Plumbing Leak Detection & Repair

Q. Describe the most common types of jobs you do for your clients.

A. Under slab sewer and water leak test, sewer and water leak location, sewer and water leak repair. We also do a good amount of gas leak detection and repair. Another common job for us is cleaning out stopped up sewer lines. With all of that said, we do basically all types of residential plumbing. Because we specialize in leak detection and repair, that is still a main part of our business.

Q. What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A. Ask questions, do your homework, check them everyone out on BBB, even if they have complaints, see how long they have been in business and ask the company how many jobs they have done. I always try to get referrals from people I know and trust. Hopefully my trusted person has used the contractor several times and has a track record with the person I know and trust. If you have to find someone without a referral, I go to BBB, I look online, I look at there website and read everything I can to try and get a feel for the company, who are they, what do they believe. No doubt you can fake a lot these days, but you cannot fake everything, and if you look at every detail of the website, you can usually get a good feel of who they are and what they believe. And if all else fails, there is always prayer in asking God to help point you to the right contractor.

Q. If you were a customer, what do you wish you knew about your trade? Any inside secrets to share?

A. Hear we have the heart of a teacher, and work to give people all of the inside secrets they need to make the best decision for them when it comes to plumbing work. All though there are many things I can share here, one important thing that we try to spread everywhere we go is How important it is to have an under slab plumbing sewer and water test done on a house before you buy it. We had a job one time where we went in 3 weeks after a house was bought, and did a plumbing test, there was 30,000.00 of plumbing sewer line replacement work that had to be done, and the new homeowner had to pay it all. Every seller does not want you to know this, and therefore a sellers agent will not help in telling you this, and many buyers agents are only concerned about getting the commision, so they will not make sure you are protected. Be carefull and do not buy a house without having a plumbing test of the under slab sewer and water system done.

Q. What important information should buyers have thought through before seeking you out?

A. What is the problem you are trying to solve? the more information you can be prepared with upfront the better. If you have a leak, what is leaking? Where is the water coming from? How long has it been leaking? Can you see water, or do you just hear it? Is the floor warm/hot? Did you have foundation repairs? And there are many more questions, for us, we work to spend time with people on the phone when they call to pull out the right information to help they know exactly what needs to be done and give them the right information. We like to do things over the phone not through email so that we can easily get to the right information and help people

Q. Why does your work stand out from others who do what you do?

A. I believe the fact that we work to provide A (quality) work for and C (average) price, and are completely trust worthy and honest helps us stand out against our competition. We truely care about people.

Q. What do you like most about your job?

A. I love Helping people, it gives great satisfaction when someone calls with a problem and we can solve that problem. Making a difference in peoples lives is what makes a difference in my life the most.

Q. What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A. Can I trust you? Yes, we are a member in good standing with an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, we have been in business since 2001, and we built our business on referrals most of our business comes from repeat referrals, and they would not keep referring us if we were not trust worthy. We have several companies that refer us to their clients on a regular basis, and have since we started, if we were not trust worthy, they would not have refered us to their cleints for this long.

Q. Do you have a favorite story from your work?

A. One in particular is of a Woman who called me one day several years ago. She told us she had another plumber out and he gave her a bid for $ 11,000.00 to tunnel under her slab from the outside to replace about 20-25 feet of kitchen sink sewer line that he ran a sewer camera into with her watching and told her the line was rotted out on the bottom. We told her that we were not fans of using just a sewer camera to try and determine/see/find a plumbing sewer problem. We recommended that we come out and investigate the situation to make sure that was for sure the problem. We went out, were there for about 15 minutes of total time from pull up to drive off, we tested the kitchen sink line using a rubber test ball with an air hose attached to it, and it did not leak. We also ran a camera through it, and everything was clear. So when we filled it up with water it held water, and with the camera the line was clear and draining fine, NO PROBLEMS we told her and actually since we were there for such a little time and given that they other guys charged her about 400.00 to tell her that she needed to spend 11000.00 with them also, we did not charge her anything. I will never forget this one, but there are plenty more.

Q. What do you wish customers knew about you or your profession?

A. I wish people knew that not everyone is dishonest. Many people look at contractors off all kinds, but especially plumbers in a sceptical light these days, because there are many people who have been ripped off, by no good people. I want customers to know there are good people out there, you just have to check everything out the best you can, through BBB, through referals from friends, and work to get a good feeling about the contractor, then go with them, trust them. If you find a problem, GO TO THEM, they need and most of the time want to know, and give them the opportunity to prove that they are trustworthy by handling the problem in a quality way.

