How to Avoid Cowboy Plumbers: Questions to Ask Before Hiring Anyone

How to Avoid Cowboy Plumbers

Cowboy plumbers don’t normally arrive on horseback.

They don’t walk up your drive wearing a cowboy hat, swinging a spanner around and shouting “yee haw.”

They look like every other plumber.

They have a van. Tools. Work clothes. Maybe a decent website. They might even have some good reviews.

It’s normally not until you’ve employed them that you find out what you’re actually dealing with.

By then your heating is off, the house is in bits and the price appears to be going up every time they open their mouth.

Which is why trying to spot a cowboy plumber by looking at them isn’t really the answer.

You need to ask questions.

Good questions.

Questions that somebody competent can answer clearly, and somebody who is winging it will struggle with.

Quick answer: How do you avoid cowboy plumbers?

To avoid cowboy plumbers, ask exactly what is included, what is excluded, whether the price is fixed or estimated, how long the work will take and whether they have completed similar work before.

Read the actual quote. Not just the price.

Look at relevant reviews, ask why work is being recommended and listen carefully to how they answer.

A good plumber will explain their reasoning.

A cowboy will often give you a vague answer, a half truth or become defensive because you’ve asked a perfectly sensible question.

The biggest warning sign

If something sounds too good to be true, it normally is.

That doesn’t automatically mean the cheapest plumber is a cowboy.

It also doesn’t mean the most expensive plumber is any good.

But if one quote is dramatically cheaper than everybody else, you need to understand why.

Has something been missed?

Are cheaper materials being used?

Have they allowed enough time?

Are they planning to clean the heating system properly?

Are they actually quoting for the same job?

Or have they given you a lovely cheap price to get through the door, knowing full well they can start chucking extras on once your boiler is off the wall and your house is in bits?

That happens.

A lot.

“Oh, I didn’t allow for that.”

“That wasn’t included.”

“We couldn’t have known about this.”

“That’s going to be extra.”

Sometimes extra work is completely genuine.

Buildings hide problems. Floors get lifted and rotten pipework appears. Walls get opened and you find something that nobody could realistically have known was there.

That is different.

The problem starts when the original quote contains virtually no information. It gives the plumber plenty of room to claim that almost everything was excluded.

Nightmare.

Look carefully at the quote

A decent quote should tell you what is included.

It should also tell you what isn’t included.

That matters just as much.

Some quotes are basically one sentence and a price.

Supply and fit new boiler: £3,000.

Wonderful.

What boiler?

What controls?

Are they cleaning the heating system?

Are they testing the heating water?

Is a magnetic filter included?

Does the gas pipe need upgrading?

Are they removing the rubbish?

Are they registering the installation where required?

What happens if the existing system is filthy?

What warranty are you getting?

You shouldn’t need a degree in contract law to understand a plumbing quote.

But there should be enough detail that everybody knows what has actually been agreed.

Vague quote in.

Arguments and extras out.

Quote warning signs

What you seeWhy it mattersOne sentence and a priceThere is no clear record of what has actually been includedNo product names or specificationsCheaper or different products may be supplied laterNo mention of preparation or testingImportant work may simply be skippedNo exclusionsAlmost anything could later be called an extraNo expected timescaleYour job could be fitted around several other jobsNo payment scheduleYou may suddenly be asked for far more money than expectedNo warranty informationYou may not know who is responsible if something failsPressure to accept immediatelyThey may not want you comparing the quote properly

One of these on its own does not prove somebody is a cowboy.

It’s the pattern you’re looking for.

Is it a fixed price or an estimate?

Ask this directly.

Is this a fixed price, or is it an estimate?

They are not the same thing.

A fixed price means that, based on the agreed work, that is what you should expect to pay.

An estimate is an educated guess. The final amount may change.

There is nothing automatically wrong with an estimate.

Some repair and diagnostic work is difficult to price before the fault has been properly exposed. Anyone who says they can guarantee the cost of every unknown fault before looking at it is probably guessing.

But you need to know which one you’re accepting.

You don’t want to agree to what you thought was a fixed £2,000 job, only to discover it was apparently a vague starting point and the final invoice is now heading towards £3,500.

Questions to ask a plumber before hiring them

These questions matter more than trying to judge somebody by their van, clothes or how confidently they walk into your kitchen.

1. What exactly is included?

Get them to talk you through the work.

Not just the headline item.

What are they actually going to do from start to finish?

2. What isn’t included?

This is one of the best questions you can ask.

It forces everyone to discuss the grey areas before the work begins.

3. Is the price fixed or estimated?

Don’t assume.

Ask.

4. What could make the price increase?

A good plumber should be able to explain the realistic unknowns.

