Finding a reasonable, qualified Plumber in Denver turned out to be not as easy as one would think. First off, the local GYP directories made it pretty confusing for a newcomer just arriving from the St. Louis area. The metro Denver encompasses 23 different municipal areas all with different zip codes and different names. The problem was these different areas all seem to have different business directories. St. Louis is much the same, but here you have all these small cities from the frontier days when Denver was the biggest cattle town in the Old West.
Asking friends for recommendations is always a great idea. But, having just moved to Denver from St. Louis, I sure didn’t know anyone to ask for Plumber Camden South. In the end, I was successful and had a happy result. The clogged shower drain was repaired and the cost was okay for the service call too. Here are the steps I used to locate the best Denver Plumber for my problem.
Yellow Pages
My first stop in my search was the Denver Yellow Pages. Since I lived in Highlands Ranch in another county that didn’t work too well. I couldn’t find a Yellows Pages for the local area. The metro Denver Yellow Pages sure didn’t give me a quick way to know the locations or which areas the plumbing contractor might do service calls. No help on who was reasonably priced or did quality work either.
Too Many Denver Plumbers
Usually the quick way is flipping the Yellow Pages, but not in this case. Denver Plumbers in the Yellow Pages would be reputable businesses, but there were so many listings I couldn’t decide who was close to my home or which plumber to choose. Besides, later on I found out there are actually FIVE different Yellow Pages Directories for city of Denver alone, and all the suburbs have their own Yellow Pages directory.
Try Asking Around for a Good Plumber
Even though I couldn’t do this successfully; I would recommend this as a first step if you do know local people when you move to a new city like Denver. This should be the first thing you do because nothing beats actual experience of people who can recommend someone who did a good job on their own plumbing system. Nothing beats a personal recommendation because most of us wouldn’t steer another homeowner wrong.
Searching the Internet for Plumbers
I’ve got two words for you. Speed and Convenience. These days nothing is faster than finding a local business by using a Search Engine. Search Engines provide you with maps, street addresses and most importantly links to reviews about the local plumbers in Denver and surrounding areas. Reviews are great for anything you want to use but watch out for phony reviews. They can help but use a grain of salt with your judgment on personal reviews. Many dissatisfied customers can be traced to simple misunderstanding, and you’ll never hear the plumber’s side from reading the review.
Unless you have a basement flooding, don’t go for the first plumber you see in your search. I did that once in my rush to find someone to fix my gushing pipeline and what I got was an expensive bill, a plumber who took 3 hours to fail and say he can’t do it. I was knee-deep in water.
Other Internet Sources
Local reviews are pretty easy to find with searches too. Annie’s List had a few. City Search pulled a lot of plumber reviews for Denver plumbers, aurora plumbers, and companies from other smaller towns, but they were a bit too shallow and didn’t provide enough information. Not for for me at least. Aurora has a local hub pages site on the Internet… loads a on line ads for all kinds of stuff and some plumbers and handyman types too.
Web sites for Denver Plumbers
Search engines will also lead you to local business web sites.Along with a map to quickly find the location in all the confusing cities and suburbs on the map. These plumbing web sites seem to be quite common nowadays, and especially for plumbing contractors. They know that serious people are looking for their services… and are usually in a big hurry. So, the best plumbing contractors do everything they can to stand out on the Internet. I found that to be very true in Denver as a whole, an Arapahoe County where I lived. Plumber web sites often have testimonials, prices for services clearly shown and several ways to contact the business for an appointment to be scheduled.
To Summarize these are the most important qualities you want to find.
– Experience
– Reliability
– Offers more than one service
– Integrity
– Free estimate before work is started
– A Solid Guarantee
I’ve had both good and bad results with plumbers, handymen, and carpenters in the past, but the advances in the Internet have sure made the job. That and local businesses seem to realize it too and are creating their own websites to make my job easier to find them.