- Leaks don't stand a chance.
Pipe Repair in Gainesville, FL
One small leak shouldn’t mean calls to three different repairmen. We fix the plumbing and patch the hole.
Rather text? Send a photo of the problem to 352-377-9447 and we’ll tell you what it sounds like.
Licensed Florida Plumbing Contractor CFC1430748
Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor license. Will Harrod, owner. Ask any plumber for theirs.
To have a licensed plumber come out and diagnose it. Waived on larger jobs.
$
69
Flat rate leak detection when the leak has to be found first. We find it or you don't pay.
$
375
Parts and labor warranty on the repair, with the manufacturer warranty on top of that.
2
yr
First Choice Plumbing does pipe repair in Gainesville, Hawthorne and Alachua County, Florida. We repair PEX, copper, CPVC, PVC, cast iron, galvanized, polybutylene and ABS pipe, in walls, ceilings, slabs and under the house. It’s $69 for a licensed plumber to come out and diagnose it, $375 if the leak has to be located first, and every hole we cut gets professionally patched. Call 352-377-9447.
- FL Certified Contractor CFC1430748
- Locally owned, out of Hawthorne
- $69 to come out
- Every hole we cut gets patched
- 2-year parts and labor warranty
- Repair or replace?
Can this pipe be repaired, or does it need to be replaced?
That’s the real question, and most plumbers answer it with whichever one pays better. Here’s how we actually decide, and you can use it before you call anybody.
A repair is usually the right call when:
- It’s the first failure on that line, and the rest of the system is behaving.
- The damage came from something that happened to the pipe rather than something wrong with the pipe. A nail through a line during a remodel, a hose bib that froze, a shovel through a yard line, a fitting that got knocked loose.
- The pipe is copper, PEX, PVC or CPVC and the rest of the run still looks clean where we open it.
- It’s a joint, a fitting, a valve or a short section, not the whole run.
- The line is accessible, which usually means it’s in a wall, a ceiling, an attic or a crawlspace instead of buried in the slab.
You’re better off replacing when:
- This is the second or third leak on the same line. Pipe fails on a pattern. When one pinhole shows up in copper, the rest of that run is usually already pitted from the inside and the next hole is coming.
- The pipe is polybutylene, that gray or blue plastic pipe installed in homes built roughly between 1978 and 1995. It gets brittle from the inside and it fails without warning. Patching it buys you months, not years. Polybutylene replacement
- The pipe is galvanized steel and your pressure has been dropping and your first draw runs rusty. The rust is inside the whole pipe, not just where it’s leaking.
- It’s a cast iron drain that’s cracked along the bottom, which is usually a sign the whole line has thinned out. Sometimes we can line it instead of digging it up. Trenchless pipe lining
- The leak is under the slab and the same line has already been repaired once. Slab leak detection
If you’re in the second list, we’ll say so and show you what we’re looking at. Then you decide. Nobody here gets paid to talk you into a repipe. Whole-house repipe
- What a pipe repair costs
How much does pipe repair cost in Gainesville?
Here’s what we can tell you honestly before we’ve seen it.
$69 to come out. That covers a licensed plumber at your house, diagnosing the problem, and giving you a price before any work starts. On a larger job it gets waived.
$375 if the leak has to be found first. That’s flat rate leak detection, and it comes with the guarantee: we find it or you don’t pay. Leak detection
The repair itself depends on three things, and any plumber who prices it over the phone is guessing: what material the pipe is, how hard it is to reach, and how much of it is bad once we open it. A fitting in an accessible wall and a cracked cast iron drain under a slab are not the same job and they shouldn’t cost the same. You get the number before we start. Not after.
On insurance: Florida policies usually pay for the water damage the leak caused and not for the failed pipe itself, because insurers treat plumbing as maintenance. It’s worth filing anyway when there’s damage to your floors, walls or belongings, and we document what we find so your adjuster has something real to work from. Insurance claim leak detection
If the number is bigger than the moment: we offer financing through Wisetack on jobs starting around $500, and applying doesn’t affect your credit. Financing
- $69 service call
- A licensed plumber at your house, a diagnosis, and a price before any work starts. Waived on larger jobs.
- $375 leak detection
- Flat rate when the leak has to be found first. We find it or you don't pay.
