Frequently Asked Questions

Straight answers about price, permits, leaks, wells and septic. Including the ones where the answer is no.

Rather text? Send a photo of the problem to 352-377-9447 and we’ll tell you what it sounds like.

State Certified Plumbing Contractor CFC1430748

Locally owned. Two year parts and labor warranty. We patch every hole we cut.

To come out and diagnose it

$ 69

Leak detection, find it or you don't pay

$ 375

Parts and labor warranty, manufacturer warranty on top

2 yr

This plumbing FAQ for Gainesville and North Central Florida answers what a plumber costs, what needs a permit, how leak detection works, the difference between drain clearing and drain cleaning, why well water smells, and what we will not do. First Choice Plumbing is state certified CFC1430748. $69 to come out. Call or text 352-377-9447.

Cost and scheduling

How much does it cost to get a plumber out?

$69 to come out, diagnose the problem and give you a price before any work starts. It is waived on larger jobs, roughly $800 and up. Around here a service call commonly runs somewhere between $70 and $170 depending on the hour, so ours is on the low end, and more to the point it is published. You should not have to call three offices to find out what a visit costs.

Do you charge for an estimate on a big job?

No. Repipes, filtration systems, drain fields, pipe lining and remodel plumbing are quoted free, and Will does those estimates himself. The $69 is for a service call, where somebody has to actually diagnose what is wrong. If you are pricing a planned project, that conversation is on us.

How much is leak detection?

$375 flat. That covers coming out and finding it, whether it is under a slab, inside a wall, or out under a pasture. If we do not find the leak, you do not pay for the search. We also write the job up for your insurance company, because a hidden leak is usually a claim before it is a repair.

Do you offer financing?

Yes, on larger jobs, down to around $500. Repipes, filtration systems, septic work and lining jobs are the ones people usually finance. We will walk you through what the terms look like before you commit to anything, and there is no pressure if you would rather not.

Related: Financing

License, insurance and permits

Are you licensed and insured?

Yes. First Choice Plumbing holds Florida certified plumbing contractor license CFC1430748, held by owner Will Harrod. The CFC prefix means state certified rather than registered to one county, so we can work anywhere in Florida. We carry general liability and workers compensation. Ask any plumber you call for their number. One who will not hand it over just told you something important.

Related: Licensing and Insurance

Do I need a permit for plumbing work in Alachua County?

For most real plumbing work, yes. Florida requires a permit to alter, repair, replace or convert a plumbing system, and that includes swapping out a water heater. Which office signs off depends on where the house sits. Unincorporated Alachua County goes through the county Growth Management Building Division. Inside the City of Gainesville and the other municipalities it goes through their own building office. We pull the permit, meet the inspector, and hand you the paperwork at the end.

Who is actually going to show up at my door?

A small crew you can name. Mike runs service calls and drains. Ben works alongside him. Will handles estimating, repipes, remodels and new construction, and he still runs the quotes himself. Kim answers the phone and does the dispatching. Nobody here works off a commission sheet, so nobody has a reason to sell you something you do not need.

Related: About Us

Shut it off first: 1. Main shutoff at the meter box by the street.

2. Second valve where the line enters the house, if there is one.

3. Water heater: close the cold inlet valve on top of the tank, then kill the breaker or the gas.

4. Photos before cleanup.

Emergencies

Do you answer after hours?

Call or text 352-377-9447 and somebody will pick up. If it is the middle of the night, tell us what is happening and we will tell you straight whether we are rolling now or first thing in the morning. We would rather give you an honest answer at 2 a.m. than a maybe that leaves you sitting by a window waiting on headlights.

Related: Emergency Plumbing

What should I do while I wait?

Shut the water off first. Most Florida houses have a main shutoff at the meter box near the street, and often a second valve where the line enters the house. If the trouble is the water heater, close the cold inlet valve on top of the tank and shut off the breaker or the gas. Then move what you can up off the floor and take photos before you clean anything, because your insurance company will ask for them.

How fast can you get to me?

It depends on where you are and what day it is. Gainesville, Hawthorne and the closer parts of Alachua County are quick. Work out in Levy, Putnam, Marion and Bradford county gets batched onto route days so a truck is not bouncing across three counties in an afternoon. Kim will give you a real window on the phone instead of a four hour guess.

Related: Service Areas

Leaks, drains and water heaters

How do I know if I have a hidden leak?

The usual signs are a water bill that jumped for no reason, a warm or damp spot on the floor, water pressure that dropped off, the sound of running water with every fixture shut, or a patch of yard that stays green through a dry month. Florida builds slab on grade, so supply lines run through concrete with no basement to crawl into, and a leak can run for months before anything shows.

Related: Slab Leak Detection

Can you find a slab leak without tearing up my floor?

That is the whole point of leak detection. We locate it with equipment first, then open only what has to be opened. And every hole we cut gets patched by a professional drywall contractor when the work is done. We do not paint, and we tell you that up front instead of after.

Related: Leak Detection

What is the difference between drain clearing and drain cleaning?

Clearing is getting today's clog out. You have a backup, we come out, we clear it, and we are usually gone in about an hour and a half. Cleaning is descaling, and it is a different animal. A milling machine with chains and diamond bits runs the inside of the pipe back to bare metal, mostly on old cast iron, and that is a one to two day job. One is a service. The other is a project.

Do I have to dig up my yard to fix a sewer line?

Often no. We are a NuFlow certified contractor, which means we can line a pipe from the inside with epoxy instead of open cutting it. It works on cast iron and on plenty else, it is usually faster, and it costs less than rebuilding a floor. We run a camera first so you see exactly what we see before anybody decides anything.

