When You Need a Plumbing Contractor in Peabody, MA

Building a new home in Peabody, MA? Maybe you’re renovating one of the region’s classic older homes. Perhaps your toddler has discovered the great fun of flushing the toilet and has, in the space of one really bad morning, ‘lost’ the tv remote, cell phone, three stuffed animals, your car keys and half of the morning newspaper. No matter what the situation is, when you need a plumber, you need one fast – and you need a plumber who is qualified, professional, and respectful of your home. How do you find the best Peabody, MA plumber? It can be difficult to select, especially when all you have to base your decision on is the advertisements you see in the yellow pages, roadside signage, or online?

Search Out The Right Kind of Plumber

Plumbers address many kinds of problems, and you want to select the type of plumber that’s best for you. Most homeowners will want a plumber who specializes in residential plumbing. For specific needs, such as sewer service or drain cleaning, it may be prudent to select a plumbing contractor who focuses primarily in those areas: you often get the fastest service at the lowest price. Selecting a plumbing contractor for new construction, to install outdoor fixtures or features, or for challenging remodels may require some research. If you’re looking for a plumber for a business, you’ll want a commercial plumber.

How to Identify Likely Plumbing Contractors

Begin by doing your research. Ask people who live near your Peabody, MA home who they use for plumbing services. Your home’s previous owner can be a great source of information, and may be able to connect you with the plumber most familiar with your home. Investigate online, searching out both reviews and the company’s own website. The Better Business Bureau is a great source of information: they can tell you if a plumber has a good reputation or a long string of complaints! A special word about online reviews: weigh these with a grain of salt. As most reviews aren’t monitored, it’s possible for one person to post multiple negative reviews, which can give you an unfair impression.

Talk To Your Potential Plumber

All great relationships begin with an initial conversation. You need to be able to communicate effectively and easily with your plumber, without feeling intimidated. The best Peabody, MA plumbers are approachable, professional, and polite. They will happily answer any questions you may have about their business, including a list of satisfied customers, information about their experience and insurance, and more. Ask about certifications and training. A Master Plumber is one who has achieved the ultimate in training and experience, having successfully passed intensive exams in order to achieve certification. Your home is your largest investment. Take the time to know the person who will be working on it!

Understand that Quality Costs

The most common mistake homeowners make when it comes to plumbing? Selecting a plumbing contractor based on price alone! In tight economic circumstances, where every dollar counts, it may appear sensible to always go with the lowest bidder – but sometimes low bids come with high hidden costs. Your Peabody, MA home is likely one of the largest purchases you’ve ever made: shouldn’t you protect that investment by working with skilled professionals? You don’t want to be someone’s learning curve: sometime cheaper plumbers charge less because they are inexperienced or know they are not worth the prices professionals charge for. A professional plumber charges professional rates.

Give Yourself Time to Make a Good Decision

Finding a plumbing contractor can take time. Free yourself from the pressure of trying to find a plumber while in the midst of a plumbing emergency. Establish the relationship ahead of time, when you’re free from the need to handle an immediate crisis. Do your research, ask your friends and neighbors for recommendations, and check references. This will give you peace of mind. You’ll know that you’ve got an experienced, professional Peabody, MA plumber on your side when you need them the most.

We at Winter’s are having a special for the month of May.

40 Gallon Gas Water Heater Only $999.99*

50 Gallon Gas Water Heater Only $1199.99*

75 Gallon Gas Water Heater Only $1699.99*

All come with a Winter’s 30 day Warranty

Additional Upgrade Items *add to base price

• New emergency shut off valve
• New gas valve
• Replace flue pipe and fittings
• Water Heater safety pan (aluminum)
• Thermal expansion tank *must have if backflow valve on house
• Flood stop emergency water shut off
• Removal of old water heater
• Winter’s 1 year part’s and labor warranty
• Winter’s 3 year part’s and labor warranty
• Power vent additional to base unit
• PVC flue pipe and fittings for P.V. install

How Handy Are You? Experience  matters.  The longer you do something, the more adept you become at it – and have no doubt about it, plumbing requires some very specialized skills. Be realistic and assess your skill set: are you mechanically adept? Do you finish projects you start? Do you have even a vague idea of how to begin, or are you Googling frantically, looking for the DIY site that has pictures that look EXACTLY like your kitchen? If you are an absolute beginner, you have two choices: devote your time and energy to acquiring the skills and knowledge you need to do the job, or call your North Shore of Massachusetts plumber!

