Questions to Ask a Plumber Before You Hire One

"Are you licensed and insured — can I see it?"

This is the baseline. A qualified plumber carries a trade certification and current liability insurance and will gladly confirm both. Vague answers, or "my licence is being renewed," are reason enough to keep looking.

"How do you price the work — flat rate or hourly?"

Flat-rate pricing protects you from open-ended hourly bills, but either model is fine if it's explained clearly up front. The warning sign is a refusal to talk numbers at all until they're on site, paired with pressure to decide on the spot.

"What's covered by warranty, and for how long?"

Ask for the warranty on both parts and labour, in writing. A plumber confident in their work will stand behind it; a one-line invoice with no warranty terms is a gamble.

"If this is an emergency, who's actually coming?"

For urgent work, confirm a real plumber is available now — not an answering service — and get the all-in price before they dispatch. The companies that quote low to win the call and inflate the bill on arrival rely on you being too stressed to push back.

"Can you put the scope in writing?"

A short written scope — what they'll do, what it costs, and what's excluded — prevents most disputes. Anyone unwilling to write it down is telling you something.

Frequently asked questions