- Leaks don't stand a chance.
Your Licensed Local Plumber in Gainesville, Florida
Owner-run. Flat price before we start. We find your leak or you don’t pay.
Rather text? Send a photo of the problem to 352-377-9447 and we’ll tell you what it sounds like.
Find it or you don't pay
Leak detection is $375 flat. If we can’t locate your leak, the detection is free. How we find it
to come out, waived on larger jobs
$
69
parts and labor warranty on our work
2
yr
if we can't find your leak
$
0
First Choice Plumbing is a licensed, locally owned plumber serving Gainesville, Hawthorne and Greater Alachua County, Florida. We handle leak detection, repipes, water heaters, drain clearing, sewer lining, well water filtration and septic work. A visit is $69, leak detection is $375, and we find it or you don’t pay. Call or text 352-377-9447.
- Emergency? Start here
Water where it shouldn't be? Do this first.
If water is actively running into your house right now, do these three things before you do anything else. This is free advice and it will save you money whether you call us or not.
- 1. Shut the water off at the main. On most Alachua County homes the shutoff is a valve at the front of the house near the hose bib, or a meter box at the edge of the yard toward the street. Turn it clockwise until it stops. If it is a lever, turn it a quarter turn so it sits across the pipe.
- 2. If it's near wiring or a panel, kill the breaker for that room. Water and electricity is the one part of this you don't want to be brave about.
- 3. Take pictures before you clean up. If this turns into an insurance claim, the photos you take in the first five minutes are worth more than anything you can reconstruct later. We write our leak findings up for adjusters all the time.
- Then call us. We answer around the clock for active leaks, burst pipes and no-water emergencies.
- Straight answers on price
What does a plumber cost in Gainesville?
Most plumbing sites won’t tell you. We will, because you’re going to ask anyway and we’d rather you hear it here than be surprised at your door.
It’s $69 for us to come out. That covers the trip and the diagnosis, and on larger jobs we waive it entirely. Leak detection is $375 to come out and find it, and if we can’t find it, you don’t pay for it. Everything after that is quoted flat, in writing, before anybody picks up a tool. You approve the number first. There is no hourly meter running while a guy walks back to his truck.
Why charge a service fee at all when other shops advertise free? Because a real diagnosis takes real time, and companies that give it away have to make it back somewhere, usually in the repair price. We’d rather charge a fair $69 up front and quote the work honestly.
And if the right answer is a $40 part instead of the $4,000 job, we’ll tell you that. We’ve talked people out of repipes they didn’t need yet. That costs us money today and it’s how we’ve stayed busy on word of mouth.
Need to spread it out? We offer financing through Wisetack on jobs starting around $500.
- $69service visit
- Covers the trip and the diagnosis. Waived on larger jobs. Flat price in writing before we start.
- We find it or you don't pay for the detection. Written up for your insurance adjuster.
- Meet the owner
The owner still shows up
Will Harrod started in this trade in his twenties, worked his way up, got his Florida contractor license, and bought out the partner he’d started the company with. He runs it now with Mike on service, Kim on the phones, and a crew he keeps small on purpose.
He still does the estimates himself. All of them. Not because he can’t hand it off, but because he thinks you deserve to look the owner in the eye before you spend a few thousand dollars on your house. His words: he’s not just someone collecting money behind the curtain.
That’s also why we’re not the biggest shop in Alachua County and aren’t trying to be. Big outfits get bought, get a new sticker on the truck, and get new prices. We answer our own phone. If something we did isn’t right, you call this number and the guy who owns the company comes back out.
Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor, license CFC1430748. You can look it up at myfloridalicense.com, and you should, for us and for anybody else you’re considering.
- Will Harrod, owner. FL License CFC1430748.
- Big Mike runs service and drain calls. Background checked.
- Kim answers the phone and runs dispatch.
- Local plumbing problems
What's actually going wrong in Gainesville homes
Most plumbing calls around here are not random bad luck. They’re the same handful of problems, and they track almost perfectly with when your house was built and where your water comes from. Here’s what we find, over and over.
