Selecting someone to come in and work in your home is always a tricky process. Far too often homeowners bear the brunt of bad choices via high charges, shoddy work, and sometimes even being ripped off completely. If you need a plumber in your home, it's important to put a little time and effort into the hiring process to ensure that your investment is protected.
There's really nothing worse than cutting corners in the hiring process to save money. Thousands of homeowners reach out and hire unlicensed and uninsured plumbers every year, and the results are often disastrous. To protect your home and your investment, you need to make sure that the plumber you're hiring is licensed and insured.
The BBB, or Better Business Bureau, is a free service you can use to check up on any company you're wishing to hire. As long as the plumbing service is licensed, there should be some information about them via the BBB. What you're looking for are complaints and other negatives. If you can't find anything negative about the business via the BBB, then the odds are good that the service is good.
Any company worth its weight in paper is going to hand over some references when asked. What you're looking for here is what other customers have to say about the service. You can also accomplish this by checking online for some reviews. Even the smallest companies out there have reviews online. People are always offering up relative information, so make sure you seek it out to help you when hiring a plumber.
Part of asking for an estimate is to gauge a service's honesty in its business dealings. If a plumber comes in and quotes you for $500 for the repairs, he cannot turn around and try to charge you $800. There's no way you would pay it; it's too high above the estimate. So remember that estimates help to keep plumbers honest, and if a plumber isn't willing to offer you an estimate, then perhaps you should keep looking.
Most people who need a plumber need it on their schedule, not the plumber's. So it's important that you find a service that's willing to work exactly when you need them. Check into emergency services and plumbers offering the quickest response time. If you're hiring a plumber who cannot make it for weeks and wants to dictate the schedule to you, it's probably best to pass this plumber over.
There's nothing worse than hiring a plumber only to find that the repairs fail in a matter of weeks. And unless you have some type of guarantee on the work, you will have to foot the bill completely. This is obviously why it's important that you find a plumber offering you a guarantee on the services offered. This way, if something goes wrong you're not on the hook for it. They will have to fix it or issue a refund.
Pay attention to the tips listed above when you need to hire a plumber. Some services out there are only looking to rip you off, so knowing how to approach the topic is essential.