Wells, water quality and septic

Why does my well water smell like rotten eggs?

Usually hydrogen sulfide coming straight out of the Floridan Aquifer, which is common on wells across this part of Florida. Sometimes it is the water heater instead, which is a much smaller fix, and GRU points at the same two suspects for city customers. We test the water free and tell you which one it is before anybody starts talking about equipment.

Related: Water Testing

Do I need a whole filtration system or just a softener?

It depends on what is actually in your water, and we would rather sell you the smaller thing that works. Hardness on its own is a softener. Sulfur needs an air injection or chlorine free system with a gas-off tank. Iron, sulfur and hardness together is the full train. Gainesville city water runs moderately hard at roughly eight grains per gallon, so city customers are usually a softener conversation and well customers are usually a bigger one.

Do you pump septic tanks?

No. We locate tanks, install and replace systems, put in and replace drain fields, and abandon and decommission systems properly. We do not pump, and we do not do the certified inspection for a real estate closing. Call us anyway. We will point you to the outfit we trust for a pump-out rather than leave you calling around.

Related: Septic | Septic Pump-Out | Drain Fields

What warranty do you give?

Two years on parts and labor, with the manufacturer warranty on top of that. It covers the work we do, and if something we installed acts up inside that window you call us and we come back out. No argument, no invoice for the trip.

Related: Warranty

What we do, and what we will tell you we don't

Plenty of shops will say yes to anything and figure it out on the way over. We would rather you know where our line is before you spend a Tuesday waiting on us.

What we do. Leak detection and slab leaks. Repipes in CPVC, copper, PEX, PVC, cast iron, galvanized, polybutylene and ABS. Water heaters, tank and tankless, electric, natural gas and propane. Drain clearing and drain descaling. Camera inspection and locating. Trenchless pipe lining. Sewer line replacement and excavation. Septic installs, drain fields, locating, and abandonment. Well water filtration, softeners, iron and sulfur removal, and free water testing. Faucets, toilets, disposals, shower valves and pans. Bathroom remodel plumbing. Gas lines. Farm and barn plumbing. New construction and remodels. Commercial work.

What we don’t. No tile work and no painting, so on a bathroom remodel we price the plumbing and bring in a tile partner. No septic pump-outs, no certified septic inspections, no tank removal. No backflow certification. No heating and air, no electrical. We are not a general contractor. And we do not put reverse osmosis units under sinks, because too many of them end up leaking into a cabinet somebody has to dry out later.

If what you need is on the right-hand list, call anyway. We will tell you who does it well.

Not ready to book? Read the guides first.

Who is answering these questions

Will Harrod holds the license, CFC1430748, and he still runs the estimates himself. If you are getting a repipe, a filtration system, a drain field or a lining job quoted, you are talking to the owner and not to somebody working off a commission sheet.

The shop is locally owned. Kim answers the phone and does the dispatching. Mike runs service and drains. Ben is coming up fast behind him. It is small on purpose. Will ran six and seven guys once and did not like what it did to the work.

That is also why the answers on this page are blunt. When the owner is the one standing in your hallway later, it does not pay to oversell anything on a website. About us

The difference is in the details

The question you are really asking	First Choice Plumbing	Typical Installer / Big-Name Brand
What does it cost to get somebody out	$69, published on the website, waived on larger jobs	Not published anywhere. Call and find out
Finding a hidden leak	$375 flat, find it or you don't pay	Hourly, open ended, no guarantee
Who quotes the big job	The owner, who holds the license	A salesperson with a tablet and a price book
Holes cut in your walls	A professional drywall contractor patches every one	Left open, "that's a drywall guy's job"
Permits	Pulled, inspected, paperwork handed to you	Skipped on anything they think nobody checks
Work they do not do	Listed on this page, with a referral	Yes to everything, sorted out on your time
Well water treatment	Free test, then only the equipment the water needs	One package sold to every house
Old cast iron that has scaled shut	Milled clean or lined from the inside	Cut it out, dig it up, rebuild the floor

$69 to come out. Financing available on larger jobs.

What happens if you keep putting it off

A slab leak does not stay a plumbing bill. It turns into a flooring bill, a cabinet bill, and a water bill you cannot argue your way out of. Cast iron that has scaled shut does not open back up on its own, and the backup always picks the worst possible hour to arrive.

Polybutylene fails at the fittings, without warning, and it does not care that you were going to get to it in the spring. Untreated well water quietly takes years off a water heater and every fixture in the house.

None of that is a scare story. It is just what happens on a long enough timeline, and every one of those repairs is cheaper on the day you first noticed something was off.

What it looks like when it is handled

You knew the price before anybody picked up a tool. The permit got pulled, the inspector came, and the paperwork is in a folder in the kitchen drawer.

The water out of the tap does not smell like anything. The drains run the way they did when the house was new. Hot water lasts through the second shower. The wall we opened looks like nobody opened it.

And the next time something goes sideways, you are not starting over with a search and three voicemails. You already know who to call, and we already know your house.

Still have a question?

Ask it. Call or text 352-377-9447, or send it through the contact form and Kim will get back to you. We answer questions from people who are not going to hire us, too. If you are trying to figure out whether the noise in your wall is worth a phone call, that is a fine reason to call.

You have the answers. Now let's go look at the actual problem.

$69 to come out. $375 flat for leak detection, and if we don’t find it, you don’t pay. State certified, locally owned, and the owner still shows up. Or book a visit online.

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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