Cast iron drains in pre-1975 homes
A lot of Gainesville grew in the 1960s and 70s, and those homes went in with cast iron drain lines. Cast iron scales up from the inside until the opening is a fraction of what it started as, then it starts backing up every few months. Snaking it punches a hole through the buildup and buys you a little time. Milling the inside clean, or lining the pipe, actually fixes it.
Polybutylene in homes built or repiped from 1978 to 1995
If your house went up in that window, there’s a real chance you have gray polybutylene supply lines. They fail at the fittings, usually without warning, usually inside a wall. If you’re not sure what you have, we’ll tell you for free when we’re out there for something else.
Slab leaks, because almost everything here is slab on grade
Florida homes sit on concrete, so a supply line under the slab has no basement to drip into. It just runs. The signs are a warm or damp spot on the floor, water pressure that dropped for no reason, the sound of water moving when everything is off, and a bill that jumped without your habits changing. GRU has a leak adjustment program for exactly this, and we’ll document what we find so you can use it.
Hard city water in town, iron and sulfur out in the county
GRU water comes out of the Floridan aquifer and runs around 8 grains per gallon, which is moderately hard. That’s what’s shortening your water heater’s life and spotting your glassware. Out past the city on a private well, it’s a different fight: iron staining, hardness, and that rotten egg smell from hydrogen sulfide. Both are fixable, and we test the water for free before anybody sells you a tank.
- Our services
What we do
Leak Detection
$375 to come out and find it. If we don’t find it, you don’t pay. We locate hidden leaks under slabs, in walls and in yards, and we write it up for your insurance adjuster.
Water Heaters
Tank and tankless, gas and electric, repaired or replaced. We install Rheem and Navien, and we flush tankless units annually with vinegar instead of chemicals.
Repipes and Pipe Repair
Copper, PEX, CPVC, cast iron, galvanized and polybutylene. And we patch every hole we cut, professionally, before we leave.
Drain Clearing
Clogged sink, tub or main line. Most clears are done in about an hour and a half.
Drain Cleaning and Descaling
Different job entirely. We run a milling machine with chains and diamond bits down the line and cut the scale off the walls until the inside of that old cast iron is smooth again.
Trenchless Pipe Lining
First Choice Plumbing, NuFlow Certified Contractor. We reline the pipe in place with epoxy, so cutting up your house is not the only way to repair a failing drain line.
Well Water Filtration and Softeners
Air injection and chlorine free systems for iron, sulfur and hardness. Free water test first, so the system matches your actual water.
Septic
Locating, new installs, drain fields, replacements and abandonments. Alachua County permits handled as part of the job.
Gas Lines, Fixtures and Farm Plumbing
Gas line runs, faucets, toilets, disposals, shower valves and pans, plus horse waterers, feeders and barn plumbing out in the county.
Running a restaurant, a salon, or an older commercial building? We do that too, and we can line the drains without shutting you down for a week. Commercial plumbing
- What to expect
What happens when you call
You talk to a person.
Kim answers, or Will does. Tell us what’s happening and roughly where you are. We batch jobs by area, so if you’re out toward Hawthorne, Melrose or Micanopy we’ll get you on the same run as your neighbors instead of making you wait a week.
We come out for $69 and find the real problem.
Not a guess from the driveway. Then you get a flat price in writing, and we explain what’s urgent, what can wait, and what you can honestly skip.
We fix it and stand behind it.
We clean up. We patch every hole we cut. Parts and labor are covered for two years, and if something isn’t right, the owner comes back out.
