(NGC) - Plumbers

[Gliderjohn]

Is it my area or an overall problem? I have lived in my current area for 14 years and have yet to find a consistently good plumbing company or plumber. Have good to great vehicle mechanics, electricians, farm and tire equipment sales and repair places, building and roofing companies but good plumbers elude me. Your experiences?
GliderJohn

[Lannis]

Is it my area or an overall problem? I have lived in my current area for 14 years and have yet to find a consistently good plumbing company or plumber. Have good to great vehicle mechanics, electricians, farm and tire equipment sales and repair places, building and roofing companies but good plumbers elude me. Your experiences?
GliderJohn

I've got two guys; one who does small jobs, works by himself, generally is up to date and can come out tomorrow or the next day, doesn't charge much and does very good work.

The other has a 20-man company, you can call him any time day or night, he'll do larger jobs like digging up the ground to find a leak in the well supply line, installing a water treatment system, charges a little more but is worth it.

I agree, though, craft people are VERY busy these days.   We re-did the first floor of the house this year, and the painters, cabinetmakers, floor finishers, and joiners are months behind.   I figure that too many people are going to college, coming out, and earning nothing, while an intelligent few are learning a trade, and can get all the work they want at the price they name ....

Lannis

[AJ Huff]

With the exception of a carpet guy, I've had zero luck with contractors of any kind in 25 years. Don't return calls, don't show up, show up late, don't complete work on a timely manner.

-AJ

[cloudbase]

[yogidozer]

I was fortunate to have good parents. Both had a lot of common sense, knew quite a bit.
My father taught me how to work on cars, electrical, plumbing, welding, soldering, etc.
My mother taught me about cooking, gardening, shopping etc.
I knew at a young age how lucky I was, so when I saw them doing anything, I did all I could to help them.
They never had to ask me to help. I enjoyed working and learning with them.
So I haven't had to hire anyone to do anything other than legal type work.
Unfortunately they passed away at a fairly young age.

[LowRyter]

Heck, Dusty's congressman is a plumbing contractor.  I sure as heck wouldn't hire him.

[Rough Edge racing]

 Residential plumbing is pretty basic so I just do it myself..I was an electrical contractor so that stuff I can also do or know that I can ignore it..lol.....

[larrys]

Of all the building trades I have found the plumbing trade to have the highest percentage of stupidheads, with carpenters not far behind. HVAC guys and electricians seem to be generally smarter. Commercial contractors generally are more competent than the residential guys. Of course there are exceptions to everything.
Larry

[John Ulrich]

I needed a water softener installer with a loop (new installation).  I looked on Craigslist and found an ad with pictures a price list for services and his name.  I googled his name & business and came up with the best Yelp & Google scores you could ask for.  This year later I was ready for the install and called him up.  He and his wife work together and were fantastic. 

[twowheeladdict]

I was fortunate to have good parents. Both had a lot of common sense, knew quite a bit.
My father taught me how to work on cars, electrical, plumbing, welding, soldering, etc.
My mother taught me about cooking, gardening, shopping etc.
I knew at a young age how lucky I was, so when I saw them doing anything, I did all I could to help them.
They never had to ask me to help. I enjoyed working and learning with them.
So I haven't had to hire anyone to do anything other than legal type work.
Unfortunately they passed away at a fairly young age.

Yep.  We moved into an old farmhouse when I was 3.  There was always something to do.  By the time I was 15 we had completely rewired, replumbed, resided, replaced all the plaster with sheetrock, etc.  We even put in a built in swimming pool ourselves after a gradeall dug the initial hole so learned all about that and building fieldstone walls and concrete patios.  The Boy Scouts perpared me in many life skills as well. 

Unfortunately, my body won't allow me to get too physical these days and I have to hire out some things.  It kills me to pay out that labor cost for something I can do myself.  What is really bad is when I notice the workers taking shortcuts. 

[Rough Edge racing]

Of all the building trades I have found the plumbing trade to have the highest percentage of stupidheads, with carpenters not far behind. HVAC guys and electricians seem to be generally smarter. Commercial contractors generally are more competent than the residential guys. Of course there are exceptions to everything.
Larry

  As an electrician and contractor I worked big projects and  very seldom did residential wiring.... on projects worth millions of dollars, educated engineers drew up plans that were handed off to tradesmen on the job with mostly no more than a high school education..The tradesmen then built the project using learned experiences and making changes to suit the reality of construction....
  There is a pecking order on jobs and we electricans like to think were on top...Not really because all trades have difficult situations to deal with..A lot of issues were the logistics of getting work done in bad weather ,material shortages and lack of proper tools..