Are your plumbing pipes in need of a restoration? Homeowners and businesses can expect their plumbing pipes to last between 20 and 50 years. However, some plumbing pipes, like copper, PVC, and cast iron, can last upwards of 70 to 100 years, under the right conditions, but no matter the pipe material or its estimated useful life, eventually, you’re going to have to find a pipe restoration professional to fully rehab your pipes. Let’s take a look at 9 tips to make sure you hire the right pipelining contractor for your Chicago building.

Why Would I Want to Rehab My Plumbing Pipes VS Replacing Them?

When we talk about rehabilitating your plumbing pipes, we’re not talking about cutting them out of your walls and replacing them. This often comes with high labor costs, high material costs, and a mess that you’ll have to clean up later. Not to mention, if your company is in a historic building, it could mean having to hire specialized contractors to replace missing plaster and finishes.

Epoxy pipelining involves cleaning your existing pipes and installing a pipeliner or an epoxy coating. These two methods seal small leaks and stop corrosion while maximizing the internal pipe diameter. If we’re working with drain pipes, the pipeliner also restores the structural integrity of the plumbing pipe. This takes less time than replacing your pipes and doesn’t result in any materials being delivered to a landfill. Not to mention, your walls and yard remain intact because pipelining is a trenchless technology. In fact, we even take it to the next level. If we have to create an access point to line a run of pipe, we install a door in the hole we had to cut. This helps ensure that when we leave, you don’t have any holes in your wall.

How to Choose the Right Pipe Rehabilitation Contractor in Chicago

When choosing someone to rehabilitate the plumbing pipes inside your building, there are things you can do to make sure that you get experienced professionals, like our pipelining technicians at NuFlow. The first step is to make sure you find a professional pipeliner in your local area without having to scour pages and pages of search engine results.

1. Find a Professional Pipe Restoration Company in Your Local Area

Of course, you can do a quick search online for “pipelining technicians in Chicago” or your location, but that may not give you the best results. When you search online, you’ll be given the websites that have the best SEO or the best online presence. While that’s great, you also want to make sure that the company you hire is experienced and professional. To do that, you might want to check out the BBB results. You can choose businesses that are accredited or not. The BBB lists both. Ideally, you want to choose a business that is A or A+ rated. This helps ensure that the business does quality work, and if there are any issues, they are handled in a timely manner.

2. Investigate the Company’s Credentials

Make sure the pipelining company is licensed, insured, and bonded. You never want to hire a business that’s never been licensed or whose license has expired. There are building codes and other regulations that must be followed to make sure the work passes an inspection. If you have trouble locating their information online, you can always call the company and ask them for their registered business name and their license number. The company should also be insured and bonded. Insurance and bonds help protect you if any damage is caused to your property or if the job isn’t completed as specified in the contract.

3. Are the Employees Trained and Is the Business Accredited with the Manufacturers of the Products They Use?

Getting frequent training and staying up-to-date on the latest pipelining techniques is important. At NuFlow Midwest, we frequently participate in training and industry seminars and conventions so that all of your pipelining technicians are up-to-date on the latest technological advances and equipment.

4. Call the Company

How a company answers the phone can be a determining factor when choosing a pipelining company to hire. If you’re left on hold for an extended period of time, you may not want to do business with them. This either indicates that they are super busy and won’t be able to get to you promptly, or it indicates that they may not be as professional as you’d want them to be. All phone calls should also be answered using the company name. This lets you know that you’ve called the correct number and sets the tone for the call.

5. Ask for References

While you’ve got the company on the phone, ask if they have any references or photos of past work and ask pertinent questions, like:

• How long does the average job take?
• When can I expect you to arrive on-site?
• Is the pipelining process loud or messy?
• Do you have photos or references from past work that we can call?

Professional companies should be excited to share photos and videos of their past work. They should also be able to answer questions directly or with examples.

6. Make Sure the Company You Hire Does the Work Themselves

Many national chains hire subcontractors to perform their plumbing work. This makes the corporation little more than a scheduling company. Do you want subcontractors to do the work on your property, or do you want technicians who were trained by the company and up to the company’s specific standards? Most clients would say that they want a business that uses their own professionally trained people.

7. Get a Detailed Estimate from the Pipe Restoration Contractor

Before you let the company perform any work, get a detailed estimate. Here at NuFLow, we have a service called Building Pipe Assessment. This service is great for condos and commercial businesses that need to vet information through the HOA, building owner, or board of directors. The detailed estimate and a report of all the problems that were found with your plumbing pipes. It even contains a recommendation for or against pipelining. Once you have the report and estimate, you can read the information and present it to the board.

8. Ask Questions While the Pipelining Team is On-Site for the Building Pipe Assessment

The team we send to assess your plumbing pipes is also there to answer all of your questions. Feel free to ask about the pipelining process and how it will impact your tenants or unit owners.

Fast fact – NuFlow’s pipelining process is designed to create the least amount of mess and disruption. This is because the machinery is fairly quiet when compared to the noise created by a traditional pipe replacement. We also only completely shut off the water to the run of pipe that we’re working on, and those tenants or unit owners will have mixed water early in the morning and after we leave for the day.

9. Make Sure the Company Provides Warranties for the Labor and Materials

At NuFlow, we offer 10-year warranties on all of our work. This means that if you have a problem with your epoxy pipeliners, you can call us, and we’ll come out and inspect the pipes. If the liner did fail, we’ll replace it. This is because we stand by our work, and we want to make sure that you are completely satisfied with your newly lined pipes.

Epoxy Pipelining With NuFlow Midwest of Chicago

Choosing the right pipelining contractor can mean the difference between having excellent water flow and no leaks and having to endlessly call the company back to fix mistakes. The truth of the matter is that you need to hire a company that is experienced and professional and stands by their work with a warranty that’s longer than a year. At NuFlow, we are always training and upgrading our skills, and we stand by our work with a 10-year warranty. We also have professional plumbers available who can inspect and replace any severely worn pipes.

If you’re ready to rehabilitate your plumbing pipes so that you can enjoy another 35 to 50 years out of your current plumbing pipes, contact us.