good morning everybody I am Roger Wakefield the expert plumber coming to
you live this morning to talk to you about 10 things you need to know about
plumbers so I'm gonna tell you things that you really need to know number one
why don't we need plumbers plumbers are actually trained in sewer water gas
fixture repair blueprint reading blueprint drawing rigging lifting tons
of things that plumbers are trained in depending on what kind of training
they've got where they come from what it is that you know what what kind of
things they get depending on what kind of plumber they become depending on if
they're a commercial plumber a residential plumber repair plumber a new
construction plumber we learn different things but why do we need them it goes
back to the thing that you know Norman Rockwell drew American Standard has the
poster of the rights to it the plumber protects the health of the nation and
guys that is so true I have seen jobs done by handyman that scare me it's like
okay somebody could die here and guys it really can be that bad plumbers are
trained and have licenses to do a job now not in every state I'm from Texas so
all I can tell you about is what we do and I'll tell you what having a plumber
or knowing that that person is licensed and trained and can protect the health
of my family to me that that's a big deal so why do we need plumbers to keep
handy men out of our house to keep handy man out of the water system that that
we're drinking that we're cooking with that we're doing everything with number
two what does a plumber work on pretty much if it has water sewer or gas a
plumber works on it most people say well a plumber doesn't work on the furnace
that's HVAC yes it is but if you have a gas leak going to that furnace a plumber
is gonna be the person that you want to call to come out detect that leak
exactly can make that repair that way you don't have any problems
number three why are plumbers so expensive guys I tell you what plumbers in Texas
have to have eight thousand hours of training the the van that they pull up
in or the toolbox they carry on guys we've got thousands of dollars worth of
tools sometimes it's tens to 20 I've seen some
plumbing vans that have almost fifty thousand dollars worth of tools on
cameras sewer machines leak detection equipment you know we've spent so much
money in leak detection equipment and cameras that it would really surprise a
lot of people to know that we have that much stuff on our trucks or and it's not
every trucks and some of it we keep here at the shop in a lock room that way we
can take it out as we need it we don't want that high dollar equipment bouncing
around the back of somebody's truck just to get it over to a house that we may
not even need it at are plumbers in the man in the United States okay in the
United States there's five hundred fifty five thousand plumbers okay there's
three hundred and twenty-five million people that is five hundred and eighty
six people for every plumber in the United States guys plumbers are in the
man if if you know a young man that maybe was in FFA maybe he was on a
football team or a basketball team or something like that he's a team player a
hard worker a go-getter but maybe he's not going to college
you know what talk to him about becoming a plumber introduce him to me introduce
him to my youtube channel let him communicate with me and I'll
talk to him about it guys I recruit for the plumbing trade every day it's been
an amazing trade for me it's been a good career and I've actually done very well
with my life and considering where I started out that surprised a lot of
people number five what plumbers don't like to tell homeowners guys plumbers
hate telling homeowners that the cost is going to be expensive you know we have
feelings just like y'all we care just like y'all most plumbers don't get paid
Commission so they just want to make a living they're not worried about selling
you stuff you don't need so to go into somebody's house and say we're doing a
leak detection and we realize there's a slab leak and we realize that it's gonna
cost a lot of money guys this is not what plumbers like telling people
I've got plumbers that when they call me like oh my god Roger these people can't
afford this I don't know what to do you know at the end of the day we got to
tell you what the problem is and we've got to tell you how much it is luckily
we have financing or we have ways to help people but guys plumbers just hate
telling you look you've got a big problem here the other one is that we
hate going to a house and having to tell somebody
look the plumber before us screwed you over and guys I hate to say it but it
happens often we've got calls from people that said you know a plumber
charged them to do a complete repipe on their house that never happened they may have made
two or three repairs we've got calls that have said you know the plumber says
that I need a new gas line out here and they don't guys all plumbers out there
aren't honest now don't get me wrong I think there are some great plumbers in
this trade I have met some wonderful plumbers throughout my career I think