- Why it matters
The difference is in the details
None of this is complicated. It’s just the stuff that decides whether you’re happy in six months.
| What matters | First Choice Plumbing | A typical big-name or bought-out shop |
|---|---|---|
| Who quotes your job | The owner, on site, every time | A commissioned salesperson working off a price book |
| What it costs to come out | $69, published, waived on larger jobs | Advertised free, then built into the repair price |
| Leak detection | $375, and we find it or you don't pay | Diagnostic charged whether or not they locate it |
| Drywall after a repipe | Every hole we cut gets professionally patched | “Plumbing only,” patching is on you |
| Failing cast iron drains | Descale it or line it in place where it makes sense | Quote the full dig and replacement first |
| Warranty | 2 years parts and labor, plus manufacturer coverage | Often 30 to 90 days on labor |
| Who walks into your house | Background checked service techs you'll see again | Whoever the dispatch board assigned this week |
| Chemicals | Vinegar flushes, no harsh chemicals where we can avoid them | Whatever is fastest |
| When you call back | The owner's company. He comes back out. | A call center, a ticket number, a queue |
- FAQ
Questions we get every week
Our visit is $69, which covers the trip and the diagnosis, and we waive it on larger jobs. Leak detection is a flat $375. Everything else is quoted flat and in writing before we start, so you approve the price before any work happens.
Yes. Leak detection is $375 to come out and find it, and if we can't find it, you don't pay for the detection. That's the whole point of charging for it: we're staking the fee on getting you an answer.
Yes. First Choice Plumbing holds Florida certified plumbing contractor license CFC1430748. You can verify it yourself at myfloridalicense.com. Florida requires that number on our advertising, and any plumber who won't give you theirs is telling you something.
We answer around the clock for active leaks, burst pipes and no-water situations. If water is running into your house right now, shut off the main and call us. Routine work gets scheduled during normal business hours.
That smell is hydrogen sulfide. On a private well it usually means sulfur in the water and you need treatment. On GRU city water it is more often the water heater or a bacteria issue in the plumbing itself, and GRU's own guidance points at flushing the heater and switching the anode rod. We test the water first either way. Free water testing
Look for a warm or damp spot on the floor, water pressure that dropped for no reason, the sound of running water when everything is off, or a water bill that jumped without a change in your habits. Any one of those is worth a call. All four together is a slab leak until proven otherwise. Slab leak detection
Yes, in most cases. Florida requires a permit to replace or alter plumbing, including a water heater changeout. If your home is in unincorporated Alachua County it goes through the county building division, and if you're inside Gainesville city limits it goes through the city. We pull the permit as part of the job.
Clearing opens a clog so the line drains again, usually in about an hour and a half. Cleaning, or descaling, is a bigger job where we run a milling machine through the pipe and cut years of scale off the inside walls until the line is back to close to its original diameter. One is a service call. The other is a project. Drain clearing · Drain descaling
Homeowners
Especially in older homes where the cast iron, the galvanized and the original water heater are all coming due at once. We'll tell you what order to do it in.
People with a hidden leak and an insurance claim
We find it, we document it, and we do the repair. One company, one report, no finger pointing between three vendors.
Well and farm properties
Out past the city limits it's iron, sulfur and hardness, plus barn plumbing, hose bibs and horse waterers. Free water test before we recommend anything.
Restaurants and commercial buildings
Grease-loaded lines, old cast iron stacks, and no ability to close for a week. Descaling and lining let us fix the line without gutting the building.
- Service area
Where we work
We’re based in Hawthorne and most of our work is in Gainesville and Greater Alachua County, plus the towns just over the county lines. Not sure if you’re in range? Call and ask. If you’re outside it, we’ll tell you straight and point you toward someone who isn’t. All service areas
Don’t see your town? We likely still come out — call 352-377-9447
- Leaks don't stand a chance.
Tell us what's going on and we'll take it from there
You get a real person, a $69 visit, a flat price before we start, and a company that patches what it cuts and answers the phone when you call back. If a smaller fix is the right call, we’ll tell you that too.
First Choice Plumbing is a locally owned, owner led plumbing company working Gainesville, Hawthorne and Greater Alachua County. Leak detection, repipes, water heaters, drains, trenchless lining, well water filtration and septic. We find it, we fix it, we guarantee it.
Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor CFC1430748
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First Choice Plumbing
6940 SE 221st St
Hawthorne, FL 32640 - Office Mon to Fri, 8 to 5. Emergency line 24/7.
Copyright © 2026 First Choice Plumbing Inc. All rights reserved. FL Certified Plumbing Contractor CFC1430748.
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