That is very different from leaving everything vague so it can become an extra later.

5. How long should the work take?

And are they expecting to complete it in one continuous visit?

You don’t want your house treated like a hospital job.

They turn up for half a day. Disappear onto another job. Come back next Thursday. Vanish again because something “urgent” has come in.

Meanwhile, your heating is off and half the contents of your airing cupboard are spread across the landing.

Sometimes jobs genuinely overrun.

Sometimes parts are required.

Sometimes something unexpected happens.

But there should be a plan.

6. Have you done this type of work before?

For a tap change, you probably don’t need to demand a portfolio and three written references.

For a £10,000 bathroom or a major heating conversion, asking about similar work is perfectly reasonable.

7. Can I see previous examples?

Ask to see photographs.

Look for work similar to the work you’re actually buying.

Someone being good at boiler servicing does not automatically mean they can create a complicated high specification bathroom.

Different job.

Different skill set.

8. Can I speak to a previous customer?

This is more relevant when you are spending a large amount of money.

Failing that, look through their Google reviews.

Not just the five star score.

Read what people actually say.

9. What checks and tests will you carry out?

This is an important question.

Anybody can say they are going to install something.

The checks before and after are what tell you whether it has been installed properly.

10. Why are you recommending this?

Don’t just ask what they want to do.

Ask why.

A good plumber should be able to explain their reasoning in normal language.

Good answers compared with cowboy answers

Your questionA useful answerA warning signIs the heating system clean?“I need to test the water before I can answer that properly.”“It’ll be fine.”Does the gas pipe need upgrading?“We need to calculate and test it under the correct conditions.”“Nah, it always works.”What is included?A clear explanation of products, labour, testing and finishing“Everything you need.”How long will it take?A realistic plan with possible causes of delay“As long as it takes.”Have you done this before?Relevant examples, reviews or referencesAvoids answering or changes the subjectWhat happens if something goes wrong?A clear aftercare process“It won’t go wrong.”

“I don’t know yet, I need to test it” can be a very good answer.

It is often far better than somebody confidently making something up.

Cowboy plumbers often use half truths

The most convincing lies are normally wrapped around something that is partially true.

That is what makes them believable.

For example, you might ask:

“Are you going to clean my heating system?”

They say:

“It doesn’t need cleaning unless it fails the relevant water quality standard.”

That could be true.

But what they don’t say is that they need to test the heating water to know whether it passes in the first place.

If they haven’t tested it, how have they decided it’s fine?

They haven’t.

They’ve guessed.

Or they say:

“It’s not in the manufacturer’s instructions.”

They’re relying on the fact that you probably aren’t going to sit down that evening and read an entire boiler installation manual.

Same with gas pipes.

You ask if the existing gas pipe is large enough.

They tell you:

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

Fine under what conditions?

Has it been properly calculated and tested?

Does it only just scrape through while the boiler is running on its own?

What happens when the hob and other appliances are being used?

They normally won’t explain any of that.

Like any good lie, it is encased in enough truth to sound convincing.

Ask how they know

This is one of the simplest ways to expose nonsense.

When somebody tells you something is fine, ask:

“How do you know?”

Not in an aggressive way.

You don’t need to interrogate them under a desk lamp.

Just ask them to explain it.

How do you know the heating water is clean?

How do you know the boiler is correctly sized?

How do you know the gas pipe is suitable?

How do you know the fault is definitely the part you want to replace?

A competent plumber should have a process.

Inspection.

Testing.

Results.

Recommendation.

Not guess.

Confidence.

Invoice.

Cheap does not always mean cowboy

Let’s be fair.

Some good plumbers are cheap because their overheads are low.

Some expensive plumbers are useless.

Price on its own proves very little.

The worst combination is not necessarily somebody doing a rough job cheaply.

At least with that, although it’s still not good, you may think:

I got what I paid for.

The worst combination is somebody charging premium money and delivering terrible work.

If someone charges a lot but the communication is brilliant, the materials are good, the job is immaculate and everything works properly, you might still think:

Blimey. That was expensive.

But you can see the value.

The work is amazing.

The result is right.

They did what they said they would do.

Doing a bad job is one thing.

Doing a bad job and charging an extortionate amount of money for it is something else entirely.

That is not right.

A real job we attended

We recently attended a property where the downstairs radiators weren’t working at all.

The upstairs radiators were only partially heating.

The boiler itself had previously been replaced, but very little attention had been given to the heating system around it.

The automatic bypass was in the wrong position, so it wasn’t properly protecting the boiler.

The magnetic filter was in the wrong place, so that wasn’t properly protecting the boiler either.

The pump installation was incorrect.

The gas pipe was undersized.

Some of the problems were historical.

