What we fix
Six jobs, every one found with a gauge
We diagnose before we quote. Each job below starts with a reading, and the reading goes on your work order.
Pressure checks
A gauge on your hose bib, a quiet reading and a running reading, and a look at the main valve. The visit fee is told on the phone first.
How a check goesPressure-reducing valves
Replace a worn valve or install one where the street runs high. We set it, read the house again and write both numbers down.
High pressureBooster pumps
For houses above the main. We tell you first if a valve or a pipe would do, and size the pump to the house if it won't.
Low pressureExpansion tanks and relief valves
A closed system needs somewhere for heated water to go. We check the tank's air charge and the relief valve, and replace what is spent.
Hot waterHot-water diagnostics
Lukewarm, runs out fast, rumbles, runs too hot or drips at the relief valve. We find the cause before we price a new heater.
Hot waterRestricted pipes and valves
Rusted galvanized lines, stuck gate valves and clogged strainers. We find where the pressure is lost and what opening it up would take.
How pricing works
Older neighborhoods
Houses from the 1940s to the 1960s lose pressure inside the walls
Galvanized steel pipe rusts from the inside, a little more every year. The street can be giving your house 60 psi and a tap still runs like 20.
A running reading against a quiet reading shows it: a big drop when a tap opens means something between the meter and the fixture is narrowing. We find the point on the line, and we tell you what replacing it involves before you decide.
Pressure read at two points on the line
Wall repair priced separately, in writing
No work until you have the number
How we price a job
What decides the price
Whether the cause is a valve, a pump, a pipe or the water heater. How far the work is from the meter and how hard it is to reach, such as a crawl space or a finished wall. Whether the work needs a permit. And what the house needs, such as a booster pump for a home above the street main.
What the estimate includes, and what it doesn't
It includes labor, parts, permit fees and hauling away what we take out. It leaves out opening and repairing walls, drywall, tile and paint, and anything behind a wall we can't see until it is open.
What happens at the visit
A technician puts a gauge on your hose bib and reads the pressure with the house quiet and with taps running. Then the technician checks the main valve, the pressure-reducing valve and the water heater, and writes every reading on your work order. We give you the visit fee on the phone, before anyone drives out.
After hours
We take calls Monday through Saturday, in the hours shown on this page. We don't have an after-hours rate because we don't take after-hours calls. If water is spraying, shut the main valve and call us when the office opens.
When you get the number
In writing, after the diagnosis and before any work starts. It is the price for that job. If something else turns up behind a wall, we stop and give you a new number before we go on.
Every number we give is for your house. We don't post prices because a pressure problem can be a ten-minute valve or a new pump.
Want the reading for your house?
Book a pressure check and we put a gauge on first.