- Who you are actually hiring
Who is actually showing up at your house?
We know what you’re worried about. It isn’t the pipe. It’s whether the guy who shows up is going to find one problem and turn it into five.
First Choice Plumbing is a locally owned shop out of Hawthorne. Will Harrod owns it and holds the license, CFC1430748, which is a Florida state certification, not a county registration. He still walks the houses and writes the estimates himself. Mike runs the service calls and the drain calls. Kim answers the phone and does the dispatching, and she batches the day by area so you’re not waiting on a truck that’s driving back and forth across the county.
That’s the whole company right now, and that’s on purpose. A small crew means the owner sees your job. It also means when we tell you a pipe can be repaired, nobody upstairs is measuring us on how many repipes we sold this month. We’re licensed, we’re insured, we pull permits when the work calls for one, and we stand behind the repair for two years on parts and labor.
- Will Harrod, owner. Holds the license, CFC1430748, and still writes the estimates himself.
- Mike runs the service calls and the drain calls.
- Kim answers the phone and does the dispatching.
- We patch every hole we cut
Who fixes the hole in my wall?
We do. That’s the part most people get burned on. Getting to a pipe means opening a wall or a ceiling. A lot of shops fix the pipe, hand you the drywall dust, and drive off. We bring in a professional drywall contractor to patch, tape and texture every hole we cut, and it’s part of the job, not a separate phone call you have to make yourself while your kitchen has a hole in it.
We don’t paint. That’s the one thing we hand back to you, and we tell you that up front instead of at the end.
- What we repair
What kinds of pipe do you repair?
All of them. Here’s what’s actually in the walls around here and what usually goes wrong with each one.
Copper
The classic failure is a pinhole leak, a tiny hole that soaks a wall for weeks before you see it. When we open it up, we cut out two or three inches on either side of the hole, because the pipe next to a pinhole is usually already pitted. We repair it with a soldered or pressed joint, not a patch clamp. If we find three pinholes in one run, that’s your sign, and we’ll say so.
PEX A and B
Modern flexible supply line. It rarely fails on its own. What fails is a fitting, a crimp ring that wasn’t set right, or a run that a nail or a screw went through. Those are clean, fast repairs, and PEX is what we usually repair other materials with because it handles this water and this house movement well.
CPVC
Common in Florida homes from the 1980s forward. It gets brittle with age and heat, and it cracks at fittings or splits lengthwise. Once CPVC starts snapping when it’s touched, opening more wall to fix it turns into a bigger conversation, and we’ll have that conversation honestly.
PVC
Drain and vent lines, irrigation and pool lines. Usually cracked joints, a line crushed by roots or a shovel, or a fitting that separated. Straightforward to cut out and reglue when we can get to it.
Cast iron
The main drain in nearly every Gainesville home built before 1975. It rusts from the inside and the bottom of the pipe thins out first, which is why the crack is usually on the underside where nobody sees it. We repair sections, and for longer runs we can line the inside instead of digging up your floor.
Galvanized steel
Old supply pipe that rusts shut from the inside. Low pressure and rusty first-draw water are the tells. We repair it, but be aware that cutting into old galvanized often reveals more of the same.
Polybutylene
Gray or blue plastic pipe from roughly 1978 to 1995. We can stop the leak today. We will also tell you straight that this material is on borrowed time.
ABS
The black drain pipe you see in most mobile and manufactured homes. Cracks at the fittings and at the connections under the home. We repair it and we re-support the line so it stops sagging.
- What happens when you call
What happens when you call us?
You call or text and we get you on the schedule.
Kim answers, gets the address and what you’re seeing, and gets a truck out. It’s $69 for a licensed plumber to come out and diagnose it, and that fee is waived once the job gets big enough. If you’re standing in water right now, say so on the phone. That changes the order of the day. Emergency plumbing
We find the real failure and show it to you.
If the leak is visible, that part’s quick. If it’s behind drywall, in the slab, or somewhere in a yard line, that’s leak detection, and it’s a flat $375 with a guarantee attached. We find it or you don’t pay. Leak detection
We fix it, we patch it, and we tell you what we saw.