But the previous company had gone in, completed a very straightforward boiler change and made virtually no effort to assess or improve the installation around it.

They had charged the customer around £4,500.

At the time, the actual boiler change was probably worth around £2,500. Perhaps a bit more depending on exactly what was included.

The problem wasn’t simply that the price was high.

It was the complete lack of value.

They made no real effort.

Changing the boiler itself is often the easy bit.

Making sure the boiler works properly with the gas supply, controls, radiators, pump, bypass, filter and existing pipework is where the actual job is.

A heating system is a system.

The clue is in the name.

Problems we repeatedly find

When we inspect poor installations around Weston super Mare, Clevedon, Portishead, Nailsea, Bristol and the wider North Somerset area, it is rarely one isolated fault.

It is normally a series of shortcuts.

We’ve seen:

• Flues left unsealed
• Flues installed too close to opening windows
• Undersized gas pipes
• Missing thermostatic radiator valves
• Room thermostats left loose instead of mounted
• No working room thermostat at all
• No inhibitor added to the heating water
• Absolutely filthy heating systems
• Boilers that are incorrectly sized
• Filters installed in the wrong position
• Pumps fitted the wrong way round
• Pumps installed in the wrong orientation
• Pipework connected incorrectly
• Customers charged twice what the work was realistically worth

A pump even has a correct orientation.

Believe it or not.

The electrical section should not simply be placed underneath where a leak could potentially reach it and short the pump out.

These are not mysterious ideas.

They’re basic installation details.

One shortcut might not seem disastrous.

But proper workmanship is hundreds of small decisions made correctly.

Cowboys save time by skipping those small things.

Unfortunately those little things are normally what come back to bite you later.

Why do cowboy plumbers exist?

I think there are two fundamental reasons.

The first is that the person in question is, frankly, a massive arsehole.

They don’t care.

They want to get in, get paid and get out.

The customer, the property and the long term result are somebody else’s problem.

The second group probably didn’t plan to become cowboys.

They walked into business completely blindfolded.

They didn’t understand their prices.

They didn’t understand their costs.

They became frightened of losing work, so they priced jobs too cheaply.

Then they had to rush.

Then they started skipping steps.

Then those shortcuts became habits.

They kept getting away with it, so they kept doing it.

Over time, a series of poor decisions became their normal way of working.

It is fear and greed.

Fear of not getting enough work.

Fear of telling customers the real price.

Fear of losing the job.

Then greed when they realise they can charge more while continuing to do less.

I don’t think most of them originally intended to go down that path.

I think it was born from what they saw as necessity.

It becomes a psychological issue.

A series of really shitty habits that build up and eventually become a series of poor behaviours.

They walked into business blindfolded and somehow survived long enough to fuck your job up.

Common mistakes homeowners make

Homeowners normally get caught out because they focus on the wrong things.

Choosing only by price

Price matters.

Of course it does.

But it shouldn’t be the only thing you understand about the quote.

Comparing different jobs as though they are identical

One plumber may have included cleaning, controls, filters, testing, rubbish removal and proper commissioning.

Another may have included the boiler.

That’s it.

Those are not the same quote.

Accepting a vague description

The less detail you agree before the job, the more arguments you may have during it.

Being frightened to ask questions

You are not being difficult.

You are spending your own money.

Ask.

Assuming a confident answer is a correct answer

Some people are brilliant at sounding certain.

That doesn’t mean they’ve tested anything.

Looking only at the star rating

Read the actual reviews.

A five star rating based on six reviews tells you less than years of detailed feedback across different jobs.

Paying everything before the work is complete

Larger jobs may need deposits and staged payments.

That can be completely reasonable.

But the payment terms should be clear before the job starts.

Ignoring how they communicate before the job

If communication is painful before you have paid them, it probably won’t magically improve once your house is in pieces.

What does a good plumber do differently?

A good plumber listens.

They know how to ask questions.

They don’t just walk into your house, glance at the boiler and immediately announce that you need a new one.

They want to understand what has been happening.

When did the problem start?

Is it constant?

Is it intermittent?

Has anything recently changed?

What does the system do when the fault occurs?

Good diagnostics normally starts with good questions.

A good plumber will also have a strict set of rules for how they carry out their work.

They follow a process.

Almost autistically so.

They don’t decide to skip part of the commissioning because it’s nearly five o’clock.

They don’t leave the system dirty because flushing it is a pain.

They don’t ignore a slightly undersized gas pipe because the boiler technically fired up.

There is a standard.

They stick to it.

A good plumber should explain things

A good plumber should be willing to explain what they are doing, even if it bores the piss out of you.

Not everybody wants every technical detail.

That’s fine.

But you should have the opportunity to understand.

