Plumbing and Heating Engineers: What to Look For
Finding reliable and highly-skilled plumbing and heating engineers is becoming increasingly difficult. With more gravitating toward self-employment and the resources available to learn from being at an all-time high, there seems to be an oversaturation of sole traders and labourers. With this oversaturation comes an influx of disingenuous and opportunistic “engineers”, looking to take advantage.
This post will give you a few tips and tricks to distinguish scam artists from genuine articles, so you can confidently hire a tradesperson to fix your plumbing and heating.
Ask for their accreditations
A fully-qualified plumbing and heating engineer will always be registered with at least one formal examination board. Legitimate tradespeople will be approved by organisations such as Oftec, SAFEcontractor, and DBS. And those completing gas work must be registered on the Gas Safe register. The Gas Safe engineer check certifies that any work is conducted legally by a legitimate engineer. The Gas Safe engineer check also allows the public to raise concerns about any suspicious tradesperson or businesses to prevent someone from falling victim to their botched practices.
Inquire about insurance
Sometimes, accidents happen. Often these accidents are at no fault of anyone, especially if you hire an experienced and well-reviewed plumbing and heating engineer. But regardless of the cause of the accident, you should inquire about the insurance your engineer has. You will grant yourself assurance by asking this question, and legitimate businesses are always happy to share their insurance status and the amount they’re insured for.
Find out their availability
Before you choose an engineer, you should find out their availability. You may find that as well as larger planned projects, you have sudden and unexpected pipe bursts or broken boilers. By discovering the availability of your plumbing and heating engineer before inquiring, and whether they offer emergency services, you can rest assured that the company you choose will be available at any time of the day. Or you will realise that they only offer services from 9-5, and decide against them.
Discover where they’re based
It is always beneficial for your tradespeople to be based locally, as they will reach you far quicker than those situated several towns away. Local plumbing and heating engineers are not only more cost-effective than larger companies, but they can provide you with a more personal and friendly approach than national repair corporations while also being able to get to you faster.
Check their reviews
Reviews are one of the most reliable indicators of the legitimacy of a company. Reviews are submitted by real customers and provide insight into the first-hand experience of working with the company, so it is vital to consider the perspective of the public. However, reviews can sometimes be disingenuous. So it is important to take each negative review with a grain of salt, consider the company’s story, and analyse the ratio of good reviews to bad.
GK Plumbing
These tips are vital to ensure you hire a reliable, genuine, and hard-working plumbing and heating engineer. These are also traits that we at GK Plumbing pride ourselves on. If you’re looking for commercial heating engineers near you or need your air conditioner and bathroom sorted out, look no further than GK Plumbing. We cover areas across Aylesbury, Milton Keynes, and Oxford and have various desirable accreditations that certify our legitimacy. We offer 24-hour emergency plumbing services and have many positive reviews from happy customers to let you know a little more about what we do. Choose GK Plumbing today!