Q. How did you decide to get in your line of work?

A. Started in the service business as a delivery driver right out of High School, and within 7 years I was able to start a business with a friend. Those seven years were a lot like a pin ball machine, trying to find my passion and place in the business. For me it is not so much about plumbing, but plumbing gives me an avenue to help people, I love that.

Q. Tell us about a recent job you did that you are particularly proud of.

A. We were hired to do a complete replacement of the plumbing sewer lines under the slab, it should have taken us about 4 days or so to do this job. However about half way into the job we ran up against a good amount of obsticles, and it tested myself and our team members. What was especially rewarding is that with a lot of work, and patience, we were able to overcome the obsticles, it took us about 8 days, had to pay for a customers bush that we ruined, and do an extra special clean of the yard, but we got it done and the customer was very pleased that we did not give up, we kept fighting and got the job done right.

Q. Do you do any sort of continuing education to stay up on the latest developments in your field?

A. All of our licensed plumbers are required by state law to take 8 hours of continuing education each year for their license to be renewed. We also work to have several training meetings throughout the year ourselves to discuss new things that have come up, safety, etc.

Q. What are the latest developments in your field? Are there any exciting things coming in the next few years or decade that will change your line of business?

A. THe big rage today that is still very new in residential plumbing is Trenchless Technologies. Basicly this is repairing a leak under a concrete slab whether it is sewer or water without trenching/excavating/digging a hole in any way. Unfortunately there are a lot of limitations currently to this method. Many leaks cannot even be repaired properly with this technology, and most even if it can be, require some hole outside or through the slab for some access. For us we will be watching this technology close to see what happens and where it goes, but at this time we have decided it is not a good idea for our business. They are also building newer houses differently, and using a plastic type of pipe called Pex for water lines and generally they will run the lines in the walls above the slab instead of under the slab like they did in the old days. This is also still very new, but something to watch as it develops. There are many other things that we can discuss, like the evolution of toilets, the technology that goes into toilets, faucets, etc today is amazing. tankless water heaters are another one, unfortunately at this time tankless water heaters are very expensive, and in most cases cost prohibitive for retrofitting an older house. If you build a new house use a tankless water heater it is general less expensive to build it that way to start then it is to convert a tank water heater to a tankless.

Q. Describe your most recent project, what it involved, how much it cost, and how long it took.

A. We were hired to locate and repair a fresh water plumbing leak under a concrete slab. Customer called us and said she had water on the carpet in the living area. She thought something might be leaking from the upstairs. We went out and investigated the situation and determined that it was an under slab fresh water leak. We attempted to locate the leak, but could not because there was an aquarium that needed to be moved so we could get access to an area. They moved the aquarium, we went back and attempted again to locate the leak, we could not be sure because we thought it might be under the stairway and/or the water heater which were right next to each other and we could not gain access to that area to locate the leak. We told the customer we would need to punch a hole through the slab on the side of the stairs on top of one part of the water line and get under the slab and see what the deal was. We did that, and we found and fixed the leak about three feet on the other side of the hole from the stairs. We tested the water system after the repairs, there were no leaks. This job took 1.5 hours each day for two days to locate because we had the problems, and it took 6 to 7 hours on one day to repair. We repoured the concrete over the hole we punched through the slab, but we did not put the flooring back down. We charged a total of $ 1350.00 for this work

Q. If you were advising someone who wanted to get into your profession, what would you suggest?

A. Start young, get in at the ground floor with a company, when they say jump, you say how high, do not do anything illegal, but be available anytime and all the time. Work hard, NO TEXTING, NO PHONE CALLS, NO FACEBOOK/TWITTER. Work hard, listen to everyone. Ask questions, and listen to the answers. Take notes on the answers to the questions and study those answers when you have time. Learn, learn, learn. Be queit and listen. Sacrifice. Develope the heart of a teacher, not the heart of a salesman. Look at everything as what you can bring to the table, not what you can get off the table. Give back. I guarantee if you do those things, you will be the president or owner of the company in no time, because no one does those things today. But all of that is the ingredients to being sucessfull. I say all the time sucessful people turn lemmons into lemmonade, don't complain about all of the lemmons you have, make lemmonade with them.

Q. Write your own question and answer it.

A. Why is testing for leaks under a concrete slab important? It is important because of the expansion contraction soils we have in the north texas area, the soil expands when it is wet and contracts when it is dry, if there is an un-repaired water source under the slab, it can cause a problem to the foundation of the home. If there is a water leak it can cause flood damage inside, and high water bills as well, so it is extremely important to test for leaks. We recommend testing once a year or once every two years.