A 24 hour plumber can be a real relief to see when you have no heat or your hot water heater is leaking all over your basement floor at 3 am.  However you may be afraid to call because your more worried about paying too much for the service.  You know you don’t have time to call every plumbing company online to get a bunch of estimates.  You just want the work done correctly for a fair price and you want the work done right now by a 24 hour plumber.

Here are some tips to consider when hiring a 24 hour plumber.

1) Every plumber “out of work” has now created there own business (since the economy slowed many new construction work is long gone).  These plumbers will call themselves a 24 hour plumber because they know they can charge more for 24 hour plumbing work.  Please be wary of these guys many of them don’t have the correct licenses or the proper insurance to be operating as a business.  If they can prove that they are correctly licensed and have the proper insurance they can be much cheaper than a emergency service franchise plumbing company.  You really just need to do your homework when you want to work with one of these types of plumbers.

2) The next type of 24 hour plumber that I’d consider very carefully before hiring is a 24 hour emergency service franchise plumbing company.  Though they are usually properly licensed and insured- they have a lot of overhead.  They have franchise fees, supply warehouses, many employees, and huge advertising expenses.  If your willing to pay top dollar to get your emergency plumbing problem resolved then a franchise plumbing company is probably right for you.

3) Lastly, what we do recommend is a local family owned plumbing company that specializes in 24 hour plumbing services. Make sure that they have been around for many years with excellent ratings with the BBB and internet reviews.  These types of companies typically offer the same level of service that the franchise plumbing companies offer without over charging for the repair.  Keep in mind that the local family owned plumbing companies will usually cost more than the “out of work” plumber because that “out of work” plumber is probably not paying for the normal operating business expenses that is needed to protect their business and their customers.  For example, worker’s compensation.  So the local family owned plumbing company is usually not the most expensive or the cheapest but somewhere in the middle all the while getting the level of service that you expect and deserve.

In conclusion, you can usually expect a local family owned 24 hour plumbing company to have the ability to get right out to resolve your problem and to do the work correctly for a fair price.