Plumbing Contractors

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All households will need some type of plumbing service at some point. It is a thing you cannot avoid. Your house is full of pipes carrying water, oil and gas and having a problem once in a while is to be expected. There are many types of plumbing contractors on the market, doing one specific thing or offering a range of plumbing services.

How do you pick a good plumbing contractor?

Depending on your needs you can pick a small or a big plumbing contractor. Also depending on your needs you can pick a commercial or domestic plumbing contractor. Most smaller areas will have their local plumbing contractors and most people will use their services but more specialised plumbing services like under floor heating , solar panel fitters , thermal heating plumbers etc. will have to be sourced in bigger cities.

Domestic Plumbing Contractors

This type of plumbing company will cover most of the plumbing services required for your home. Covered by domestic plumbing contractors are : plumbing repairs, boiler servicing, boiler replacing, water pumps fitting & repairs, water tank fittings & repairs, full house plumbing, heating issues, washing machine & fridge connections, plumbing improvements etc. The RGI registered plumbing contractors will also be able to work with gas and certify gas fittings. Most domestic plumbing contractors have a call out charge that can vary from area to area but is between 20 to 100 . This charge will cover the costs of coming to your property, investigating the issue and providing a full quotation. Most domestic plumbing contractors will have a website where you can find out more information about what they do and what areas they cover.

Commercial Plumbing Contractors

Commercial plumbing contractors are the plumbers or plumbing companies that only deal with the commercial market. More paperwork and much more staff are required for this type of plumbing service. Just to send an estimate for a commercial plumbing job any company will require safety statements, risk assessments, method statements etc. Services covered by commercial plumbing contractors : full schools, offices, pubs, restaurants, apartment blocks, car parks etc. anything that is not domestic. The cost of commercial plumbing is much higher than domestic plumbing and the payment system differs as well. Most domestic plumbing jobs will be paid on the spot but most commercial plumbing jobs will be invoiced and paid within 30 days alot of the time. All commercial plumbing contractors are fully insured and RGI & SEI registered. Most commercial plumbing contractors will deal with boiler updates and gas so those two licences need to be in place for them to be able to get the right grants for yourself.

No matter what type of plumbing contractor you are looking for and what area you live in there are a few golden rules that apply before you hire a tradesman. The most important thing is to make sure that the plumbing contractor that you are interested in dealing with has the right insurance papers and the right experience in dealing with your insurance company. If your home is fully insured and your insurance company are paying for whatever accidental damage has occurred you will need to complete the right paperwork and having an inexperienced plumbing contractor could mean a difference of 6 months in sorting out your claim. Also, if you plan to have your house re-plumbed or a new build plumbed you need to ask for a method statement and a safety statement just to have an idea how the job will progress. You will always read on the internet about the court cases between plumbing contractors and their customers just because there was no plan in place and the plumbing company took too many jobs and the job is moving very slowly or not progressing at all. A great way of keeping your job under control is to make sure you only pay for the work as completed. If the price for a full house is 10k lets say you should only pay 5k when you are satisfied that 50% of the job was completed. Pre paying any contractor will create issues in the long run. Your job will need to be certified at the end to be able to get connected to gas and water supply. Most building contractors can do the groundwork and the preparation work up to the main water and gas connections but only authorised plumbing contractors will be able to connect the system and certify the piping system. Many people found themselves in a situation where the job was done, the piping system was fitted by 10 tradesmen and no plumbing contractor is interested in certifying the work.

What is certifying?

The health and safety authority and the council will want to make sure that the job is done 100% and the risk of explosions or accidents is 0. When a private person is using many tradesmen to fit the pipes and the boiler, none of them will want to guarantee for other peoples’ work. If you issue a cert to say the job is 100% safe you will take full responsibility for that job and if something goes wrong you will be blamed for it. Using one single plumbing contractor from the start to the end is very important in the long run.

Gas Installers Plumbing Contractors

Working with gas is not an easy job so all plumbing contractors who deal with gas will need to hold a licence for that. Gas leaks can be deadly so you better make sure you don’t mess with it. Gas installers will connect your home to the main piping and they will test your system to make sure that the pressure holds in and there are no leaks. The first thing when you contact a plumbing company and you are looking for work gas related you will need to ask for a copy of their licence. Hiring a plumbing contractor will be an expensive experience regardless of the size of the job. This trade is highly regulated and being a plumber requires a lot of training each year. All these expenses will be added to your final bill. Do a search for plumbing contractors on fastdeal.ie and pick the right plumbing contractor.