The Cost of a Plumbing Emergency – What should I expect to pay?
Perhaps one of the first things that run’s through your mind after some kind of plumbing emergency has just occurred is panic. Once everything calms down, you’re probably more inclined to think about the more practical aspects of the plumbing failure. You probably will have phoned your trusty emergency plumber to come out and solve your issue in no time. Unfortunately, you will probably only be superficially relieved because a disaster like this is naturally going to cause a lot of financial concern. Indeed, it’s true in almost every instance that an emergency will end up costing someone a lot of money in the long run. But, how much does a plumber actually charge for emergencies?
Determining the answer to that question might be a little bit more convoluted than you might expect. Most people might have a plumber or plumbing service that they are familiar with in one way or another. Calling up this service in the middle of the night won’t produce any grumbles or grouses on the other line because you are already a respected customer (or at least someone who has endeared themselves to the plumber). Having a phone number and somewhat of a relationship with your local plumber will make the process much easier.
Even so, you’re still calling an emergency plumber away from some much more important jobs. Despite the fact that you might know the service well, you could end up having to foot the bill for the standard emergency plumber fees. In general, these are going to be slightly larger than other similar plumbing bills because of the tight window in which they have to operate. Plumbers generally charge around £20 per hour for normal services. For emergency services, however, the rate can as much as double in some cases. Having a plumber on your side and on-call will certainly help you get out of having to pay too costly a price.
Of course, any plumber is going to charge you more for a service that includes coming out to your home or place of business in the middle of the night or while they were working on another job. It’s a standard matter of course that will wind up charging you a little extra because it takes them out of their routine. You’re also going to be in somewhat of a bind for the most part, so they have certain recourse to charge you more (i.e. what else are you going to do?)
Even though the costs might be steep, it’s important that you find an emergency plumber to get your issue fixed swiftly. If you leave it up to chance, you could be looking at even more damage than you would have otherwise.
