Need a Good Plumber?

I’ve never been much of a plumber.  I can do the simple stuff but usually have to do it twice due to leaks.  Plumbing is just one of those jobs where you need someone who has the tools and the talent to get the job done.  Sadly, some plumbers are driving BMW’s because of overcharging their customers.  Don’t you just hate to see those news clips where they remove a spark plug wire from a car and take it to a mechanic to get it fixed.  Hidden cameras then reveal their outright lies on what parts the car needs and the outrageous cost.  It may surprise you that there are ethically challenged plumbers who do the same thing.  I think it is a reflection of removing Christian teaching from society.  Truth just isn’t important to most, especially where financial opportunity exists.

About the same time we were getting estimates on our roof, I called nine different plumbers from “Angie’s List” for what I considered a small job.  We needed a water heater replaced and moved about ten feet to a new utility room I planned to remodel.  The washer and dryer connections would be moved as well.  Of all those called, only one called and set up an appointment for an estimate.  I won’t mention any names here, but only call him “Mr. Plummer”.  He came out and crawled under the house, looked at what needed to be done and gave me the following report; Your toilet in the rear bathroom is a mess, it needs to be reworked too.  The washing machine drain is tied into the septic system, we can redo that and give it a separate drain out the side of the house.  You can call when you’re ready to have that done.  For just the work here, it’ll be about $2000.00.  But that’s only if you make a new opening on this side so I don’t have to crawl so far.

I gave him a Dr. Pepper and we talked about it for a while.  In that conversation he said he wanted to begin working more in the Birmingham area because city people just pay more for work done at their houses.  He said the country folks here just won’t pay it.  I thanked him for coming and determined that after he left, I’d crawl under the house and investigate my plumbing “problems”.

I carried my camera with me and took numerous pictures of the pipes and bathroom drains.  I noticed immediately that the washing machine drain went in the opposite direction of the septic tank.  That alone was enough for me to forget that estimate. After taking it over with my wife, we decided to put off the plumbing job till later.  We could manage without it till our money supply got a little better.  I guessed that he was very high on his estimate, but I didn’t know just how high at the time.

Fast forward four months, I started calling plumbers again.  I had one to tell me that he was just too busy and to call somebody else or call back in the fall.  Another said he didn’t want to come out to look at it, but would just say it would cost between $500.00 and $900.00.  My last call was to Bark-ley plumbing in downtown Cullman.  Brady and Tim were at the house within a couple of hours.  I explained what we needed and brought out my pictures of the pipes in the crawl space.  I asked if he saw anything under the bathroom that needed attention, and the answer was “no”.  Tim still crawled underneath and looked at everything taking a few more pictures with his phone.  The estimate was $200.00 for materials and $600.00 for labor.  Brady also said he would try to beat that price if he could. We set the appointment up for a week away since I still had to raise the floor about two feet.  Water heaters don’t hang well in mid-air.  I wanted to do a good job on the floor but it would still be somewhat temporary, since I have to remove the outside siding, re-insulate, and rewire the entire room.  We were just tired of not having hot water, along with all the upcoming activities.  I’ll blog about those maybe next week.

Tuesday morning, Brady, Tim, Matt, and Nick showed up at 8:30 ready to go to work.  It’s unusual to see two plumbers let alone four.  I was suddenly seeing $$ signs.  Brady and Tim just showed the other two what needed to be done and turned them loose on it.  They worked all morning and finished by early afternoon.  I was impressed with the work that Matt and Nick did and they were able to answer all my questions.  I meant to take some pictures while they were under the house but had too much going on.  Hope the following will suffice…

And last but not least, let me add a picture of Matt and Nick.

The final bill ended up being $750.00, which was great in comparison with my first estimate.  If you need a good plumbing contractor, I would definitely recommend Bark-Ley!