What’s Your Plumbing Prowess? Assuming you have some basic home repair skills, the next thing to consider is your plumbing knowledge. How much do you know about your home’s plumbing system? The more you know, the easier it will be for you to assess a problem, diagnose a cause, and figure out what the appropriate repair is – all of which has to happen before you get down to actually fixing the problem.  Additionally, do you know where to go for parts and supplies, and how much you should expect to pay for these items? Do you know how to make repairs safely, without damaging your home or hurting yourself? Your North Shore and Essex County plumber can answer many of these questions for you, saving you time, money, and energy.

What Does Your Schedule Look Like? Do you have time to fix the faucet yourself?  Answer this question AFTER realistically looking at your schedule.  Are you booked solid with meetings, travel, family obligations and doctor’s visits for the next two months? It may be quicker to have your North Shore plumber address the problem than to wait for a hole to appear in your schedule.  Bear in mind, too, that if you are not experienced at doing plumbing repairs, it will take you longer than it will take a skilled professional who does this all of the time.  Navigating the learning curve takes time.

Talk to Your Essex County area Plumber or Air Conditioning Consultant to select the best System. Each home is unique. What works to maintain a sheltered 1,500 sq ft cottage cool and comfy won’t function in a larger sized house with a more open floor plan. How you make use of your house also factors into what type of system you’ll want: an older couple who is always home and isn’t going to navigate around a lot has a distinct list of requirements than a younger, lively family who stop by the old homestead to sleep. Your Essex County plumber or air conditioning expert are fully aware of not only what type of system is best suited for in a home the size of yours, but in the distinctive conditions that come from living in Massachusetts.

Use Professionals You can rely on: A business is only as good as its standing. You want to do your analysis and make certain that the plumbers you select for the job possess a proven history of practical knowledge, professionalism, and above all, unimpeachable ethics. You want to know that the work carried out on your air conditioning system is guaranteed to last – and that if there’s any issues, help is merely a call away! Don’t trust your home’s comfort, safety, and security to any fly-by-night organization. Work with a plumber that has an established standing as part of the community.

Consider the Environment: Being enviromentally friendly means keeping cool can be good for yourself and for the natural environment. Discuss with your plumber or air conditioning specialist about energy-efficient systems that may substantially reduce your carbon footprint. In certain places, selecting more high efficiency systems can give you tax discounts and rebates from the utility company. Your North Shore plumber may be able to explain just what plans are available for your home, and help you decide on the perfect high efficiency, eco sensitive air conditioning system. Going green also favorably effects the resale price of your property, making this a sensible purchase.

Increase Your quality of life: Being uncomfortable, such as in a very hot, closed in area, is naturally stressful. Research has shown that lowered stress rates leads directly to far better wellbeing, improved pleasure with one’s well being, enhanced efficiency – that you can do superior work, faster, when you’re performing at your best. Are there areas in your life where you’d like to do better? Then go to the trouble to provide yourself a comfortable atmosphere to perform in. Air conditioning will help make certain that you are experiencing highest energy levels and make it easier to maintain concentration. Let’s admit it: it’s tough to concentrate on what you’re studying if you are constantly clearing off perspiration out of your face!

Enhance the Value of Your Home: Realtors will tell you: it’s a buyer’s marketplace at this time. With so many property owners desperate to unload their homes, prospective buyers may be picky. What exactly are they choosing? Most importantly: comfort. These are buyers who are going to hold onto the residences they obtain for a lengthier than normal time period: consider the instant appeal and selling power of an up-to-date, high efficiency, eminently comfortable residence to this current market. You’ll recover your expenditure simply.

You Snooze, You Lose! Don’t wait to call your Essex County plumber and reserve your scheduled appointment to acquire an air conditioning system installed or services. The moment the temperatures start climbing upward, the value of air conditioning becomes evident to anyone on the North Shore, and your plumber will be booked solid. If you know now that you’ll want to be comfortable this summer, take advantage of other people’s tendency to procrastinate.

Get your work taken care of ahead of time. That way when the heat wave strikes, you won’t have to wait days or several weeks for a position in the plumber’s schedule. You’ll be able to delight in the comfort of your home without having any worries!

Furnaces – Furnaces work by heating air and taking advantage offan pressure in order to push heated air through air ductwork located inside the walls in the home. Generally, furnaces utilize natural gas as fuel since itis both comfortably accessible and relatively affordable; then again, furnaces may also operate from electrical, propane, or oil.