that I happen to have learned from some of the best plumbers that I've ever met
that they have heart they want to do things right they care for people but
they also want to excel at the plumbing trade and do good at it and luckily I
learned a lot of good things from them and then I went on and continued to
learn more so how do plumbers do their job well let's talk about like our
plumbers we're a residential service company so plumbers show up here at the
office we meet in the morning we talk then they start getting things ready to
head to the job when they arrive they evaluate your system they check to find
out what's wrong they they want to see if they can find out what caused that
problem so then once they understand the issue hopefully they're talking to you
explaining it to you and hopefully they're giving you options normally
there's more than one way to fix a problem so hopefully the plumber that
you use the plumber that you hire gives you options unless you determine what
kind of investment you want to make on your house to take care of that problem
so once you pick the options the plumber will figure out how to get the
work done and he'll get it done once the job is complete he'll close it out he'll
he'll get on either closeout an invoice with you or close it out with paper
invoices our plumbers we take before-and-after pictures we want to
attach them to it and then we want to check with you make sure everything's
good we want to make sure that we exceeded your expectations hopefully
you'll be happy enough that you'll want to go online give us a review tell
people how good that we did if not you know what some people don't do that and
we understand that so then before the plumber leaves your house he's gonna go
out he's gonna order any materials that he may have taken off his van to do your
job and then he's gonna call the office talk to dispatch find out where he needs
to go next so things don't always happen this way hopefully they do sometimes
they do sometimes they don't we're still working on our systems and processes but
that's pretty much how things go number seven
why plumbers hate Drano guys any commercial drain cleaning like that that
says it'll clean your drain out guys it uses acid it uses chemicals that are
dangerous for you and can be dangerous for your plumbing system if if the the
lining inside your cast iron pipe is eroded away and you put acid on it
eventually that's gonna start eating at the iron or steel or whatever is in
there and guys that's gonna leave the holes that's gonna lead to bigger
problems later there are products that you can put in your drainage system and
do well with we just these commercial grade ones if they have an acid in them
guys they're not good the other problem is say you pour it in a toilet or a
lavatory or a kitchen sink or something trying to get it to you know eat the
drain up when it doesn't and you have to call a plumber please let him know cuz
you're putting that plumber in a dangerous situation if he puts his hands
in there or maybe he moves stuff around trying to plunge it or take things apart
anything splashes into his eye you can cause a plumber to go blind but remember
guys if he can you can so take care of yourself and think about what you're
putting in here is it all natural is it good and is it going to be okay
number eight how do plumbers find leaks well let's just talk about slab
leaks slab leaks for in particular if you've got water lines and a water leak
under there you go through first and you identify where the lines are and then
you listen for them for sewer lines once you determine if there is a leak you
start using cameras test balls and water to fill up different areas of the system
to determine exactly where the leak is every now and then you'll find the house
that maybe the whole thing needs to be replaced it's not very often but it does
happen on a gas line you use pressure gauges you stick a pressure gauge on if
there's a manifold system and you can isolate different areas put a pressure
gauge on and see which areas dropping then search out that line a lot of times
if people had roof work done the nail coming through the deck can hit and
Pierce that see SST gas line if that's what you have and that can be a leak
that maybe it didn't show up right immediately because you didn't smell it
maybe the nail stuck in it so it didn't let out a lot of gas and it maybe over
time it vibrated or a rainstorm came shook the roof and now the gas lines
separated off that nail now you can smell it very strongly first thing I
recommend go outside turn the gas off to your house and call a plumber if you
don't know how to turn the gas off call the gas company they will come out turn
it off and lock it out at that point you'll have to call a plumber to find
the leak make the repair pull a permit get an inspection all that requires more
time and is gonna cost you more money what are plumbers most common tools this
is number nine so a plumbers most common tools channel locks flashlight pipe
wrench we also use sewer machines high dollar cameras that can go inside
your sewer line and see it leak detection equipment electronic and non
