An interesting thing happened today.  I joined a plumbing forum.  The forum rules said that I could have a link to my website in my signature, so I put the link to the PlumbingInfo.org home page.  I went to the part of the forum where new members can introduce themselves and created a post that basically said, “Hello!  Steve from California here.  I am dropping in to say hello”.  After several people from that site went to view this website, I was banned from the forum!

Just proof that most plumbers do NOT want you to be an informed consumer!  They are afraid of you knowing what this site is telling you.  My girlfriend assures me, however, that I am doing the right thing.  Now, on to the topic at hand…

In this article, I wanted to cover plumbers themselves and how to know whether or not you have the right plumber for your plumbing needs.  Most of you don’t know the difference, so I hope this helps.

There are basically two types of service plumbers (new construction/remodel plumbers are a different breed).  They usually work under different pay structures, but the structures do overlap some. They are:

• “In and out” techs
• Up-sellers

In and Out Techs

They want to get in, figure out the quickest way to get you a result, collect their money and get moving to the next plumbing call.  The reason is that they are usually either paid by the hour with bonuses for completing x amount of calls, paid according to how many calls they take (paid per call), or they are paid per billable hour.  Paid per billable hour means that since each job is billed to you with a 1 hour minimum charge, if they can finish your job in less than an hour and hurry on to the next job, they are still getting paid for yours.  Using this method makes it possible for the plumber to actually get paid for 10 or even 12 billable hours in an 8 hours day, depending upon how fast they are.  Some of these guys are commission-based as well

The good thing about in and out techs is that if you know that what you need done is a quick, easy fix, they will take care of it quickly and be out of your hair.  A lot of them will quote you an hourly rate over the phone, so you pretty much know what you are going to spend before hand.

The bad thing about them is that they are usually specialized in 1 or 2 areas.  They may be great at clearing your sewer line, but will fumble over other work that they do not do as often.  Also, these plumbers do not really care about performing anything other than a quick fix.  They just don’t want to spend the extra time.  They also have a tendency to make a mess wherever they are working.

Up-sellers

These are the best plumbers to have deal with the majority of your plumbing issues; they are also the ones you most need to be careful of.  These guys are almost all commission-based employees, or they own the company.  Either way, the more they charge you, the more they get paid.  That statement sounds kind of scary, but let’s look at both sides of it.

Most plumbing issues are not a simple, quick fix.  You almost always have options.  The only way to get those options fully explored is with an up-seller.  Their specialty is to get in, get started at relieving the symptom of your plumbing problem, then approaching you with a more permanent solution.  If that is what you want, then you can okay the further work.  If not, you can tell them “no thank you”.

Up-sellers are masters at finding everything that is wrong with your plumbing and spotting things that can go wrong in the future.  Whether you want them to fix it all is another story.  I believe, however, that it is always better to have too much info than not enough.

The bad thing about up-sellers is that they can be quite persistent.  They are also more likely to try to take advantage of you – either by overcharging, or trying to sell you work that you don’t need.  This is where the article “Before You Call a Plumber” is helpful.

So which way to go?

Well, I spent most of my career as an up-seller, and I truly believe that they give the best service.  Let me explain why.  Let’s take what would seem to most people to be a fairly straight forward plumbing issue that most would think is a quick fix:

Let’s say that every six months to a year, you notice that your kitchen sink drain starts draining slowly.  You call out an “in and out” company every time it happens and they charge you $100 to clear the line. It is good for another 6 months to a year.  Let’s say you call me out next time it happens.  I am going to ask about your experiences and offer a more complete solution.  If you decide that you are happy with $100 every 6 months to a year, I will do that for you. If, however, I can jet your lines for $300 and that’ll keep your drains open more than 3x as long, that saves you future time, inconvenience, and money. I make more money and you get a better product.  That gives us a win/win.  A good service plumber always wants the win/win.   Although, if you are in a hurry and just want something done quickly, an in and out tech is what you want.

In my next article, I will cover how to know which plumber you are getting, and the best way to maximize your results with each, to make sure you are getting the best value for your plumbing dollar.  Talk to you then.

Steve

So you have a plumbing issue that you need taken care of, or maybe you just want to get some plumbing remodeling done.  What do you do first?  You look for a plumber, right?  Wrong!  The first thing you do is read this article and the articles that it points to.

You need to be prepared, before you ever even think of picking up the phone and calling a plumber.  Believe me when I say that it can prevent all kinds of bad things from happening.  I know this first hand.

