
Be it a burst pipe, an inefficient sump pump, shoddy work, or wasteful water-usage practices in your home, there are plenty of ways you could be sinking funds into your plumbing. Unwise plumbing decisions are veritable landmines for money-hemorrhaging, so here’s a list of efforts you can make to ensure you’re always getting the best plumbing bang for your buck.
Green Friendly Plumbing
Since we’ve already written a blog about green friendly plumbing, we’ll keep this short. Taking measures like installing water efficient fixtures (ie. faucets, showerheads, dishwashers, and toilets) and abiding by water-efficient practices is a two-pronged strategy. Not only will you be saving water for the betterment of the environment, you'll drastically better your bottom line!
Finding the Balance Between Price and Quality
This one is tricky. Whether it’s a service call for a repair, installation, or you’re purchasing a fixture, you can’t sacrifice quality for price - but if you’re on a budget, it can be complicated.
In hiring a plumber for a repair, you need to be especially careful. The natural inclination of many is to hire the first plumber they see on the Google results page. It makes sense if you want the problem taken care of as swiftly as possible. Plumbing snafus are stressful and you don’t really want to think too much about them… you want them dealt with and to forget they happened in the first place.
However, there are tremendous pitfalls that come with acting before thinking. Suddenly, a serviceman could be charging you half of your paycheque just for showing up, never mind repair costs.
On the flip side, if a plumber competes strongly on price, what does that say about their level of craftsmanship? Now, they could be the best in the business, but in our experience most plumbers worth their salt will charge you the salt they are worth.
Cheap, shoddy work with even shoddier fixtures and materials may initially save you a few dozen dollars, but can lead to hundreds if not thousands of dollars of damage down the line. Imagine a leaky pipe is “fixed” in your basement, then two weeks later you’re dealing with a full-on flood because your serviceman lacked the attention to detail. You’re on the hook for the initial “cheap” fix, on top of what you’ll have to pay a good plumber for the fix.
The solution? Research, research, and more research. With Google, you’ll find reviews on even the smallest local plumber, giving you an idea on the quality of their service and the fairness of the price. Of course, it’s easy to have fake reviews, but if you find at least one genuinely poor review it could tell you the whole story. On the flip side, it’s hard to manufacture every single review, so if you see a multitude of five star reviews without a single offsetting poor review, you’re likely in good hands.
Remember, an extra fifty bucks or so for a truly reliable plumber can go a long way to ensure the job is taken care of correctly in the first place, and save you money long term!
Stay on Top of the Little Fixes
Ignoring the pitter-patter of your dripping sink? Not concerned with your toilet’s sudden lack of flushing power? Shrugging your shoulders at your lukewarm showers?
These plumbing discrepancies may seem like incredibly minor annoyances. In the long run they can really put you out. Suddenly a small leak turns into a flood in your kitchen. You may be stuck using a porta-john on the side of the road because your weak flushes eventually incapacitated your toilet. And your lukewarm showers could get cold enough to air condition the polar ice caps. Then, you’re on the hook for a much steeper plumbing bill than if you took care of the issue when it was comparatively minor.
These are slippery slopes that can only occur when you don’t act on small problems. If you don’t want to shell out a couple of hundred dollars, you can always DIY if it’s within your scope of fix-it skills. If you’re a quick learner, instructional videos are all over Youtube for simple fixes.
But if you’re not exactly a pillar with a pipe wrench, contact Megan Drew Plumbing. We specialize in home service calls throughout Markham, Stouffville, and much of York Region, that provide effective lasting, fixes!
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