And good explanations don’t need to be painfully technical.

Instead of saying:

“This is an electrolytic scale inhibitor designed to reduce limescale precipitation.”

You could say:

“You know the limescale you have to scrub off your taps? This little thing helps stop that sort of build up happening inside the appliance.”

Now it relates to a problem the customer already understands.

People can follow that.

They might even find it slightly entertaining.

That is communication.

Not trying to sound clever.

Not burying somebody under jargon.

Just helping them understand what they’re paying for and why it matters.

Honest plumbers build reputations slowly

You don’t become known as an honest plumber because you told the truth once.

You become known as an honest plumber because you have been telling the truth for years.

That includes telling customers when they don’t need something.

It includes admitting when you don’t know.

It includes explaining when a job has changed.

It includes putting things right when you make a mistake.

Because every plumber makes mistakes.

Every business does.

The difference is what happens next.

Check reviews, but actually read them

Reviews are useful.

Don’t just look at the number beside the stars.

Read what people have written.

Look for patterns.

Do customers repeatedly mention:

• Clear communication
• Turning up when agreed
• Clean and tidy work
• Detailed explanations
• Problems being resolved properly
• Quotes matching final invoices
• Good aftercare
• Reliability

Look at reviews for the type of job you are planning.

A review saying someone repaired a leaking toilet brilliantly does not prove they can manage a complicated bathroom renovation.

Also look at how the company responds when somebody complains.

Every business will eventually have an unhappy customer.

Sometimes the complaint is fair.

Sometimes it isn’t.

What matters is how the business handles it.

Do they respond professionally?

Do they explain what happened?

Do they try to resolve it?

Or do they immediately blame the customer and start a public argument in the Google reviews?

That tells you quite alot.

Ask for proof where it matters

For gas work, confirm that the person is properly registered and qualified for the work they are carrying out.

For larger projects, ask to see previous examples.

Ask whether the work will be registered or notified where required.

Ask what paperwork you’ll receive.

Ask about warranties.

Ask who you contact if something goes wrong afterwards.

Ask who is actually completing the work.

The person who surveys and sells the job may not be the person who arrives to install it.

That is not automatically a problem.

But you are allowed to know.

The larger the job, the more important this becomes.

You’re not being difficult.

You’re spending your own money.

You are allowed to ask where it’s going.

Our professional recommendation

Get more than one quote for larger work.

But compare the actual work, not just the number at the bottom.

Put the quotes next to each other.

Look at what is included.

Look at what is excluded.

Look at the products.

Look at the timescale.

Look at the testing.

Look at the warranty and aftercare.

Then speak to the plumber.

A quote can look detailed and still contain nonsense.

The conversation matters.

The best plumber is not necessarily the cheapest.

They are not necessarily the most expensive either.

Choose the person who appears to understand your job, asks sensible questions, explains their reasoning and gives you enough information to make a proper decision.

Cowboy plumber checklist

Before hiring a plumber, ask:

• What exactly is included?
• What is excluded?
• Is this a fixed price or an estimate?
• What could cause the cost to increase?
• How long should the work take?
• Will it be completed in one continuous visit?
• Have you done this type of work before?
• Can I see examples or relevant reviews?
• Who will actually complete the work?
• What checks and tests will be carried out?
• What products are being supplied?
• What paperwork and warranties will I receive?
• Who do I contact if there is a problem afterwards?
• Can you explain why you are recommending this work?

Listen carefully to the answers.

You are looking for honesty, clarity and a logical process.

Wishy washy answers, pressure tactics, vague quotes and constant avoidance are warning signs.

Final thought

You probably won’t spot a cowboy plumber from their clothes, van or website.

They look like every other plumber.

The difference is in their answers.

Ask what is included.

Ask what isn’t.

Ask why.

Ask how they know.

Ask what happens if something goes wrong.

A good plumber will normally welcome those questions.

A cowboy may avoid them, become defensive or give you an answer that sounds convincing but doesn’t really tell you anything.

Don’t hire somebody purely because they’re cheap.

Don’t hire somebody purely because they’re expensive either.

Hire the person who listens, explains what they’re doing and can clearly show you where the value is.

That is how to avoid cowboy plumbers.

Need a plumber who will actually explain things?

Kesselmann Heating & Plumbing provides plumbing, boiler and heating services across Weston super Mare, Clevedon, Portishead, Nailsea, Bristol and the surrounding North Somerset areas.

We provide clear quotations.

We explain what is included and what isn’t.

We’ll tell you what we’ve found, what we recommend and why.

Because you shouldn’t have to become a plumber just to avoid getting stitched up.

Contact Kesselmann Heating & Plumbing to discuss your job or arrange an inspection.