In this article, I am going to outline some of the things that you should do to be prepared for your visit from the plumber.  Many of these points will link out to additional articles, as I write them.  Just look for the underlined phrases.  Clicking them will take you to the relevant article.

Whether or not you are sure you need plumbing work done, these are the steps that everyone should take, prior to calling a plumber, to be sure that the experience is as productive and stress-free as possible.  They are as follows:

Understand your plumbing problem. This can be a problem for many who do not consider themselves to be mechanically inclined.  It is extremely important, however, that you do your best to get some kind of understanding about what is going on.  If you can tell the plumber that you have a “supply side” leak, and your tests seemed to indicate that it was between the meter and the house, you will immediately gain that plumber’s attention and respect (as long as your logic is sound).  This will save you time and money.

You knowing what’s going on will also keep your plumber honest.  Believe it or not, there are plumbers out there that will cheat you if they can.  If you know what is wrong, it makes it much harder for them to take advantage of you, and most will not even try. There are also times when you will be able to diagnose and repair problems yourself, without ever having to call a plumber.

Know what you want. This sounds kind of silly, but hear me out.  There are always options to fix any problem.  Good plumbers will let you know your options and give you a choice.  Most plumbers will not.  They will offer to fix your problem they way they want to.  That is not always what is best for you!  You need to know if you are looking for a quick fix to get you by (which I rarely recommend, but sometimes that’s what you need), a fix that will last you for longer than a quick fix, or a permanent solution.

Plumbing is rather unusual because it is all tied together in a system.  Parts of the system depend on other parts of the system.  Sometimes you need to replace most or all of the system in order to affect a sustainable result.  You need to know beforehand if that is a route you are willing to take.  This leads us to the next point:

Know your budget limit. Very simply put, you need to know how much you are prepared to spend on your plumbing today.  You need to be willing to spend at least $500 if you are looking for anything other than a quick fix.  Permanent solutions could cost you in the thousands (depending, of course on what you actually need done).

Know your outs. You need to know how to say no.  Sometimes it will be because you just don’t like the plumber, or you don’t feel like they will do a good job.  Maybe you feel like they want to charge too much, or want to do more work than you are ready for.  For any of these reasons or a litany of others, you need to be able to say no.

To put it bluntly, if you are prepared, you will be able to just tell the plumber the truth about why you are saying no, and that should end it.  Good plumbers can see through excuses.  For instance, if you were to tell me, “Well, that’s more expensive than I thought it would be.  I need to discuss it with my husband/wife.” I would respond with, “That’s fine, let’s give him/her a call and I can help to explain why we need to…” or “No problem, when would you like me to drop back by so we can discuss it together?”  If you told me that you are fine with the amount of work that was done to this point and need to budget for the additional work, I would understand and respect that.  I may ask if it is okay if I call in a month or 2 to follow up, but that’s about it.

Know what to expect. This actually covers a few different areas, but I will sum it up here as best I can.

• Know what you want out of your plumber – Do you just need someone “quick and dirty” who can clear your drain from outside and be gone in 30 minutes or do you want a clean, professional who you can trust to not destroy the inside of your home?  There are times for each, and they each charge different rates.  Actually, you can get a dirty plumber that charges a lot (but has no business doing so), but you will never get a clean professional that works cheaply.

• Know what they are going to charge you – This can be tough as more and more companies do not want to give prices over the phone.  There’s no problem with that, as most give free estimates.  You do need to know how much they SHOULD charge you though, so you know when someone is asking too much.

• Know the company.  Before calling a plumbing company, do a little research on them.  Check their license status, look for online complaints, etc.  Keep in mind that people will leave bad reviews far more often than good ones.  Don’t choose not to hire, because of a bad review or two (some people complain about everything), but keep the complaints in mind when dealing with them.

One of my readers, who happens to be a plumber made a very good point that I do need to stress here.  It is very important that you thoroughly check the license status of the companies that you call to make sure they are in good standing and have all of the necessary forms of insurance.  Make sure that either the plumber that they are sending out is an employee and is working under the company’s contractors license, or that the plumber himself is licensed.  Ask the company about the qualifications of the plumber they will send out.  If they are not willing to spend some time with you on the phone to ease your mind, call someone else.  Thanks, Jim!

I apologize that this article was so long, but there was a lot of ground to cover.  I am not sure that I covered it all here, but I’m sure that future articles will pick up the slack.  See you next time for more plumbing tips!