What Exactly is Emergency Plumbing?

The question of what can be considered emergency plumbing comes up a lot more than a lot of people would think. It is also coming up more in recent years than has been the case previously. There are many reasons behind this, but the one cause that is definitely the biggest contributor is the recent changes in the way that plumbers get paid.

A few generations ago, repair plumbers were mostly individuals that worked for themselves with a assistant, or an apprentice. “Plumbing companies” generally 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 very first “emergency plumbing repair” company was created.

Now, early on, nearly all of these companies paid their personnel by the hour. During this time, an emergency repair meant that the customer was experiencing a huge leak, was totally without water, or had all of their drains backing up and flooding their house. The plumbers’ task was to alleviate this problem by visiting the client’s residence and doing whatever was needed to fix the problem. Since these plumbers were incredibly busy and paid by the hour, there was no need to do anything more than address the immediate need.

As time went on, and competition between plumbing service companies became more fierce, companies began to use new strategies for making money. The reasoning here was that with fewer service calls, the plumbers would need to earn more money with each call. In order to encourage this, many companies started paying their plumbers on commission. The more the technician sold the job for, the more money they would personally make. These plumbers started to realize that there was only so much money they could charge for a simple repair, 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 observed this attitude from mechanics and other tradesmen. “If you do not fix your brakes right away, they will go out 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 well to plumbing service. A rusted pipe that has a couple of years of life left in it might easily develop into a plumbing emergency in the hands of a talented salesman.

Now, I'm not saying that this rusty pipe should not be repaired. I'm only saying that you should be cautious of plumbers that classify everything that they notice as an emergency. It is probably best if you do repair as much as possible while you have the plumber at your residence. It is generally the smart way to go. Just make sure that you do it because the plumber has given you good quality information – not because he intimidated you with talk of impending doom.

Steve has more terrific information about emergency plumbing and other plumbing topics at plumbing info.org.

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