, and take the same precautions with regards to cleanliness and safety.
So when you’re peppering a plumbing company with questions, you should think about ending things by asking: What makes your plumbing company different? They should have a great answer that illustrates what you’ll get from them that you won’t get from other companies.
Search for Plumbers Near Me and Find a Great Plumbing Service Today
Picking out the perfect plumbing company to provide you with plumbing services can be a challenge. It’s not always easy to sit and sift through all your options to make sure you’re able to hire the right one.
But it can be done if you’re willing to work at it. Start your search by Googling plumbers near me and go from there. You can track down the right plumber for any job by asking the questions that we’ve talked about here and listening out for the right answers.
Would you like to ask us questions to find out if we’re a good fit for your next plumbing project? Contact us today to learn more about what we can offer to you.
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