Hiring
How to choose a plumber
What to check before you hire, where each check is done, and the warning signs that call for a second quote.
Find a Local Plumber What it costs
Written by HyrePlumber Research Desk Primary-source research and fact checking
The short answer
Look up the plumber’s license yourself on your state’s register, by number, and confirm it is active and covers your job.
Ask the insurer, not the plumber, to send the liability and workers’ compensation certificates.
Then get a written scope, the permit plan, a rule for approving changes and both warranties, parts and labor, before you compare prices.
What protects you when you hire a plumber?
HyrePlumber checks no plumber and publishes no rankings, reviews or badges. The state register and the insurer are the sources that count.
A trading name can look like a licensed company without being it.
Two prices for “fix the leak” describe different work until both plumbers quote the same written scope.
Find a local plumber, then run these checks
Free, with no obligation. A person at HyrePlumber replies by email. Matching with plumbing companies is not live yet.
How do you check a plumber’s license?
There is no national plumbing license or register in the US. Each state sets its own rules, and some leave plumbing licensing to cities or counties.
Search your state name plus “plumbing license lookup”, and use the result on a state government site. It can be a plumbing board, a contractors board, a labor department or the local building department.
Ask the plumber for the license number and search that, not the business name.
Expired, suspended, revoked and lapsed licenses all appear on these registers.
Gas, backflow and sewer work can need separate endorsements. The gas line page explains why gas matters most.
Where the register publishes complaints or disciplinary actions, read them. Nobody selling to you controls that record.
If the license belongs to a person, ask how that person is connected to the company you are hiring.
Which insurance covers what?
Two different policies, and you want to see both.
| Policy | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| General liability | Covers damage the plumber causes to your house. On a plumbing job, that is mostly water damage. |
| Workers’ compensation | Covers the plumber’s employees if they are hurt on the job. Without it, an injury in your house can end up as a claim on your homeowners policy. |
| The certificate | Ask the insurer or agent to send it to you. Check that the named insured matches your contract, the dates cover the job, and both policies are listed. |
A plumber working alone with no employees may carry no workers’ compensation. Then ask who else will be on site.
In what order should you hire?
What you see, where, since when, with photos. Send every plumber the same description.
On the state register and from the insurer, before anyone visits.
A written finding you can show another plumber. It matters most for hidden leaks and sewer lines.
The finding, the work, the materials, the exclusions, the permit and the payment schedule.
Same scope, same photos, same access notes. How plumbing is priced explains hourly and flat-rate quotes.
How extra work is approved, and both warranties, before you sign.
Parts warranty or labor warranty?
Two promises from two parties, with two different lengths. Ask for both in writing.
| Warranty | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Parts (the manufacturer) | The component: a tank, a cartridge, a pump, a valve. It pays for a replacement part, not the labor to fit it. |
| Labor (the plumber) | The workmanship. Its length is set by the plumber, so get it written on the contract. |
| The gap between them | A tank replaced under its parts warranty after the labor warranty ends can still leave you paying to have it fitted. |
Ask one more question of both: who do I call when something fails?
What belongs in the written scope?
Plumbing is hidden once the wall or floor closes. What is not written down cannot be checked or held to later.
In words, with where it is.
What will be removed, installed and connected.
The pipe material and fittings, and where each is used. Fixtures and water heaters by make and model.
What is not included, such as patching drywall or tile.
Whether one is needed, who pulls it, and whether the fee is in the price.
How long the job takes, and payments tied to finished stages.
A license you did not look up is a claim, not a check.
A number on a van, a card or a website tells you nothing until you have searched it on the state register yourself. It takes a few minutes, and it is the one check nobody else can do for you.
What to ask before you sign
Then search it yourself.
Your employees, or a subcontractor? Check theirs too.
Both policies, current dates.
An owner-pulled permit can make you responsible for the work passing inspection.
In writing, before work continues.
Tied to finished stages, not paid up front.
In writing, separate from the parts warranty.
When the permit closes.
Which references are worth checking?
A list of happy customers from the company tests nothing. Ask for someone who had your job done at least a year back.
Ask that customer whether the problem returned.
How a plumber behaves after being paid is what you are buying.
Complaints and actions on the license record are not written by anyone selling to you.
Which warning signs call for another quote?
A discount that ends with the visit exists to stop a second opinion. A fair price is still fair on Thursday.
A phone quote for a leak nobody has looked at is a guess, and it moves once someone arrives.
Tie payments to finished stages, and pay in a way that leaves a record.
Nothing to compare, nothing to hold anyone to, and nothing to base a warranty claim on.
A license is public. A plumber who holds one can give you the number on the spot.
A price given without a camera or a look at the pipes is a number waiting to be revised. See repiping.
Your inquiry
Tell us about the plumbing
Nothing goes to a plumbing company unless you agree.
A person reads it and replies by email, free and with no obligation. Matching is not live yet, so this is not a quote or a dispatch line. Water running? Shut off the main. Smell gas? Leave, then call 911 or the gas utility.
Find a Local Plumber
Three short steps: the problem, your home, and how to reach you. A person at HyrePlumber reads it and replies.
Questions
How do I check that a plumber is licensed?
Does HyrePlumber check or vet plumbers?
Why does workers’ compensation matter to me?
What is the difference between a parts and a labor warranty?
Who should pull the plumbing permit?
How many plumbing quotes should I get?
Written and audited by
HyrePlumber Research Desk
Primary-source research and fact checking
We are a research desk, not a plumbing company. We read the plumbing code, the federal agency page or the manufacturer standard ourselves, and we publish the rule with the document it came from and the date we read it.
Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we publish the shorter page and say what we could not verify. The counts below are taken from the pages on this site.
- 32
- source documents linked from these pages
- 10
- government (.gov) domains among them
- 0
- national average prices published without a source
- 0
- plumbing jobs we perform
How this desk works
- Primary sources only. A code rule comes from the code, a safety rule from the agency that issued it, and a product limit from the standard or the manufacturer. We do not cite an article that cites a source.
- Every figure carries its retrieval date. Codes are amended and agency pages change. A number without the date it was read cannot be checked.
- Fact, calculation and advice stay labeled. A quote is a quote, a HyrePlumber calculation says so, and a recommendation is marked as ours.
- Safety before repairs. Gas, scalding water, electricity near water and sewage come first on every page where they apply. We explain what a repair involves; we do not tell you to work on a gas line.
- We do not repair, install or inspect plumbing, and we take no payment for placement, ranking or a favorable mention.
Authorship on this site is organizational: the analysis belongs to the desk rather than to a named individual, and we do not publish credentials we do not hold. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, date and correct what we publish.
Information on this page is general and may vary by location, local plumbing code, your home and your own circumstances. It is not legal or engineering advice.
HyrePlumber is not a plumbing company: we do not repair, install or inspect plumbing, and we do not supervise or warrant plumbing work.
This page explains the work so you can judge a quote and a plumber.