What can be considered emergency plumbing is an issue that comes up more than most would think. It’s also coming up more lately than has been the case previously. There are several reasons behind this, but the one reason that is certainly the biggest contributor is the recent changes in the way that plumbers get paid.
A couple of generations ago, repair plumbers were generally individuals that worked for themselves with a assistant, or an trainee. “Plumbing companies” typically worked on new construction projects and huge commercial retrofits. It was soon discovered, however, that there was money to be made from service and repair plumbing, thus the first “emergency plumbing repair” company was born.
Now, early on, most of those companies paid their workers by the hour. Throughout this time, an emergency repair meant that the client was experiencing an enormous leak, was completely without water, or had all of their drains backing up and flooding their home. The plumbers’ job was to alleviate this difficulty by visiting the customer’s home and doing whatever was necessary to remedy the problem. Since these plumbers were Sammamish plumbers extremely busy and paid by the hour, there was no need to do anything more than tackle the immediate need.
As time went on, and competition among plumbing service companies grew to become more fierce, companies started to employ new tactics for making money. The reasoning here was that with a lesser amount of service calls, the plumbers would need to earn more money with each call. In order to encourage this, several companies started paying their plumbers on commission. The more the technician sold the job for, the more money they’d personally earn. These plumbers began to realize that there was only so much money they could charge for a simple service, so they started to try to find extra work to perform at every home they visited.
This was not a new concept. We had previously seen this approach from mechanics along with other tradesmen. “If you don’t repair your brakes immediately, they will fail while you are on the freeway and you could potentially get into an accident” is not an uncommon mantra. Believe it or not, this technique applies perfectly to plumbing service. A rusty pipe that has a couple of years of life left in it might easily become a plumbing emergency in the hands of a skilled salesman.
Now, I am not saying that this rusted pipe shouldn’t be repaired. I’m only pointing out that you ought to be cautious of plumbers who classify everything they spot as an emergency. It might be best if you do fix as much as you can while you have the plumber at your residence. It is often the smart way to go. Just make sure that you do it because the plumber has given you trustworthy information – not because he intimidated you with talk of impending doom.