electronic high dollar and not very expensive some of some of the best leak
detection I've ever done what was with an eleven dollar tool and but it let me
hear and see what I needed to hear and see another big tool that most people
don't think about is that plumbing van that plumbing truck
that's a tool that helps us get our materials and tools from job to job to
job screwdrivers Allen wrenches and there are so many different things that
the plumber uses and believe it or not we've got to have all that stuff on our
truck or with us because getting into your particular faucet or valve may be
different than the house next door so we want to make sure that we've got the
right things with us and get you taken care of so number 10
what plumbers wish homeowners knew you know for me that there's two big things
number one is how to turn the water off and I've done this video for American
Standard I've done this video on a training tip but guys turning off the
water to your house can be the most important thing you teach everybody in
your family and it goes back to when I was a kid I remember coming home in
about the sixth grade I walked in the front door and turned to the right and
we had converted our garage into a living room it was sunken so I stepped
down that step and my ankles were in water don't be wrong in the sixth grade
I thought that was pretty cool so I go to the phone I call my mom and say hey
mom what don't know what's going on but there's water in the living room she
asked me to turn off the water turn off the water to the water heater didn't
even know how guys these are huge things can save you thousands of dollars these
days we're putting water heaters and I say we've luckily I hadn't done it but
I've had to change some out new builders are putting water heaters in the attics
of houses guys I think this is a stupid idea but I don't get to make that
decision I get asked all the time why do they do that because they're selling you
a house by the square foot and if that water heater is down on the ground floor
that's the square footage that they're losing so not a good thing so another
thing that the leak and knowing how to turn off the water is one know what goes
into the drain guys a garbage disposal is not a garbage disposal you don't pour
garbage in it you don't pour trash in it you don't pour anything like that in it
what you have to do is literally think about what you would
down your drain and if you look at it that way you're gonna be a little more
picky about what you put down it things not to put in your disposal cabbage rice
eggshells pasta because there's so many things that can just cause your drain to
stop up and cost you money and that's not gonna be a good thing for you
because you're gonna end up having to pay a plumber to come out and take care
of it chemicals usually don't work we've got
some that we recommend putting in your drain line once it's clean and our
chemicals all they do is dissolve Fog fats oils and gas so we don't recommend
any strong acidic drain cleaners or anything like that that they're not good
for you I don't think plumbers wish people knew
or that water heaters need a little love okay take care of your water heater
we recommend flushing a water heater at least once a year I try to flush mine
every couple of months just run five or ten gallons of hot water and I leave the
valves open I open a hook a drain hose up open the bottom of a water heater
fill up a five-gallon bucket twice pour it out in the street or the alley on
concrete so I don't kill any grass but guys look at the stuff that comes out of
it that settlement that calcium and magnesium that build up if it starts
building up on the bottom of your water heater it makes your water heater less
efficient and cost you more money so that's a big one
one thing plumbers want you to know more than anything
at least with my guys guys we're just here to help we're not here to sell you
stuff well you don't need we're not here to try and lie to you B.S. you or anything
like that and we want to look at things to make sure that we're doing what's
right people call us all the time and say look can you give me a price over
the phone you know what it's hard to do that because really we don't know what
all the problems are without getting out there and looking for it so I know that
a lot of y'all don't believe that and that's fine I've made a video before
look we're not for everybody but guys I'll tell you the truth most plumbers
are out there to do the right thing we understand your plumbing system better
than you do we want to get in here we want
help we want to help you take care of your system but we want to do that by
giving you options and letting you do what's right for you only you know that
and the only way that I can explain that to you is by checking your system out
talking to you and then giving you options guys if you like these videos
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my name is Roger Wakefield with Texas Green Plumbing American Standard named
me the expert plumber and I'm really proud of that anyway Roger Wakefield
from Texas Green Plumbing saving you money one drop at a time