How to Find Affordable Plumbing Services
Why “Cheapest” Isn’t Always Best
Let’s be honest… nobody actually gets excited to call a plumber. Usually, if you’re looking for us, you’re having a bad day. We get it.
When homeowners start Googling “affordable plumbing services,” they naturally look for the lowest hourly rate they can find. It makes sense on paper. But in the plumbing world, the “cheapest” plumber can often end up being the most expensive one.
True affordability isn’t just saving $20 on a dispatch fee. It’s about hiring an expert who can find the problem fast, fix it right the first time, and stop you from digging up your entire yard unnecessarily.
Here at Reliant Plumbing, we believe the most budget-friendly solution is an accurate solution. To prove it, we want to share a story from our technician, Jacob. This is a perfect example of how expertise saved a local customer thousands of dollars.
Jacob’s Story: A Case Study in Expert Leak Detection
We recently got a call from a customer with a serious panic situation. They own a beautiful lake house on steep terrain. They walked outside to find water pouring out of a retaining wall and pooling at the bottom of the property.
When our lead technician, Jacob, arrived, it looked like a nightmare. Water was spewing right out of a crack in the retaining wall.
The “Cheap” Approach vs. The Expert Approach
A less experienced plumber would have looked at that wall, grabbed a shovel, and started tearing the wall down to find the pipe.
The Reality: Water is tricky. It travels, especially on steep slopes like we have here at the lake.
Jacob knew that if he started digging at the wall, he’d be wasting the customer’s money. Instead of guessing, he grabbed his Goldak machine. Think of it like a high-tech stethoscope for the ground to listen for the actual source of the leak.
By using his ears instead of a shovel, Jacob found the truth: The leak wasn’t at the wall at all. It was actually 25 to 30 yards away, hidden underground near the driveway.
If the customer had hired a “cheap” plumber without this equipment, they probably would have told the homeowner: “We can’t find it, so we need to replace the entire yard line.” That is a difference of thousands of dollars.
The Fix: PEX vs. PVC
Once Jacob located the spot, he found the culprit: a sloppy glue joint from a previous plumber who used the wrong primer.
We don’t believe in band-aid fixes. We didn’t just re-glue the PVC (which is brittle and can break again as the ground shifts). Instead:
- We cut out the bad section.
- We replaced it with PEX piping.
PEX is flexible and weather-resistant. It’s a much better option for our local soil conditions. Jacob fixed the leak in hours, not days, and saved the customer the massive cost of a full line replacement. That is what we call actual affordable plumbing.
Conclusion
Whether you are researching the cost to replace a water heater (and wondering if a tankless upgrade pays for itself), or trying to fix a running toilet, remember that a “cheap” installation that leaks in two years is the most expensive service you will ever buy.
Do you have a leak that others can’t find? Call the friendly experts who know how to listen.
At Reliant Plumbing, we try to move away from open-ended hourly billing because it can be scary for the customer. While some complex diagnostic jobs (like difficult leak detection) are hourly, most of our jobs are based on a price book. We calculate the labor and materials upfront. This means we give you a price before we start the work. You pay for the solution, not for how long it takes us to turn a wrench.
We know you hate hidden fees. In most cases, we don’t charge a dispatch fee just to get a truck to your house (check our Policies page for the fine print). The cost depends entirely on the job. Fixing a faucet costs less than repiping a house.
We wish there was a single number, but a clog can be anything from “too much toilet paper” to “tree roots in the main line.” Because we use upfront pricing, we will assess the clog and give you options before we do the work. You’ll never be surprised by the bill at the end.