RICHMOND GUIDE

Questions to ask a plumber in Richmond

Write the answers down. Memory gets slippery once a wall is open.

By Mike M · Sources checked October 6, 2026 · How we write these guides

Restate the job

The useful part of hiring starts before the truck is in the alley. Ask the plumber to say the problem back in ordinary words. You want your stain, your gurgling stack, or your cold shower to come back without a new project attached. If the restatement is a repipe and you called about one supply line, stop and split the work.

Ask what happens in the first hour. On a leak, that might be finding the shutoff, confirming the fixture, and opening only the access they named. On a slow drain, it might be a test at one fixture before any machine comes inside. A clear first hour keeps an investigation from turning into demolition. Pair this list with the hiring guide, which covers the DPOR lookup itself.

Write those answers in the margin of the quote, not in your head. Have the house facts ready. Rowhouse or ranch. Basement, crawl space, or slab. City street or a Henrico, Chesterfield, or Hanover address that still says Richmond on the mail. Whether the trouble shows up only in hard rain. Those sentences steer the visit more than the brand of the faucet.

Who is licensed, and who shows up

Ask for the license holder and whether that person will be on site. Crews include apprentices. That is normal. What you want is the name responsible for the work and the number you call if the joint weeps the next morning. If the visitor is not the licensee, ask who is.

Ask whether anyone on the job is a subcontractor. The answer changes who carries insurance for the people on your stairs. Request a certificate before the day of the work, and check the date on it. This site cannot judge a policy limit. For a large opening, have someone who reads policies look, or ask your own agent what they expect to see.

Ask how they want to be paid. A deposit for a special-order tank is different from most of the price before anyone has seen the pipe. Material deposits happen. A demand for cash in full before diagnosis is a different conversation. The quote guide explains why the number moves. This list is how you get the number onto paper.

Permit, protection, and the stop rule

Ask who files, who pays the fee, and who meets an inspector if the job needs one. Ask whether your price includes that time. A permit is often a sequence: application, work left open, inspection, then close-up. If plaster has to stay open, you want that on the schedule, not as a surprise when you want the room back.

Ask what an inspector's change would do to the price. Honest contractors leave room for that talk. They do not promise a wave-through. If someone says permits are never required for water heaters, sewer openings, or repipes, treat that as a claim to verify with the locality, not as a fact. Rules depend on the scope and the address.

In a rowhouse, ask how shared stairs and the neighbor's side of a wall will be protected. Water does not respect a property line inside a party wall. Note whether the unit next door is also wet. That fact belongs in the first call, and it belongs in the written scope if the repair may cross the wall.

Exclusions, shutoffs, and the warranty

Ask for inclusions and exclusions in writing. Patch the plaster or not. Haul the old heater or not. Replace the stops or reuse them. Test the drain after the repair or leave that to you. Each sentence moves the work. The insurance notes are the separate question of what your own policy might do with a sudden break versus a slow leak.

Ask what unknown pauses the job. Common ones here include a shutoff that will not close, pipe that changes material inside the wall, a pan that was never tied to a drain, and rot once the wet plaster comes off. You should hear those before someone is standing there with a saw.

Ask how long the water will be off, and whether cooking or heat is affected. If anyone in the house depends on water for medical equipment, say that before the day is booked. Ask the warranty in plain language: which parts, how many days of labor, and what voids it. A manufacturer warranty and a labor warranty are not the same sentence.

A list you can keep by the phone

Use your own words. What do you think is failing, and what else could it be? Who is licensed, and who will be in the house? Will you send an insurance certificate? Which locality permits this address, and who pulls it? What is included, what is extra, and what makes you stop and call me? How long is the water off, and what does the warranty cover?

If you are deciding which of those tasks you could touch yourself, read the DIY limits before you buy parts. Many quick repairs become a professional visit the moment a valve crumbles or the clog is past the trap. Say what you already tried, including any chemical opener. That warning is part of job safety.

Ask for photos of concealed work before it is covered. You are building a record for yourself and for the next person who opens that wall. A plumber who does careful work usually takes those photos already. Keep the quote, the license number you looked up, and any permit paper in one folder. Courtesy and paperwork can sit in the same conversation.