You get a price before we start. We cut out what’s bad, put in new pipe, pressure test it, and a professional drywall contractor patches every hole we cut. Then we tell you honestly what the rest of that line looked like, so nothing surprises you in six months.
- The difference is in the details
The difference is in the details
| What matters | First Choice Plumbing | Typical Plumbing Company |
|---|---|---|
| Repair or replace | We tell you which one your pipe actually needs and show you what we're looking at. | Leads with the bigger job because the bigger job pays better. |
| What it costs to find out | $69 to come out and diagnose, waived on larger jobs. $375 flat if the leak has to be located. | No price published anywhere. You find out when the truck is in the driveway. |
| Hidden leaks | We find it or you don't pay for the detection. | Hourly search with the meter running. |
| The hole in your wall | A professional drywall contractor patches, tapes and textures every hole we cut. | Fixed the pipe. The wall is your problem now. |
| Who shows up | A small local crew. The owner holds the license and still walks the jobs. | Whoever the dispatch board sent, with a commission target. |
| The warranty | 2 years parts and labor, plus the manufacturer warranty on the materials. | Often 30 days to a year on the labor. |
| Permits | We pull them when the work calls for one, and we tell you when it doesn't. | Skipped quietly, which shows up when you sell the house. |
None of that is complicated. It’s just what it looks like when the person who owns the company is the person whose name is on the license.
- What happens if you wait
What happens if you wait on it?
A small leak doesn’t stay small and it doesn’t stay in one place. Water follows framing. A pinhole behind a bathroom wall shows up as a soft spot in a hallway floor two rooms away, and by then you’re not paying a plumber, you’re paying a plumber and a flooring crew.
Three things get more expensive with time. The pipe, which keeps opening up. The materials around it, because drywall, baseboard, cabinets and subfloor all soak. And the claim, because insurers look hard at how long a leak ran. A leak that gets called sudden and accidental on Tuesday can get called long-term seepage a month later.
Meanwhile you’re paying for the water. If your bill jumped and nothing about your household changed, the water is already going somewhere.
None of that is meant to rush you. It’s meant to answer the question people actually ask themselves, which is whether this can wait until next month.
- What it looks like done right
What it looks like when it's done right
The leak is gone, and you know exactly where it was and why it happened. The wall is closed back up, patched and textured, waiting on paint. The line is pressure tested. You’ve got a written price you already agreed to, a two year warranty on the work, and a straight answer about the rest of that pipe run so you’re not braced for the next surprise.
Your bill goes back to normal. Nobody in the house is listening for running water at night. That’s the whole job. One bad spot, handled, by people who told you the truth about it. Book a Repair Visit
Let’s go look at it.
Tell us what you’re seeing and we’ll tell you what it probably is. $69 gets a licensed plumber to your door with a real answer and a price before anything gets cut. If it turns out you don’t need us yet, we’ll say that too.
Licensed and insured. Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor CFC1430748. Leaks don’t stand a chance.
$69
To have a licensed plumber come out and diagnose it. Waived on larger jobs.
$375
Flat rate leak detection when the leak has to be found first. We find it or you don't pay.
2 Years
Parts and labor warranty on the repair, with the manufacturer warranty on top of that.
CFC1430748
Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor license. Will Harrod, owner. Ask any plumber for theirs.
- Frequently asked questions
Pipe repair questions we get asked
Most single failures can be repaired. We cut out the bad section, put in new pipe, and pressure test it. Replacement makes more sense when the same line has leaked more than once, when the pipe is polybutylene or badly rusted galvanized, or when the material itself is failing rather than one spot on it. We tell you which situation you're in before you spend anything.
It's $69 for a licensed plumber to come out, diagnose it, and give you a price before any work starts, and that fee is waived on larger jobs. If the leak is hidden and has to be located first, leak detection is a flat $375 with a find-it-or-you-don't-pay guarantee. The repair itself depends on the material, how accessible the pipe is, and how much of it is bad.
An accessible repair on copper, PEX, PVC or CPVC is usually a few hours, start to finish, including the pressure test. Cast iron drain work, slab leaks and anything that has to be located first can run into a second visit. The drywall patch is scheduled separately with our drywall contractor and gets done as part of the job.
