Solving Plumbing Issues With An Expert Remotely - The Safest and Most Budget-Friendly Way To Do Home Projects

Big news! We can now get expert, licensed plumbing help without having a tradesperson in our homes! During COVID, this is especially important, but I know I’ll be using the convenient Plunjr service for years to come whenever I have a plumbing question - big or small.

This post is sponsored by Plunjr. As always, all opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting the sponsors that keep the blogging lights on!

Plunjr is a lifesaver - literally! During the pandemic, limiting in-person exposure for us and tradespeople is of utmost importance. But, when we have a plumbing issue or want to tackle those DIY projects, support from a professional plumber is invaluable. So how do we safely get plumbing help?

Enter Plunjr, a (currently) free(!) app for your phone (on Apple devices or Android devices) that works just like a video chat with a friend. But on the other end is an experienced and qualified expert that can support plumbing needs big or small. Aaron or another plumbing pro will walk you through the steps necessary to install an upgraded faucet, or fix a running toilet, or repair leaky pipes, or do any plumbing project.

Why did we call Plunjr to talk to plumbing expert Aaron? Well, we’ve been having a few issues in the past few months. Remember when we had bad plumbers working on the renovation in the spring?

Back when we were in the early stages of renovating the kitchen and bathroom, our GC sent over plumbers that turned out to be no good. They made a lot of errors and caused leaks and made mistakes. You can read up on that here, but ultimately we brought in a different plumber that repaired their mistakes. Or so we thought.

For the last few months, we’ve been experiencing noisy pipes that make a loud hammering noise when we turn on the faucets, when the irrigation kicks on, and when laundry runs. We also get really low water pressure in our existing shower. And worst of all, the shower turns to lukewarm water a few minutes after jumping in. I like my showers to be scalding hot, so this is a big bummer.

I tried doing my own troubleshooting by increasing the temperature of the water heater, cleaning out the shower head of hard water deposits, and researching how to reduce noise and increase pressure. But I wasn’t really getting anywhere. My tricks weren’t working and I knew we needed an expert. The plumber that had fixed the old issues wasn’t really helpful when we asked him to troubleshoot, so we started researching other plumbing companies. But every time I thought about calling them, I thought, “no, COVID rates just spiked, we can deal with a lukewarm shower a little longer. Let’s wait it out.”

But then I heard about Plunjr, a remote plumbing resource, and we were thrilled!

I downloaded the Plunjr app, scheduled a call, and then a few days later we were chatting with Aaron and troubleshooting all of the issues! Aaron was so thorough that we walked through all the rooms of the house, took him to the water heater, the main water supply, the irrigation, both showers, the kitchen sink, and the laundry. He basically got an impromptu house tour! You can see the sped up version of our call right here.

With all of the issues with tradespeople this year during a challenging and lengthy renovation, talking to Aaron was a breath of fresh air. I felt like we were truly heard, understood, and respected. He took time to answer all of our questions and was patient while I had him wait for me to disassemble my shower valve and walk him around the house. It was a genuine pleasure talking to him about the number of issues. Ross later said, “the only problem is he’s reminded us that this is how tradespeople should act, and he’s raised the bar for future plumbers.” Truth!

During the call he educated us on plumbing to help us understand why we’re experiencing issues and how they’ll be remedied. This is so much more valuable as a DIYer than having someone do the work while I wait in another room. Learning is power!

Look! He’s a real human person that’s problem solving our specific issues and concerns.

Throughout the call, Aaron recommended next steps, then he sent a follow up email recapping the call and included links to specific products we can get to solve our issues. In case you’re interested, he recommended these pipe clamps for strapping the loose pipes, this pressure test gauge and this valve if pressure is too high, and this hammer arrester for reducing the hammering noise. Aaron set us up for next steps to either have us do more plumbing tests ourselves, or call in a pro now that we have a better understanding of what we need them to do. We’ll save oodles on a future plumber by having a blueprint of what the problem is and what we need them to do.

Oh, we also prepared for the call by doing some tests in advance of chatting with Aaron. I used this laser thermometer to measure the temperature drop in my morning shower, and I got all of my organized plumbing manuals out so I’d know how to disassemble the valve or show him the schematics of how each of our products work. He didn’t really need any of it, but I sure liked being able to say, “the shower drops from 104 to 88 degrees” rather than saying, “I dunno, it’s just not hot enough"!” Plus, I love any reason to get out my organized home binder.

Did I mention that Plunjr is currently free?! They’ll charge a very nominal fee soon, but they’re currently offering free phone calls to get to know them. I highly recommend it if you’re having a plumbing issue or just want support switching out a faucet.

Finally! A scalding hot shower is in my future again.