How to Find a Good Local Plumber in 4 Steps

Choosing the right tradespeople for your luxury bathroom remodel is never an easy task. But finding a ‘plumber near me’ is probably one of the most daunting. The thing is, it’s been something of a seller’s market in recent years due to a distinct skills shortage in the plumbing trade. However, because it’s now very easy to find out what people think of service providers online, it’s getting much easier to source the kind of local plumber who’ll not only do a brilliant job, but will also do it quickly and for the right price.

Use a competitive bidding site

One of the main issues with sourcing good local plumbers in the past – whether it was a 24 hour plumber for emergencies, a less urgent hot water heater repair job or someone to reroute your pipes during a kitchen or bathroom remodel – was always price. Why are plumbers so expensive? Well, it all comes down to the fact that they know the value of their work, which sometimes has to be carried out at very short notice to avert disaster. When you need a plumber, chances are, you’re willing to take the hit on price.

That doesn’t, however, mean that you have to let yourself get done over on the deal. Thanks to brilliant bidding sites like mybuilder.com, you can now let plumbers battle it out between them for your work, rather than having to face the bank-balance-draining reality of chasing them (“well, I can come out, but it’ll cost you...”). All you do is enter the details of the job on the site and the tradesmen will come to you with a price. You don’t have to pick the cheapest either. You can pick the plumber who most sounds like they know what they’re doing and has the best feedback on the site.

Put your trust in Trustpilot

A few years ago, reality TV was filled with shows about ‘cowboy plumbers’ and ‘builders from hell’ and other shows that depicted just how badly things could go wrong if you invited the wrong tradesperson into your home. That’s, again, because there was a bit of a skills shortage – plumbers could more or less get away with not doing as good a job as you’d hope because, well, who else was going to do it?

The existence of Trustpilot has helped to change all that. Nowadays, plumbers can’t really afford to leave a job half-finished or make a botch-job of a plumbing gig because, if they do, there’s a strong chance someone will leave them a bad review on Trustpilot. And, if they get a few of those in a row, it could be the end of their business. On the flipside, a great plumber will get rave review after rave review so all you need to do to make sure you’ve picked a winner is look them up on Trustpilot and see what people think of them.

Ask other local tradespeople

Chances are, if you’ve been working on your property anyway, you’ll have already come into contact with a few tradespeople. If you’ve found a reliable builder, chippy or electrician, just ask them if they know a good, reasonably priced plumber in your area.

If they want your repeat business at any point, they’re not going to recommend someone whose work they don’t trust. And remember, if a plumber comes recommended by a mate in the trades, s/he’s not going to want to do a bad job because it looks bad for whoever recommended them – and they probably won’t be recommended again!

Make sure your plumber is qualified

It might seem like the most obvious point, but you’d be surprised at how few people check these things. It’s not as if you’ll have to ask the plumber to produce their Association of Plumbing & Heating Contractors Ltd certificate or their Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE) accreditation. If they’ve got them, they’ll be listed on the websites, as well as on the Gas Safe Register.

All you need to do is pop your postcode into any (and, we recommend, all) of those websites and, if the plumber you’re thinking of hiring is on them, they’ll be listed. If they’re not, you’re best advised to find someone who is – ideally on all three! They should really have these accreditations listed on their websites and in the directories they appear in, anyway.

Gone are the days where finding a reliable, reasonably priced plumber was a game of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. Thanks to the wealth of information we have at our fingertips online, homeowners and property developers now have access to – and the opportunity to create competition between – tradespeople working at the very highest trading standards. Good luck with your search and with your plumbing project.

Want something else to read? Check out our 8 Simple Questions to Find the Right Washbasin.