Most plumbing calls are small, urgent and about something that has been getting slowly worse. I carry an inspection camera and a wet vac, so a blocked drain gets looked at before anything comes apart.
Ordinary household plumbing, the sort that doesn't need the floor taken up.
If water is actively coming through a ceiling, ring rather than message. That one shouldn't wait.
There's a proper order to this, and it saves taking apart pipework that turns out to be fine.
The inspection camera goes down before anything else. On one bathroom sink it found tweezers, five razor heads and a pile of screws, all held together with hair.
A wet vac and a hair-removal stick deal with most of them in ten minutes. No chemicals going down a pipe that's already struggling.
Some blockages are further along and the trap has to come off. That's a bigger job, and you'll know before I start it.
I fitted a pop-up plug out of the van on that bathroom sink, so the next lot of hair stays where you can see it.
A damp patch is rarely directly under the leak. Finding where the water actually starts is most of the work.
You'll hear what was in there and why it happened, so you can decide whether anything needs changing.
Ring, text or WhatsApp me with roughly what's going on. A photograph helps, and it often means I turn up with the right part.
I'd rather look at it than pour something down it. Chemicals often move a blockage further along and make the real fix harder.
Often ten minutes once I can see what's in there. The looking is the quick part and the cause is usually obvious.
Most drips are a washer or a cartridge. I'll tell you which, and what a new tap would cost if that turns out to be better value.
Ring me. Finding where the water is coming from is something I do a lot of, and the sooner it's traced the less there is to put right.
While I'm there, it's worth asking about the rest of the list.
Fitting a new one, swapping a dead one, and working out why the one you have runs cold halfway through.
Radiators that stay cold at the top, leaking valves, towel rails and immersion heaters.
Panelling goes straight over uneven walls, and it costs less than tiling and goes up in a day.
A two stage treatment that clears the mould and leaves the room feeling fresh again.
Key safes, meter boxes, shelves, handles, hinges and the list that has been on the fridge since spring.