A significant benefit (for residences within seasonal climates) of utilizing a furnace would be that the exact same ductwork enables you to cool your home in the summertime. Additional benefits include having the ability to filter air, humidify air, knowning that it gets the greatest AFUE level compared to every other heating system. AFUE is an acronym meaning “Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency”. Put simply, AFUE measures how much heat is really created compared to how much fuel that’s used.

A significant downside of furnaces could be that the pressurized air may stir up things that trigger allergies in your home. That is why you should have ductwork cleaned out fairly frequently. Additionally they consume space inside the walls that some other heating systems usually do not.

Central heating boiler – Boilers tend to be used to heat water that is pumped through radiators. Boilers may operate on a variety of energy sources like natural gas, oil, propane, or electricity. Temperature is adjusted largely by controlling the radiator. Each radiator includes a temperature control but only in that you could select whether you desire the baseboard to emit a bit or lot of heat; a defined temperature can’t be selected.

The benefit to central heating boilers are that they’re fairly low upkeep and are also quite compact. In addition they don’t stir up most of the contaminants in the air that forced air heating systems produce.

A few drawbacks to boiler heating systems are they can’t be combined with air cooling systems, and that they generally cost more to use than furnaces.

Radiant Heating – A third and less typical heating system is radiant heating. Radiant heating directly links the heating system to the flooring, wall space, or ceiling of the home, making an enveloping heating outcome. Under floor heating is common, and typically heats the residence utilizing either electrical power or water. Radiant heating systems usually do not normally dry out air and stir up things that trigger allergies like forced air heating systems, and consumers take pleasure in creating a comfortable floor area as opposed to getting chilly feet even when the air is warm within their home.

Electric radiant heating fuses wires to the floors in your home, and it is usually only cost effective when joined up with concrete. Even so, the benefit is virtually no energy is lost when converting energy to warmth. The typical heating period is about 30-60 minutes.

Hydronic radiant heating warms up homes by acquiring water from a centralized boiler, pushing it through pipes which are fused to the bottom of the floor surface. Of just about all the types of radiant heating, this is the most cost efficient when remaining on for prolonged periods of time. The typical heating time is from 4-8 hours.

Each forms of radiant heat methods possess disadvantages in that they’re challenging and pricey to install and repair, and primarily only beneficial in environments that are mainly cold. If damage does occur to a radiant heating system, the floors will have to be torn up so that you can locate and repair the problem.

For additional details and ideas to conserve water and energy and cash in your home, please feel free to get in touch with Winters Company CEO Timothy Flynn at tim.flynn@wintersplumbing.com or 978-381-0621. Winters Company is a proud member of Nexstar as well as the recipient of the Frank J Blau financial award. Honored with the Local Torch Award for Excellence from the Better Business Bureau in 2008 and the Angie´s List Super Service Award in 2004, 2006, and 2007, PlumbingFast.com a division of Winters Company is a home services organization based in Rowley Mass. Specializing in plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), and kitchen and bath remodeling projects.

Having a water heater break down is never a welcome event in your home. Often they are an unexpected expense, and it can be annoying if it happens at an inconvenient time, like the dead of winter, in the middle of the night, or on Christmas Day. But it would be even worse if your water heater begins to leak and damages other parts of your house, causing even more headaches and expense. It pays to familiarize yourself with how to shut down your water heater, should you ever have one develop a problem.

If your water heater is leaking or breaks down, protect your home and prevent widespread water damage with the following procedures:

1. Turn off Gas – Gas water heaters have a wide vent at the top. Turn the Gas Shut-Off Valve to OFF. Electric water heaters have an AC power cable at top; no side vent. Turn the power switch off (or use the circuit breaker).
2. Turn off the water supply by turning the cold water supply valve above the unit clockwise until it stops (or turn off the main water valve to your house) to avoid water damage (rust).
3. Drain the heater. If the water heater continues to leak and cause damage attach a garden hose to the drain valve at the bottom of the water heater. Run the other end of the hose to a lower elevation location where the hot and/or rusty water will not cause damage to plants or property. After opening the drain valve, you will also need to either open the hot side of a faucet in the house or pull up the lever on the pressure and temperature relief valve to allow air to enter the water heater.
4. Call Winters Plumbing at 978-381-0621 for fast, professional and courteous service.

