Taking on a plumbing project can be a costly investment in your property. Make sure you hire the right team to help you.
Here are five questions to ask as you prepare for your project.
1. Is your plumber licensed and insured? Note, if your project needs to touch public works such as the sidewalk, water meter, or sewer line in the street, you need an A-Licensed contractor like Freedom Underground Plumbing.
Licensed plumbers have the knowledge necessary to ensure their work follows all plumbing and building codes. General Liability insurance protects you and the plumber in the unlikely event of a costly mistake. We provide a copy of our required insurance upon request.
You can check a contractor’s license at: https://www.cslb.ca.gov/onlineservices/checklicenseII/checklicense.aspx
User License# is 995136
2. Is your plumbing contractor experienced with the requirements of your project and in your city/county?
Freedom Underground Plumbing offers a number of plumbing services. That said, we specialize in leak detection, underground plumbing work and septic systems. We do many such projects and have experience doing so in the different cities and counties in the Bay Area. We are especially proud of our expertise in the installation of complex septic systems.
Due to our specialty, we believe we are one of the premier underground plumbing providers in our area. A lot of our competitors specialize in drain cleaning or do not specialize at all. We hope you will let us prove it to you.
3. Does the company have a history of similar projects in your area?
Plumbing contractors that have been around for a while should have favorable reviews from the community. We have been around since 2004 and our Founder, Freddy Porras, has been in the industry and our area for over 20 years.
You can find reviews for Freedom Underground Plumbing on our website’s Customer Reviews page or go to Yelp and Google directly.
When we come out to do an estimate, we encourage you to ask us about our experience in the type of project you have and also our specific experience in your city/county.
4. What is the warranty policy?
Any contractor you hire should guarantee their labor when they are rendering services to you. Freedom Underground offers a lifetime warranty. Ask us about our Warranty and how to make a claim after your project is completed. We stand by our work.
5. Will the plumbing contractor obtain the permits and schedule the required inspections for the project?
If your project does not touch a public work such as the sidewalk, much of the time, getting your project permitted is up to you. In other words, it is not required but is often a good idea. Some of our customers opt to save a bit of money and time and do a project without getting permits. However, whenever you touch public works, you must obtain a permit.
For any permitted project, the specific entities that must approve the work can vary from project to project. If you include permits in your project, Freedom Underground will handle the burden of pulling all required permits and scheduling the inspections.
6. Does the plumbing contractor charge for estimates?
In general, you should not have to pay just to get an estimate/bid/quote from us for your project. You may have to pay for more detailed consultations, video inspections, and sometimes if there is a need to enter your home’s crawl space. That said, the majority of estimates we do are free but if we think we need to charge for a service, we will let you know in advance. If your estimate turns into a project for us, we will credit you the any previous inspection costs.
Some companies charge a “trip” or “visit” fee to show up, we do not.
