- Leaks don't stand a chance.
Plumbing Services in Alachua County, FL
Licensed, locally owned, and already on your side of the county. Leaks don’t stand a chance.
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
Owner run, locally operated. Find the leak or you don’t pay. Emergency plumbing
Service call, waived on larger jobs
$
69
Leak detection, or free if we don't find it
$
375
Parts and labor warranty, manufacturer warranty on top
2
yr
First Choice Plumbing is a licensed, locally owned plumber serving Alachua County, FL, including Gainesville, Hawthorne, Alachua, High Springs, Newberry, Archer, Jonesville, Micanopy, Waldo and La Crosse. We handle leak detection, repipes, water heaters, drain clearing, well water filtration and septic work. The service call is $69 and leak detection is $375. If we don’t find your leak, you don’t pay. Call 352-377-9447.
- What's under your house and what's in your water
Why does plumbing go wrong so often in Alachua County?
Because of what’s under your house and what’s in your water.
Most of the county sits on slab-on-grade construction. Your supply lines run through concrete, so there’s no crawlspace to crawl into and no basement to look at. When a line lets go under there, the first thing you notice isn’t a puddle. It’s a warm spot on the floor, a water bill that doubled, or the sound of running water at midnight with every tap shut off.
Then there’s the age of the housing. Gainesville and the towns around it grew hard in the 1960s and 70s, so if your home was built before 1975 it almost certainly has original cast iron drain lines, and cast iron rusts from the inside out until the pipe is half its original diameter. If your home was built or repiped between roughly 1978 and 1995, you may be sitting on polybutylene, which fails at the fittings with very little warning.
Water chemistry does the rest. City water off the Floridan Aquifer runs moderately hard, around 8 grains per gallon in Gainesville, which scales up water heaters and fixtures over time. Out in the county on a private well, you get the aquifer raw: iron staining, hardness, and the hydrogen sulfide that makes your water smell like rotten eggs.
None of that is your fault. It’s just what this county is made of, and it’s fixable.
Water hardness figures are from Gainesville Regional Utilities’ published water quality reporting. Housing age ranges are general guidance, not a diagnosis of your home.
- Well water and septic on the county's rural side
What if I'm on a well and septic instead of city utilities?
Then you’re in our wheelhouse. A big share of Alachua County lives outside a city water line, and we spend a lot of our week on those properties.
Why your well water smells and stains
The Floridan Aquifer under this county is naturally high in iron and hydrogen sulfide, and limestone geology lets both move freely into groundwater. That's your rotten egg smell and your orange staining in the tub. A private well is not regulated by anybody, so testing is on you, and we'll test yours for free. Depending on what comes back, a working setup usually means air injection to knock out the sulfur, a media tank or two for iron, and a softener with a salt tank for hardness. We build these chlorine free where we can. If your only problem is hardness, we'll tell you that and you'll spend a lot less than a full train. We don't sell equipment you don't need.
Septic in the springs protection zones
Septic permitting in Alachua County still runs through the county health department. Much of the county falls inside the Santa Fe River and Orange Creek springs protection areas, and in those zones a new system may be required to be an enhanced nutrient reducing system rather than a standard tank and drain field. There is also county and state rebate money available for qualifying upgrades. We'll tell you which zone you're in before you spend a dollar. We install, replace, locate, put in drain fields, and properly decommission old tanks. We don't do pump-outs or septic inspections, and when you need one of those we'll point you to somebody who does. See what we handle on septic
- What we do across the county
What can you actually fix at my place?
We find hidden leaks under slabs, in walls and out in the yard, then mark the spot and write it up for your insurance company. $375, and if we don’t find it you don’t pay.
Warm floor, pressure drop, a bill that jumped for no reason. We locate it without tearing up your house to guess.
Burst line, no water, a toilet overflowing at 2 a.m. Call the emergency line and a human picks up.
Tank and tankless, gas, propane and electric, installed and repaired. We pull the permit and we haul the old one off.
A clog today, cleared today. Usually in and out inside an hour and a half.
Different job entirely. A milling machine with chains and diamond bits scrubs the inside of old cast iron back to bare metal.
