How to Find a Great Plumbing Company in Northern VA

It can be very difficult to find a good plumber for your residential plumbing needs.  There are five very important steps you should take.

1. Check to make sure that they have a plumbing license.  The most basic rule is to be sure that they’re licensed and carry full insurance that protects your property in the event of a catastrophe.  I once had a customer that hired a couple of laborers standing outside the Home depot.  She apparently asked them if they had any plumbing experience and of course they said yes.  She had them replace the kitchen sink, the faucet and the garbage disposal with the new ones she had bought.  Her house was an older home and still had an air gap on the kitchen sink that ties into the garbage disposal and dishwasher for those that don’t know.  Well they finished the job, got paid and left,  customer was happy that she had the entire job done for $350.  Long story short, the customer turns the dishwasher on and goes to spend the weekend at a friend’s house .  when she arrives she sees that her kitchen has flooded, now she has no way to get hold of  the guys that did the work because she didn’t get any of their information.  She calls the insurance company and they say that she can’t put a claim in because they were not licensed or insured.  She called Sami’s Plumbing, we ran a test, come to find out they never knocked out the plug in the garbage disposal.  (Dishwasher drained, water had nowhere to go and came gushing out of the air gap)  That $350 ended up costing her $2500 to repair damages.
2. Finding a plumber who gives pricing for small jobs over the phone isn’t necessarily the sign of a good plumber.  At Sami’s Plumbing we provide quotes only when we are in front of the job so that we get it 100% right.  From a plumber’s and customer’s perspective, there’s nothing worse than saying it will cost $X to fix and get to the home, only to find that it’s really $Y because of some complicating factor.  The real key is to get a flat, fixed quote so you know exactly what the plumber will do and exactly what you will pay.  The only way this will be truly accurate is if the plumber is in front of the work.
3. When getting multiple quotes make sure you are comparing apples with apples.  Some companies strip their jobs back to the absolute minimum (no bells and whistles) so they can come in at the lowest price, but the work won’t last the longest possible time.  Prime example is plumbers that buy their plumbing fixtures from their home improvement center.  The home improvement center has a great amount of cheap brand name faucets, toilets, and water heaters.  They want to save the consumer a lot of money so that they keep coming back.   The Bad news is the quality of the product and they just don’t last as long.  The Plumber that buys at those places, buys it cheap and therefore charges less to do the job.  Make sure when you get multiple quotes that it’s for the same product, made by the same manufacturer, and has the same model.  At Sami’s Plumbing we only install the best plumbing products from the best plumbing supply houses, Sure you pay a little more, but it lasts twice as long in most cases.
4. Beware of the big plumbing companies out there they lose touch with the customer real fast.  They are the companies that have none stop ads every time you turn on the television, they are the companies that offer free estimates only to charge you on the back-end, they are the companies that get you to pay for home service agreements and find a way to not fix the problem for free.  Have you ever wondered why the technicians from those companies are so damn pushy, it’s because they have to meet a quota in sales.  I used to work for those companies.  I will never give those companies names out, but it is for these reasons that i left and decided to start my own plumbing business, what ever happened to making an honest living.  At Sami’s plumbing we will always treat you like family.
5. Ask about their guarantee, is it written on your bid/quote?  Plumbers with great belief in their performance standards put their money where their mouth is.  At Sami’s Plumbing we offer a one year parts and labor warranty except on customer supplied products and stoppages.

Call Sami’s today 703-595-7649. Sami Gets It Done Right!