We've had our fair share of plumbing problems in the house. When my father was around, he used to fix the odd faucet requirement, even my uncle did the same. Little things, such as replacing a washer, replacing and refitting piping, etc.
Recently though, particularly one morning, I found water all over a part of the basement floor, close to the water heater and furnace area. I wondered where in heaven's this water was coming from, even my mother couldn't make out the source of the problem. Called the next door neighbour and at first couldn't find a leak (or flow of water) from anywhere...until bingo, a small, tiny 'hole' in one of the copper pipes was spewing a nearly invisible spray of water in a certain direction. (The neighbour wrapped a cloth around his hand going all along both the cold and hot water pipe).
Called Brother Plumbing. Charged a small fortune -- $700! My mother was aghast at the cost, upset, thought she had been had, at first, but, the plumber explained that they did not work by commission the way other plumbing companies do (such as the previous one we called for some small faucet job). Rather, he said, he went by how much a job will cost as stated in the company manual. Oh, okay.
Truth is, this plumber had done a far superior job at repairing, replacing, and welding the 6 feet of copper piping that was needed to do, as the previous plumbing company, had done a cheap job, having welded it poorly.
"Whoever did this shouldn't be a plumber", he had said.
Also, we had a leaky troublesome basement faucet, which, was still like new. The previous plumbing company claimed that the entire faucet needed replacement. This other plumber claimed no such thing needed to be done. The faucet is still new, just changed the washers and that's it. No leak ever since!
It's amazing how one can be fleeced into believing that something needs doing when in fact the people who tell you that need fine tuning!
Thank goodness for the guy from Brother. An expensive but honest bloke!
