6 Proven ways to find a Plumber you can trust

Let's face it. People generally only call a Plumber when there is an urgent issue, and typically when there is an emergency, such as a clogged toilet, a clogged drain, causing flooding in the basement, a water leak and the list goes on... and the process is typically opening up the computer, googling Plumbers near me and going through a listing of plumbers in your local area that you can call. You would then call the Plumbers one by one starting with the plumber with the best customer reviews, and going through the list until you find one that is available right away or has the closest availability. The problem is at this point panic has probably started setting in and you just want someone out there to fix your Plumbing issue and hope that they are not overpriced. No doubt, reviews are very important because they give a general description of the plumber's service, typically around professionalism, quality of service, punctuality etc. although typically not much specifics about the actual service is shown in many reviews. Their is a good chance that the same plumber is probably been targeted by many other local home owners with plumbing issues, due to their positive reviews, and will not be available to you immediately, in fact, they might not be available to you at times, for a week, which is unacceptable if you have a leak, or clog, that needs to be addressed before they cause more damage. This is why you should have a list of plumbers on your refrigerator or somewhere readily available to you should you need to call a plumber. But how do you go about finding the Plumbers to put on your list? We list below, ways your can generate a list of plumbers that you can evaluate to add to your contact list

1) Your local Hardware store

Well! Plumbers need hardware and what better place to ask for recommended plumbers than the place plumbers go to. By local hardware store, am actually not referring to the big box hardware stores, like Lowes and Home Depot, who have their referral programs with pros, who act on behalf of the store or pays the store a referral fee, rather, am referring to your local plumbing supply store if you have one close by you, or your local mom and pap hardware store. ACE is also a good place to ask for a recommended plumber

2) Condominium

If you live in a condominium, first understand which plumbing issues you are responsible for, and what your condo association is responsible for, then ask your condominium maintenance manager, if they have a list of recommended Plumbers, if you don't have a condo maintenance manager, ask your condo president. they typically will have a plumber that they work with. See our article on Hoa Plumbing Repairs

3) Equipment

Look at your plumbing equipments for a business card or a phone number of the original installer of the equipment. If you move to a house, sometimes the original installer of that equipment such as a water heater or sump pump etc. will leave their business card or contact information attached to the equipment, this is so that they can be contacted, if the equipment malfunctions. You can give them a call for other plumbing issues that are unrelated to the equipment they installed, and let them know you received their contact information from an equipment they installed at your property.

4) Ask your neighbor

Next time you have a chat with your neighbor, ask them which plumber they call when they have plumbing issues, not only would they recommend good plumbers, but if they had a bad experience with a plumbing company, they are likely to caution you about hiring that company.

5) Ask your pro about a Pro

Don't we all wish plumbing issues are the only issues we need to be concern with as homeowners? this however will never be the case, you would have had many different pros work on your property. Pros know Pros, this is especially true with general contractors who often have to subcontract work that involve specializations, so asking them if they have a few local plumbers they can recommend is a great idea. You should still do your due diligence and check the reputation of the plumbers they recommend to you, just to be sure they have a good reputation. When you do call them for a service or to introduce yourself, be sure to let them know the name of the person that recommended them to you, this builds trust.

6) Online Reviews

Google, Yelp, Yellow Pages, Perfecthomepros.com, are all websites that provide a listing on Plumbers near you. Make sure that when you look at online reviews, you pay attention to the name of the plumbers that are mentioned in the reviews, because if it's a plumbing company with multiple employees, although the company might have positives reviews, one or more of their Plumbers, might perhaps be disgruntled for whatever reason, or might not particularly fit the company culture and if that's the plumber that just happen to be available for your plumbing issue, your experience will not be positive because if they don't care about their company, you can be confident they don't care about your property.