Fort Lauderdale Plumbers

Fort Lauderdale plumbers can be your best friend or worst enemy depending on who you call and when you call them. Plumbers are known to charge a lot and the ones in Fort Lauderdale are no exception.

 Like doctors and other professionals, plumbers are a fact of life if you own a house or condo because something is going to go wrong with your plumbing at some point.

Luckily we haven't had any major catastrophes as far as plumbing is concerned. We try to maintain the place as best we can and earmark some money for things that we know are going to need replacing prior to them totally giving out on us.

Our hot water tank was still in good shape after 17 years but we knew it wouldn't last forever.

 Based on what we've been told, a tank should last between 10-15 years so at best we were pushing our luck. (We'd also just heard about tankless water heaters which prompted us to take action.)

We decided it was time to look for a plumber because prior to this any small plumbing problems we had could be handled by our condo's maintenance guys. We didn't want to have the hot water tank start leaking and require an emergency call because you end up paying a premium for emergency calls and if any damage occurred due to the leak we would end up having to deal with not only a plumber but also our insurance company.

So, we called on friends and neighbors to ask for recommendations. We researched what we should be looking for in a plumber and asked for an estimate over the phone since the job was pretty straightforward and didn't require an on-site visit in order to estimate the cost. We also asked that they then send the estimate via email so that we had something in writing.

Whether or not you get a referral, here are a few basic question that you should always ask prospective Fort Lauderdale plumbers:

At the top of the list are the following, if they don't answer yes to these two questions, move on .....

1. Do they have a State License or Certification? Call to check that the license is still valid and that there are no active complaints against the license.
    
2. Are they fully insured? Do they have both liability and workmen's compensation insurance?

Many condo and home associations forbid work done by any trades people or professionals that are not licensed and insured anyway.

If they are both licensed and insured in Florida then follow up with these questions:

1. Do they offer a service warranty? What are the terms and what is covered?
    
2. How long have they been in business and can they provide references?
    
3. Will they be responsible for getting any permits that may be required?

Finally, contact your local Better Business Bureau and find out if there are any complaints against them.
Once you've shortened the list to 2 or 3 candidates, get a written estimate that details the materials, lists the scope of work, and provides the payment terms. 

Don't consider hiring any tradespeople that require payment in full at the outset of the project or before it is fully completed.

Always make sure that an adequate amount of money is left to be paid at the end so that you have some leverage if things go wrong or some unexpected problem develops.

Check that the materials listed in the estimate are quality materials and hopefully brand names that you recognize. Saving a few dollars on inferior plumbing materials could be a recipe for disaster later on. You're already incurring the expense at this point, you don't want to have to go through this again in a few months time because the materials used were defective or sub-standard.

We ended up going with Paradise Plumbing (Paradise Service Technologies is their official name) who were referred to us by some good friends. We've actually used them a couple of times. They did a great job, are incredibly courteous, customer oriented, and do quality work.

We'll be changing one of our toilets very soon. When we asked how we could reduce the cost for this, they were very forthcoming in telling us how. They gave us the name of their supplier (if we wanted to compare prices with our local Home Depot or Lowes) and told us that if WE bought and brought the toilet up to our unit ourselves and all they needed to do was hook it up that we could save a great deal of money. You see, they normally charge for picking up the toilet, AND bringing it to the building AND bringing it upstairs, and then installing it. I think we're going to do just that!

Please remember when considering Fort Lauderdale plumbers that cheapest isn't necessarily best. You're much better off with a company that offers a fair market price and understands that their reputation is more important than a quick sale.