Oil to gas conversions have been very popular with customers of Winters Company and homeowners across the country (especially in the Northern climes) for the past couple of years as a result of the dramatic price swings (usually up) in home heating oil. Although, as an expert in home heating, I personally would choose gas as my home heating fuel type, a homeowner has to carefully consider numerous factors before making the decision to convert from oil to gas. Despite the many advantages of gas heat, which currently include fuel prices, I would not automatically prescribe an oil-to-gas conversion for every home. There may be alternatives that could achieve better financial efficiency in the long run. Here are some factors to consider:

As a fan of gas heat, I prefer to start by looking at the many significant benefits of using natural gas for home heating. First, it currently costs up to ten percent less to heat a given home in New England with natural gas than it does to heat the same home with oil heat, based on the cost of fuel and heating systems currently in use. With prices as high as they are, that percentage can equate to a significant sum of money. Given the volatility that exists in areas of world where our oil originates, there’s no telling what will happen with oil prices. Many people believe that gas prices could remain more stable because natural gas comes from North America. However, this belief may or may not prove to be accurate in reality, so you have to consider whether you have a personal preference regarding where your fuel comes from.

Second, gas burners are generally more efficient at producing heat that oil burners, meaning gas burners themselves consume and therefore waste less energy in the process of creating heat for your home.

Third, gas burns more cleanly than oil, which creates less byproduct that could end up in the environment or be left behind to cause damage to equipment, necessitating more maintenance and repairs. Operating a gas heating system can be less expensive from that perspective.

There are other benefits that homeowners may consider important, such as the fact that switching to gas eliminates the need for large oil tanks, freeing up potentially useful space within the home. However, there are benefits to alternate solutions as well, so it is important to carefully consider arguments for not converting from oil to gas.

First of all, many experts, including advocates for oil, argue that oil has generally been less expensive than natural gas per BTU or unit of heat. Depending on how you measure cost, either oil or natural gas could come out a winner. At the present time, however, I personally would argue that gas has an advantage over oil when it comes to annual fuel costs, although that advantage may only be slight.

Oil advocates also argue that new oil burning systems are at least as efficient as natural gas systems, and they are by and large correct. If you have an oil burning system that is more than 15 or even 10 years old, you are missing out on very significant advances in efficiency that have been achieved through modern oil heating systems. Compared with gas burning systems, newer oil heating systems can be very competitive when it comes to efficiency.

When undergoing a conversion, there are many costs involved beyond just the new fuel and the new burner. Running a gas line to your home can cost $200 to over $3500, and removal of your existing oil tank can cost $600 to $1500. Furthermore, chimneys need to be narrower for gas burning systems than for oil, since the exhaust from burning natural gas is cooler and can condense in a chimney and corrode it if it is too wide. Installing an appropriate chimney liner can cost $600 to $1500. You can see how the fuel cost savings can quickly become erased by the upfront costs of undergoing a conversion, which is why it is important to find out what your specific conversion would require by collecting estimates for all pieces of your conversion project.

Lastly, and most importantly, keep in mind there are several ways of increasing the efficiency of your home, thereby reducing your heating costs, without doing anything to your heating system at all. Consider the value of adding insulation to ceilings and walls, adding weather stripping, or replacing doors and/or windows. Contact a qualified service provider to perform an energy audit in your home and find out what opportunities exist to waste less energy. Regardless of the type of system you have, you might be surprised at how much energy and money you can save.

Whether you choose to convert your home heating system, upgrade to a better system using the same type of fuel, or make no changes to your system (provided it is not outdated and inefficient), the most important thing is that you maximize its effectiveness by ensuring your home provides an efficient enclosure and does not simply leak your valuable heat outside. Once you consider the true cost of converting from oil to gas and carefully weigh your fuel use needs, you will be a much better position to decide whether a system conversion is right for you, your home, and your family.

Heating your water accounts for up to 30% of your home’s energy consumption. Therefore, it stands to reason that reducing the amount of energy needed to heat your water could significantly lower your energy use and energy bills. Tankless water heaters, otherwise known as instant or demand water heaters, are gaining popularity due to their small, compact design and energy efficiency.

What is a Tankless Water Heater?

A tankless water heater is an appliance that heats your water on demand rather than continually heating and storing a large amount of water in a tank like a traditional hot water heater. They come in point-of-use and whole-house versions, and there are electric tankless water heaters and natural gas or propane models. Some tankless units are sized to heat a cup of tea, others to provide enough hot water for 2 or more bathrooms.

How Tankless Water Heaters Work

The tankless water heater works by directly heating water on demand, as it is required. Unlike traditional hot water heaters using a storage tank, the tankless units have no storage tank and thereby have no standby heat loss. Whether a tankless water heater is point-of-use or a whole-house unit, they work the same basic way. When a hot water tap is opened, the cold water enters the tankless water heater, and a flow activated switch triggers the heating elements to turn on. The water is then heated as it flows through the tankless heater. The hot water supply line in your home carries hot water from the water heater to the various sinks and baths throughout the house.