Cast iron, galvanized or polybutylene out, PEX or copper in, and every hole we cut gets professionally patched.
As a NuFlow Certified Contractor we can line a failing sewer line from the inside. Cutting up your house is not the only way.
Iron, hardness and rotten egg smell handled with air injection and chlorine free media. Water testing is free.
Locating, new installs, drain fields, replacements and decommissioning.
Restaurants, salons and older buildings that can’t afford to close for a week.
Not sure which one you need? Tell us what’s happening and we’ll point you to the right page, or just call.
- How it goes, start to finish
What does working with you look like?
Tell us what's happening.
Call or book online. Kim will ask a few questions to work out whether this is a today problem or a this-week problem, and she’ll be honest with you about which one it is.
We come out and diagnose it.
$69 for the trip, waived on larger jobs. You get the actual cause and an upfront price before anybody touches anything. If a smaller repair does the job, that’s what we’ll recommend.
- Permits, and who actually issues them here
Do I need a permit for plumbing work in Alachua County?
Usually, yes, and more often than people expect. Florida requires a permit to alter, repair, replace or convert a plumbing system, and that includes swapping a water heater. Repipes, fixture relocations and gas piping all need one too.
The part that trips people up is who issues it. If your property is in unincorporated Alachua County, the permit comes through the county’s building division. If you’re inside Gainesville, High Springs, Newberry, Alachua, Archer, Hawthorne, Micanopy, Waldo or La Crosse, that municipality runs its own building office and the permit goes through them. Same job, different desk, different fee schedule.
We handle that part. We pull the permit under our license, we post it on the job, and we’re there for the inspection. It is not an upsell and it is not optional. A permit is what makes the work provable later, which matters a lot when you sell the house or file a claim.
If a contractor offers to skip the permit to save you money, that’s your sign to keep calling.
- Meet the owner
Who am I actually hiring?
Will Harrod, Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor CFC1430748. He owns the company, he still runs the estimates, and on a big job you’ll see him on site.
The rest of the crew is small and steady, and you see the same faces.
- Mike runs the service and drain calls.
- Ben is coming up behind him.
- Kim answers the phone and does the dispatching, which is why you get a person and not a call center.
- We're small on purpose right now. Will ran a bigger crew once and cut it back so the work would stay right. As he puts it, we can run like a corporate office, but we're down to earth where we care about you.
- How we compare
The difference is in the details
We’re not the cheapest call you can make, and we’re not trying to be. We’re the one that finds the actual problem the first time and puts the price in front of you before we start.
| What matters | First Choice Plumbing | Typical franchise or big-name plumber |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs to come out | $69, published right here, waived on larger jobs | "Call for pricing," found out at the door |
| Leak detection risk | $375 flat, find it or you don't pay | Billed hourly whether or not it's found |
| Who shows up | A small local crew you'll see again, owner still runs estimates | Whichever tech the dispatch board assigns that day |
| After a repipe | Every hole we cut gets professionally patched | Drywall left open, "that's a different trade" |
| Rural county coverage | Based in Hawthorne, well and septic work is normal for us | Optimized for the Gainesville and Jonesville corridor |
| Warranty | 2 years parts and labor, manufacturer warranty on top | Commonly 1 year, or parts only |
| Sewer line failures | Trenchless lining offered before excavation is recommended | Dig and replace quoted by default |
- Leak detection is what we're known for
How do you find a leak you can't see?
With equipment and patience, not a sledgehammer.
We pressure test the system, listen electronically through concrete and tile, and work the line down until the noise narrows to one spot. Then we mark it, photograph it, and write the whole thing up so your insurance adjuster has what they need in one file instead of three.
Here’s the part other companies won’t put in writing. Leak detection is $375 flat, and you’re guaranteed we’ll find it. If we don’t find it, you don’t pay. We can say that because we do this every week, and because Will built a local water damage restoration company’s referral book off this exact service.
If Gainesville Regional Utilities is your water provider and a hidden leak spiked your bill, ask them about their leak adjustment program once the repair is done. That’s their money to give back, not ours, and you should have it.
- What waiting costs
What happens if I just live with it a while longer?
