Tips on Hiring the Best Plumber for your Project

The need to hire a plumber is almost guaranteed to come up if you own a home long enough. Often home owners who are not handy feel uncomfortable when hiring this type of skilled labor. Don’t feel discouraged! In the article that follows are some tips to keep even the most un-handy homeowner in the driver’s seat.

Keep in mind that there are two types of residential plumbers. The family plumber works on every day issues that aging, or even new plumbing, can have. The types of work you want to hire a family plumber for are snaking drains, fixing leaky faucets, and swapping out fixtures. The family plumber is typically the plumber that responds to plumbing emergencies. It’s good to know a trusted family plumber in case something happens in your house and you need help fast.

The other type of plumber specializes in remodeling work or new construction work. These types of plumbers often work closely with a general contractor or home builder. You would hire this type of plumber if you were considering installing a new addition with a bath or kitchen. Before calling a plumber, make sure you choose the type that fits your project.

Before your plumber visits, make a trip through your house and note every slow drain, dripping faucet or leaky shower head. When you are paying by the hour, you want to be prepared and efficient to get the most value out of your plumber’s visit.

The best place to start looking for a plumber is through referrals. This is a great short-cut versus flipping through the Yellow Pages and hoping you get lucky and call a good company. If you are new to the area, ask for referrals at your local hardware store, lumber yard or at the local real estate office. All of these places will know plumbers that they will confidently refer. Also, remember to tell the plumber that you were referred to them. This could get you better pricing and attention.

Contact more than one plumber for bids and let the plumber know that you will be comparing these bids. A little competition is a good thing. Don’t feel uncomfortable with this as it is an industry standard. Any good plumber should feel confident in standing behind their bid. If they try to push you away from comparing bids, do not hire them.

Review all your bids and ask as many questions as possible. You want to get as close as possible to comparing‚ apples to apples. Remember to ask about any warranties and any extra costs that may not be included such as disposal costs. When you have a sense of the bids, hire the plumber that you felt most comfortable with that offers the best price. You are building a relationship as well, so it’s important that you feel good about the person you hire.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/best-minneapolis-plumber-guide-minneapolis-plumbing-2613174.html

“Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip…”  We all can recognize this sound; the sound of water constantly dripping from a leaky faucet and landing in the sink, bathtub bottom, or shower floor.  A sound, which at first is only a simple nuisance, but if left untreated it can become a sound which can drive you absolutely crazy.  In fact, the dripping sound of water and the dripping of water were actually used as forms of torture in some ancient cultures, including the dripping of water onto ones forehead.  But when you hear this sound, don’t let it torture you.  Don’t let this little problem turn into something much bigger.  When you hear the “drip, drip, drip” sound take care of it right away and a number of things will happen.  You will avoid going crazy, you will get rid of the sound and fix your leaky faucet and you will avoid having your roommates, family members, or nagging spouse from bothering you about getting it fixed constantly.  Avoidance of the leaky faucet problem will just result in even more added stress to your life.  So when you recognize a leaky situation make sure you act upon it right away.  If you don’t it might cost you even more than your sanity.

It might hurt your wallet too…

Not only are leaky faucets a pain in the butt, they can also cost you a lot of money.  Your water bill is not normally extremely expensive.  In fact, it is probably the lowest or one of the lowest utility bills you pay on a monthly basis.  However, even the smallest leak in a faucet can add up to a lot of wasted water.  That small leak can “drip, drip, drip” up to an extra three gallons of water each day from your faucet, which is the equivalent of over 11 liters per day.  This amount of water being wasted can very quickly “add up” in terms of wasted money as well.  And why would you throw money away on something that you can most likely fix yourself and in very little time.  What is it they say about procrastination…that in the end it is like any form of self pleasure because you simply end up screwing yourself.  And believe you me I know from personal experience as a problem similar to a leaky faucet nearly cost me an arm and a leg.  You see upon graduating from University I lived in an apartment with a number of my University friends.  One day after we all returned home from our perspective jobs, in what we were starting to know as the “real world”, we all seemed to discover throughout the night a sound coming from the bathroom that was similar to a “drip, drip, drip” but it was not coming from a faucet but rather it was an even more stranger sound coming from our toilet.  

A sound which I cannot put into words but it was a constant one, which sounded like steam was being let off.  After a quick discussion we all realized that our toilet was leaking.  (Now I know it is not a leaking sink but I am trying to tie in some perspective here in regards to financial loss from a small “leak”.  Just give me a couple of more sentences and we will get there.)  We all considered ourselves somewhat of “hands on” men and we all decided to take a look at the toilet and after this examination we figured out what was making the sound.  And we took it upon ourselves to solve the problem (the strange sounding “leak”) by adjusting a bent piece of toilet equipment which resulted in the valve closing better, along with getting rid of the loud sound the toilet was making.   And this little bit of hand work also got rid of the leak, or so we thought.  

After deciding it was a job well done we put our toilet problem to rest and decided to go about the rest of our night.  However, the next morning, our self proclaimed triumph had a little flaw.  As we all awoke for work and ventured into the bathroom one at a time to make use of the shower and toilet, we all also began to notice that there was still a tiny, tiny little amount of leaking water which was constantly streaming into the toilet bowl even after the flushing water in the toilets tank was full.  With all of us being recent graduates, and otherwise still ignorant to the real world, we decided to leave it and worry about it later.  Needless to say a water bill came and then another one and there seemed to be nothing different in the price of our bill, so we all thought the leak was no big deal and we had done a good job.  

However, a month later and another 30 days of “drip, drip, drip” and we were all shocked to see that our water bill, which was accompanied by a letter from the water company stating that there was a delay on their end in recognizing the overwhelming water usage, had actually reached an astronomical $1200.  This was a huge blow to our minds and our pockets, and after a return call from our landlord assured us that he would have fixed the toilet upon a phone call months ago but now that this was our problem, there was also a couple of small leaks in my roommates pants as this was a lot of money for the three of us to throw away over water.  So let’s just say this experience was a very expensive life lesson.  But don’t make the same mistake we did.  Simply go online and search for answers to your plumbing questions or if you can’t find what you are looking for call your local professional or neighborhood handyman and have them take care of your leaky little problem.  Don’t delay, or be fooled by that little leak, when it comes to fixing it get it done right away.  It will save you your sanity, keep others happy, and it will save your wallet some serious damage too.

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