Usually not for the pipe itself. Florida policies generally treat plumbing as maintenance, but they often do cover the sudden and accidental water damage the leak caused to floors, walls, ceilings and belongings. Timing matters, because a leak that ran a long time can get denied as long-term seepage. We document what we find so you have something real to hand your adjuster.
Sometimes. Alachua County requires a permit when a plumbing system is altered, repaired, removed, converted or replaced, and repipes and water heater changeouts fall under that. Simple fixture swaps generally do not. The City of Gainesville permits its own work separately from the county. We pull the permit when the job calls for one and we tell you when it doesn't.
It's a legitimate fitting and it holds, which is why it's useful in a tight cavity or an emergency at two in the morning. On an accessible repair we'd rather make a soldered or pressed joint, because it's the connection we'd want in our own wall. Either way, the repair carries the same two year parts and labor warranty.
In most Gainesville and Alachua County homes it's at the meter box near the street, under a small rectangular lid, and it turns clockwise to close. Some homes also have a valve on the exterior wall where the line enters. If water is actively running where it shouldn't be, shut it off and then call. Knowing where that valve is before you need it is the single most useful thing you can do as a homeowner, and it costs nothing.
- FAQ
Pipe repair questions we get asked
Most single failures can be repaired. We cut out the bad section, put in new pipe, and pressure test it. Replacement makes more sense when the same line has leaked more than once, when the pipe is polybutylene or badly rusted galvanized, or when the material itself is failing rather than one spot on it. We tell you which situation you're in before you spend anything.
It's $69 for a licensed plumber to come out, diagnose it, and give you a price before any work starts, and that fee is waived on larger jobs. If the leak is hidden and has to be located first, leak detection is a flat $375 with a find-it-or-you-don't-pay guarantee. The repair itself depends on the material, how accessible the pipe is, and how much of it is bad.
An accessible repair on copper, PEX, PVC or CPVC is usually a few hours, start to finish, including the pressure test. Cast iron drain work, slab leaks and anything that has to be located first can run into a second visit. The drywall patch is scheduled separately with our drywall contractor and gets done as part of the job.
Usually not for the pipe itself. Florida policies generally treat plumbing as maintenance, but they often do cover the sudden and accidental water damage the leak caused to floors, walls, ceilings and belongings. Timing matters, because a leak that ran a long time can get denied as long-term seepage. We document what we find so you have something real to hand your adjuster.
Sometimes. Alachua County requires a permit when a plumbing system is altered, repaired, removed, converted or replaced, and repipes and water heater changeouts fall under that. Simple fixture swaps generally do not. The City of Gainesville permits its own work separately from the county. We pull the permit when the job calls for one and we tell you when it doesn't.
It's a legitimate fitting and it holds, which is why it's useful in a tight cavity or an emergency at two in the morning. On an accessible repair we'd rather make a soldered or pressed joint, because it's the connection we'd want in our own wall. Either way, the repair carries the same two year parts and labor warranty.
In most Gainesville and Alachua County homes it's at the meter box near the street, under a small rectangular lid, and it turns clockwise to close. Some homes also have a valve on the exterior wall where the line enters. If water is actively running where it shouldn't be, shut it off and then call. Knowing where that valve is before you need it is the single most useful thing you can do as a homeowner, and it costs nothing.
$69
To have a licensed plumber come out and diagnose it. Waived on larger jobs.
$375
Flat rate leak detection when the leak has to be found first. We find it or you don't pay.
2 Years
Parts and labor warranty on the repair, with the manufacturer warranty on top of that.
CFC1430748
Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor license. Will Harrod, owner. Ask any plumber for theirs.
- Where we work
Where do you do pipe repair?
We’re based in Hawthorne and we work across Greater Alachua County: Gainesville, Hawthorne, Newberry, Archer, Micanopy, Waldo, Alachua, High Springs, Melrose, Keystone Heights, Windsor and Williston. We handle houses, rental property, well-water homes out in the county, and commercial buildings. Restaurants and older commercial spaces are a specialty, because a repair that keeps you open is worth more than a perfect repair that closes you for a week. Commercial plumbing
If you’re outside that range, call anyway and we’ll tell you straight whether we’re the right call or point you to somebody closer. Driving two counties to a job doesn’t help you. See service areas and contact info
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.
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