Drains, leaks, toilets and water lines. How a plumbing repair is billed, and when not to wait.
Drains. A slow sink, a shower that backs up, a laundry line that gurgles somewhere else in the house. Where the blockage sits decides how big the job is, and nobody can tell you that over the phone.
Leaks. A drip under a cabinet is usually a fitting. A warm spot on the floor, a wall that stays damp, or a meter that keeps moving with everything shut off is a different problem. Finding it is most of the work. Fixing it is often the short part.
Toilets. Running, rocking, backing up, or a flush that never quite finishes. Some are a small part in the tank. Some are a flange that has failed under the tile.
Water lines and shutoffs. Supply lines, angle stops, hose bibs, and the main shutoff nobody has turned in fifteen years.
Repipes. When a house has produced enough separate leaks that patching the next one stops making sense. We do those in-house.
Water heaters have their own page.
We can't publish a price for a plumbing repair, because "a leak" isn't a job — it's a symptom. What we can tell you is how the bill is built.
Most repairs are billed time and materials: the hours the work actually took, plus the parts it actually needed. That's the model we prefer — a flat rate has to be priced for the hard version of the job, so on the ordinary version you're paying for a difficulty that didn't happen. Some work is flat rate, where the scope is genuinely predictable.
You hear the scope and the billing basis before anyone starts, and you decide from there.
There is a fee for the visit itself on a repair call, and it varies with the kind of work. Ask when you call and we'll give you the number before we send anyone. Estimates for new installations are free.
After-hours and weekend work is billed at its own rate. You'll hear that rate when you call, not when you read the invoice.
Our workmanship is guaranteed for one year, in writing. If something we touched fails shortly afterwards and it was our mistake, we come back and there's no diagnostic fee for it.
License and gas certification, pipe materials, warranty — the difference between a plumber who finds the real problem and one who just sells inventory.
A licensed Air & Energy plumber, in a marked truck, on our payroll — we don't subcontract.
The first part of the visit is finding the actual problem, not the first plausible one. On a drain that keeps backing up, that means asking what put it there rather than just clearing it again: a blockage that returns on a schedule is telling you something about the line, and that changes what the right fix is.
Then you hear what we found, what it will take and what it will cost, before anything starts. What we find goes on the ticket, so the next person who looks at your house — including us, three years from now — can see what was there.
If the work needs a permit, we pull it and we close it. We never ask a homeowner to pull their own.
If you smell gas, do not call us first. Get everyone out of the building, and don't touch a light switch, an appliance or a garage door on the way. From a safe distance away from the house, call 911 or your gas utility. Call us afterwards, once they have made it safe.
Call now.
This week is fine.
If you're unsure: can you shut the water off to just that thing and still use the house? If yes, it can wait. If no, don't.
Worth knowing before you need it: where your main shutoff is, and whether it still turns. If you don't, ask the plumber to show you while he's there.
Our Bradenton office is open Monday to Friday, 8 to 5, and someone here answers.
Outside those hours we run emergency service on nights and weekends. Calls go through our automated on-call system, which routes your message to the Air & Energy technician on duty — one of ours, not a call center in another state. Leave your name, number and what's happening, and the technician calls you back.
We've been working on houses around here since 1983 — long enough to have met your house's vintage of plumbing before, and occasionally the actual house.
Call and describe it. We'll tell you what it's likely to be, what the visit costs, and when we can get someone there — before you commit to anything.
Air & Energy holds Florida plumbing and gas certification under one company license, CFC1429106 — check it yourself at myfloridalicense.com.