Benefits of Tankless/Demand Water Heaters

In a home with a regular tank water heater, when you turn on a hot water faucet, all the water sitting in the supply lines has to pass through the pipes before hot water from the tank reaches the faucet. As a result, water may be wasted while waiting for hot water to arrive, which can be especially problematic when it comes to showers. Also, storage tanks have standby heat loss, which is the heat lost and energy wasted by heating and reheating water to keep it ready to use. A tankless water heater turns itself off when the faucet is closed, thus saving energy costs over the entire lifetime of the unit. Avoiding standby heat loss is primarily why tankless water heaters are considered energy efficient.

Lastly, tankless water heaters take up very little space compared with storage tank water heaters, so they’re a good solution for small homes such as condos and apartments, and it’s a major reason why they have been popular in homes in European cities for a long time.

Types of Tankless Water Heaters

There are different sizes and types of tankless water heaters, and the one you would choose depends on a few different factors. First, there is the volume of water the unit is required to heat, measured as flow rate in gallons per minute (GPM). This depends on whether you need it to heat water for your whole house or for only one or two points of usage, like a single shower or bathroom. Second, there is the temperature of the cold water entering the unit, which mainly depends on whether you live in the North where it is cold or the South where groundwater is warm. Last, there is the desired temperature of the hot water exiting the unit. Those three factors are what determine the type, size and possibly even the quantity of tankless water heaters you need, or whether you choose to install any, depending on the costs compared with traditional water heaters.

As mentioned, there are two basic types of tankless water heaters, point of use and whole house, either of which is available in electric or gas fired models. The type you select is based upon your intended use, your budget, and the amount of space you have to install your water heater(s). A point of use tankless water heater is relatively small and will usually fit inside a sink cabinet or in a closet. They are typically dedicated use heaters, meaning the unit serves one sink or faucet or one shower. Point of use tankless water heaters are less expensive than whole house units and cost around a few hundred dollars for a unit, not including installation. Whole house tankless water heaters have a higher gallon per minute (GPM) flow rate capacity and can handle demand for more than one fixture at a time. Whole house units are much more expensive than point of use units and cost from several hundred to several thousand dollars (without installation).

Installation and Maintenance

Proper installation and maintenance of your demand water heater can optimize its energy efficiency. Proper installation depends on many factors including fuel type, climate, local building code requirements, and safety issues, especially concerning the combustion of gas-fired water heaters. Therefore, it’s best to have a qualified plumbing and heating contractor install your demand water heater. When selecting a contractor, do the following: Request cost estimates in writing. Ask for references. Check the company with your local Better Business Bureau. See if the company will obtain a local permit if necessary and understands local building codes, etc.

Most tankless water heaters have a life expectancy of more than 20 years. They also have easily replaceable parts that extend their life by many more years. In contrast, storage water heaters last 10-15 years. Periodic water heater maintenance can significantly extend your water heater’s life and minimize loss of efficiency

Cambridge, MA — September 22, 2009 — Winters Company (http://www.wintersplumbing.com), an award-winning home services organization in Massachusetts specializing in plumbing, heating, and kitchen and bath remodeling, today announced that it has given away more than 500 free carbon monoxide detectors and residential heating system safety evaluations to area homeowners. The company has been giving away these products and services free of charge since March of this year when it initiated the program, focusing on a variety of home safety issues.

Winters Company began providing the inspections and detector installation service free of charge in response to winter time news reports of incidents and tragedies related to carbon monoxide poisoning, faulty home heating systems or improper ventilation. The company began promoting the free detectors in March to existing customers, and the program has grown in popularity due to word of mouth. The company hopes to uncover potentially dangerous issues before they become a problem, and will provide free estimates for any additional service that homeowners may need.

“What began primarily as a winter time safety program has led to an ongoing way for us to create or strengthen relationships with hundreds of customers,” said Winters Company President and CEO Timothy Flynn. “Especially now when we approach colder weather in the months ahead, homeowners appreciate what we can do to improve their safety and well being.”

Winters Company dispatches licensed and insured service representatives from its Natick and Cambridge locations to homeowners in Eastern Mass. who are concerned about their heating system and carbon monoxide. Any homeowner can be provided with a free detector by making an appointment with Winters Company. Homeowners or anyone seeking additional information about the free carbon monoxide detectors can call Winters Company at (617) 484-2121, visit http://www.wintersplumbing.com or email Winters Company President at tim.flynn@wintersplumbing.com.