Sometimes nothing. A dripping hose bib can wait a month. We’ll tell you when that’s the case.
But a slab leak doesn’t hold still. It keeps running, and you keep paying for water you never used. Given enough time it saturates the ground under the slab and turns a plumbing repair into a flooring and drywall repair. A cast iron line that’s already scaled shut will back up on the worst possible weekend, and once it backs up into the house you’re dealing with a restoration company, not just a plumber.
The other cost is the one nobody talks about: getting a number so high from the first company you call that you put it off another six months and the job gets bigger. Get a real diagnosis first. Then decide.
- Where we work in Alachua County
Which towns in Alachua County do you cover?
All of them, and we mean the small ones too. Our shop is in Hawthorne, which puts us on the east side of the county where a lot of plumbers would rather not drive. Kim, who runs our office, batches jobs by area so our truck isn’t running Hawthorne to Gainesville and back all day. That’s how we keep a same-day slot open more often than you’d expect.
Pick your town and we’ll show you what we handle there:
We also work the unincorporated stretches in between: Windsor, Rochelle, Earleton, Island Grove, Evinston and the farms along SR-20 and US-301. If you’re just outside the county line, check the full map.
Not sure we reach you? Send us your address and we’ll tell you straight.
- What it looks like done right
What you get on the other side of this
The bill goes back to normal. The floor is dry and it stays dry. The shower runs hot on the second load of laundry. The drain that used to gurgle every Sunday just drains. Out at the well, the water stops smelling and the tub stops staining, and you quit buying bottled water for coffee.
And you’ve got a plumber’s number in your phone that you can call without bracing for a sales pitch. That’s the whole point of doing it right the first time.
What it costs to come out
$69, published right here, waived on larger jobs.
Leak detection risk
$375 flat, find it or you don't pay.
After a repipe
Every hole we cut gets professionally patched.
Warranty
2 years parts and labor, manufacturer warranty on top.
- Frequently asked questions
Questions we get from Alachua County homeowners
Our service call is $69, and it's waived on larger jobs. You'll get the diagnosis and an upfront price before any work starts. Leak detection is priced separately at $375, and if we don't find the leak you don't pay.
That's what the emergency line is for. Burst lines and backed up drains don't keep business hours, and neither does the rotation. Call 352-377-9447 and tell us what's happening, and we'll tell you honestly whether it needs someone tonight or first thing in the morning.
Yes. Florida treats a water heater changeout as plumbing work that requires a permit. If your home is in unincorporated Alachua County it goes through the county building division, and if you're inside a city limit it goes through that city. We pull it under our license and meet the inspector.
That's hydrogen sulfide, and it's common in Floridan Aquifer water across this county. Sometimes it's the well and sometimes it's the water heater's anode rod reacting with the water. We'll test it for free and tell you which one you've got before quoting any equipment.
As a general rule, if it was built before 1975 around here, assume cast iron. A sewer camera inspection settles it in about an hour and shows you exactly how much pipe wall is left. That's worth doing before you buy an older home, not after.
We locate, install, replace and decommission systems, and we install drain fields. We do not do pump-outs, septic inspections or tank removal, and when you need one of those we'll refer you to someone who does. Septic permitting here runs through the county health department, and parts of the county now require enhanced nutrient reducing systems on new installs.
Often, yes. As a NuFlow Certified Contractor we can line the existing pipe from the inside with epoxy, which works well on old cast iron and on commercial buildings that can't shut down. It isn't right for every line, and we'll tell you when excavation is genuinely the better call.
Yes. Will Harrod holds Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor license CFC1430748, which is a state certification valid statewide, and the company carries general liability coverage. The license number is in the footer of every page on this site, which is exactly where Florida law says it belongs. Licensing and insurance
- Ready when you are
Tell us what's going on and we'll take it from there.
Anywhere in Alachua County, from a Gainesville slab leak to a well system out past Hawthorne. $69 to come out, upfront pricing, and a 2 year warranty behind the work. Leaks don’t stand a chance.
Call Now: 352-377-9447 | Book Online
First Choice Plumbing | 6940 SE 221st St, Hawthorne, FL 32640 | 352-377-9447 | License CFC1430748
- 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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