How to Build a Long-Term Relationship with Your Plumber for Ongoing Maintenance

How often you should have a plumber come to your house can depend on several things, like the age of your plumbing system, the kinds of materials used in your plumbing, the hardness of your water, and any past plumbing problems. A lot of experts will tell you that it's a pretty good idea to have a plumber come to your house once a year to do a routine inspection of your plumbing system. That way, you can hopefully catch any potential problems before they become huge, and you can avoid a surgery-like scene in your house where your plumbing system is all opened up and you pay whatever necessary to have it all put back together. If you're like me, you just can't afford that.

Overall, the long-term future looks bright for plumbers for a number of reasons. First, and most fundamentally, we will always need skilled workers to maintain and repair the plumbing systems in our homes and offices. This basic need is what creates a steady demand for all kinds of plumbing professionals. Then there is the “aging infrastructure” factor. Much of the plumbing in this country—both residential and commercial—is old. It’s in desperate need of renovation, and it offers plumbers endless opportunities to carry out those renovations. And here’s another thing: As more people move into cities, and as more businesses set up shop in urban areas, something has got to happen with all those old plumbing systems. Plumbers will find plenty of work to do in the increasingly urbanized America of the future.

Responsibility for a plumber's work generally lasts until the local inspector signs off on the job. But how long that is can vary, depending on where you live. And even if the local inspector has signed off on the work, the plumber still might be responsible for the work for some period of time afterward if he or she has guaranteed or warranted the work. Permits, contracts, guarantees, and warranties are the regulatory framework of plumbing. They define when a plumber can quit worrying about a job and when the customer can quit worrying about the need for a call-back. Remember those terms; they're important.

Certainly! Plumbers do indeed perform maintenance work. They maintain and repair plumbing like most all tradespeople do. They build relationships with their client base and do a reasonable amount of work to keep systems operating efficiently. Plumbing maintenance can be broken down, like most things, into preventative maintenance and routine inspections. Here's a list of the kinds of things plumbers do when they maintain plumbing systems. Yes, they look for leaks, but they also do these seven things.

Replacing plumbing in a house can cost several things—size, material, installation, and location—that taken together give us a ballpark figure ranging from $5,000 to $15,000. Costlier homes (yes, they can cost even more) and trickier jobs (think two-story house or basement) can run up the tab well past $20,000. When faced with this expense, it pays to shop around for an estimate you can live with. Weights and measures taken, here now is the story in dollars, right down to the the lowest, average, and highest line item.

You can clean a main drain once every 1 to 2 years, on average. That is a good rule of thumb. There are a number of things, though, that could make a drain require cleaning more or less often: - Age of the plumbing system - Size of the household - Severity of drain usage

Pricing for plumbing a 2000-square-foot house can vary based on several factors: your house's location, the plumbing system's complexity, the types of materials used, and the overall labor costs. On average, you're looking at anywhere from $8,000 on the low end to over $15,000 on the high end. It's essential to get several quotes from local plumbing contractors. This is not only to secure the best price, which can vary quite a bit, but also to ensure that the components included in the estimate cover all the bases—fixtures, piping, and proper installation.

Home plumbing can last a long time, but its lifespan is dependent on two main factors: the materials used and the maintenance received. Here is a list of some commonly used materials, their estimated lifespans, and some other relevant information concerning them: - Copper pipes: 70-80 years - Brass pipes: 80-100 years - Galvanized steel pipes: 80-100 years - PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) pipes: 25-40 years - PEX (Cross-linked Polyethylene) pipes: 40-50 years With appropriate upkeep and repairs, plumbing can last even longer than the timeframes given.

Plumbing can add considerable value to a home, especially when the systems are modern, efficient, and well-maintained. It's not actually the pipes themselves that make a house more attractive to buyers, but rather the overall "plumbing feel." Updated, code-compliant, and efficient plumbing systems that are regularly maintained ease the mind of home shoppers and provide a smooth backdrop for daily living. At least, that's how the plumbing works in my house. A recent home inspection also testified to the state of the systems in my home. Efficiently operating plumbing does have a certain "feel" to it.

The decision to choose between copper and cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) for plumbing comes down to your individual needs, wants, and what you can afford now and in the future. Copper has been the go-to pipe for plumbing for eons. It has an excellent track record of staying put and doing its job for decades. Copper plumbing is not prone to the growth of algae and other nasty things. It can take the heat. It is, however, priceier than most of the other options out there. And in some areas of the country, the water that comes from the ground is mixed with so many minerals that it makes anything made of copper corrode in not too many years. On the other hand, PEX is so easy to work with that it makes a really good reason to use it for plumbing if you want to keep labor costs down, and it can keep your water flowing at a pretty comfortable temperature. The things that might stop you from using it are that it can't be used outside in direct sunlight and that it might not hold up as long as copper when it's used in the parts of a plumbing system that are likely to see some very hard abuse.