There comes a time in the life of every home owner or business owner where the services of a plumber are required and more often than not they're going to be required urgently. After all how many people do you know who just pick up the phone and call their plumber for a chat about the weather? Exactly - nobody does that because plumbers are up there with the ambulance service and the police - they're somebody you call only when there's an emergency and you need their help immediately. And the last thing you want to wind up doing is having to ring a plumber and not having any clue about their business ethics when you're just about to let them run rampant in your home.

You'll want the peace of mind of knowing that you're hiring somebody who cares about your home and cares about your problem - in short you want to know that you're hiring a plumbing expert and a professional who takes their job seriously and will deliver the results you're expecting from them.

So how do you go about finding just such a plumbing expert? Well the key to this is not leaving contacting a plumber until the very last minute like when a pipe has burst for example because at that stage you're in an emotionally charged state and you're not going to make informed decisions - you're just going to make a decision. And probably not a very good decision at that.

You're far better off to take your time doing plenty of research on the plumbers in your area before you ever need to contact them. At least that way you'll have done your due diligence and found the names and numbers of at least 3 plumbing companies in your area so if you do need to call one out you're not just relying on the first person who answers the phone to you on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

One of the smartest ways to do this kind of research is to check for online reviews and to ask your friends. Now bear in mind that some of the online reviews are going to be biased but if you see a plumber with one positive review after another then you know you're dealing with somebody who can provide a quality service. The same thing applies to you asking a random selection of 10 friends for a plumber they can recommend - if the same name comes up 3 or 4 times out of a sampling of 10 or 20 people then you have, once again, struck plumber gold.

The key to finding a great plumber is to find them in advance by doing plenty of research and asking lots of questions. You don't need to spend days doing this - just spend 10 or 15 minutes per day doing it and before you know it you'll have found a selection of plumbing experts in your area.