Plumbing sits next to half a dozen other trades, and knowing which one you actually need saves you money and a wasted afternoon. Here’s who does what, when to call them instead of us, and what to ask before you hire.
Call them when: the well itself is the problem — the water level is dropping, the yield has fallen off, the casing or well cap is damaged, or you need a new well drilled. Also for pulling a deep submersible pump, which takes specialized equipment.
Call us when: the problem is on the house side — pressure tank, pressure switch, the pipe from the well into the building, or the distribution system. Most “no water” calls are a house-side fix, and it’s worth ruling that out before paying for a rig.
Ask: whether they’ll diagnose before quoting a new well. A new well is a five-figure decision and it shouldn’t be the first suggestion.
Call them when: you’re on a well and have never tested, you’ve just opened a house that sat all winter, you’re buying a property, or you’re seeing staining and want to know what it actually is before someone sells you a treatment system.
Look for: a NHDES-accredited laboratory. NHDES publishes the accredited list, and an accredited lab result is the one that carries weight in a real estate transaction. A standard panel is inexpensive; arsenic, radon in water, and uranium are worth adding in New Hampshire specifically, because our bedrock produces them.
Be careful of: free water tests offered by companies that sell treatment equipment. The test may be fine; the incentive isn’t neutral. Get an independent number first.
Call them when: a pipe has already let go and water has been sitting — wet insulation, saturated subfloor, soaked drywall, or anything that’s been wet for more than a day. Drying a structure properly is a different trade from plumbing, and doing it badly means mold in six months.
Order of operations: stop the water (you, then us), then photograph everything, then call your insurer, then call restoration. Many carriers have preferred vendors and calling them first can simplify the claim considerably.
Ask: whether they bill your insurance directly, and whether they use moisture meters to verify the structure is actually dry rather than just running fans for three days.
Call them when: multiple fixtures back up at once, you smell sewage in the yard, or the ground over the tank is unusually green and soft. Also on a routine schedule — most tanks want pumping every three to five years depending on size and household.
Why it matters to a plumbing call: a full tank produces exactly the symptoms of a main line clog, and no amount of drain augering fixes it. Knowing when yours was last pumped can save you an entire service call.
Ask: for the pumping to be recorded and for a note on the tank’s condition — baffles, filter, and any sign the leach field is struggling.
Call them when: you need a tank set, a line run to the tank, a supply contract, or a delivery. For seasonal properties, talk to them about winter delivery access — an unplowed drive means no delivery, which means no heat, which is how a heated-but-empty house becomes a burst pipe.
Relevant to plumbing: a tankless water heater conversion often needs a larger gas line or a bigger tank than the house currently has. That’s a conversation to have before the equipment is ordered, not after.
Call them when: water has reached a panel or wiring, when a well pump circuit keeps tripping, or when you’re considering electric tankless — which at New Hampshire inlet temperatures draws enough current that many houses need a service upgrade to support it.
Worth doing regardless: have your panel properly labeled. In a wet basement you want to kill a circuit at the panel, and an unlabeled panel in an emergency is genuinely dangerous.
Call them when: you own here and live somewhere else. A good caretaker checks the building through the winter, and that check is what turns a five-month leak into a two-day one.
Ask: how often they physically enter the building in winter, whether they’d know where the shut-off is, and whether they’re authorized to let a plumber in without reaching you first. Sorting that out in September is worth a great deal in February.
A low-temperature alarm or a smart thermostat with an offline alert, in any building you leave heated and unoccupied. Around forty dollars. It is, dollar for dollar, the single best protection available to a Lakes Region homeowner, and it’s not something any of the trades above will think to suggest.
We deliberately don’t list specific businesses here yet — a recommendation is only worth something if it’s based on actual work together. If you run one of these services in the Lakes Region and would like to be considered, get in touch.
Describe the problem. If it’s not a plumbing job we’ll tell you that and point you at the right trade — it costs us nothing and it saves you a wasted visit.
Describe what’s happening and where the property is. We’ll come back with a straight answer on what it likely is, what it should cost, and when we can be there. If it’s an emergency, say so in the first line.
We reply to every request within 2 business hours.
