Look, I'm not gonna sugarcoat this. Service calls in El Paso run you anywhere from $175 to $300 just to get a truck in your driveway. That's BEFORE we touch a wrench. You're paying for diesel, insurance that's gone through the roof, and the fact that there's maybe three competent plumbers left in this city who aren't gonna flood your house worse than it already is. Water heater replacement? You're looking at $1,800 for a basic 40-gallon tank if you catch us on a good day. Want tankless? That's $3,200 to $4,000 installed, and here's the thing nobody tells you - our hard water out here in West Texas will DESTROY those fancy systems if you don't maintain them. I've seen $4,000 Rinnais turn into expensive wall decorations after two years because homeowners skip the annual flush (costs about $150, way cheaper than replacement). Hydro-jetting your main line runs $400-$800 depending on how far we gotta go. Some cowboy outfits charge $150 and just snake it - that clears the clog for maybe three months before tree roots laugh at you again. Camera inspection adds another $200-$350, but it's the only way to know if your cast iron from 1965 is about to collapse.

Here's the cold hard truth: most burst pipes in El Paso happen between December and February when temperatures DROP suddenly (we hit 15°F last winter, pipes weren't ready). You wake up to water shooting from your ceiling or crawlspace flooding. First thing - SHUT OFF YOUR MAIN. It's usually by the street or where the line enters your house. Don't know where it is? You're gonna learn real fast at 2 AM when water's pouring into your living room. Emergency rates are brutal. $350-$500 just to show up after hours, then $200-$300 per hour for labor. I've seen simple fixes turn into $1,200 bills because panic makes people call the first number on Google (usually some dispatch service that takes 40% and sends the cheapest contractor). The damage though? That's where it gets expensive. Drywall replacement, flooring, potential mold remediation if you don't dry it out within 48 hours. I worked a house in the Upper Valley last year - frozen pipe in the attic, $800 plumbing fix, $15,000 in water damage restoration. Insurance covered most of it (minus their $2,500 deductible), but they were out of their house for three weeks.

Nobody talks about this enough. Our desert climate is BRUTAL on plumbing systems in ways people from Houston or Dallas don't deal with. Hard water is enemy number one. We're talking 12-15 grains per gallon in most areas (anything over 7 is considered hard). That mineral buildup will clog your aerators, destroy water heater elements, and turn your pipes into limestone caves over 10-15 years. I pull out P-traps that are 60% blocked with white calcium deposits. Temperature swings are the other killer - 85°F during the day, 25°F at night in January. PVC expands and contracts, joints start weeping. Copper pipes in exterior walls or attics? They're time bombs if they're not insulated (and most houses built before 2000 have garbage insulation in the walls). Summer heat cooks everything. I've measured 160°F in attics during July. That cooks the rubber washers in your shut-off valves, makes them brittle. Then when you finally try to turn off water to fix something, the valve breaks and now you've got a geyser.

I've been doing this for 25 years. Started as an apprentice making $8/hour, worked my way up. These days? Can't find young guys willing to crawl under houses in 110° heat or deal with sewage backups. There's maybe 40-50 legitimate licensed master plumbers in El Paso serving 900,000 people. The math doesn't work. We're all slammed, booked out 2-3 weeks for non-emergency work. That's why you see so many handymen doing plumbing without licenses - they're filling the gap (and doing it WRONG most of the time). This shortage drives prices up. Good journeyman plumbers make $65,000-$85,000 now. Master plumbers running their own operations? $120,000-$180,000 if they're hustling. That gets passed to you - labor rates went from $85/hour in 2020 to $135-$175/hour in 2026. And don't get me started on the parts supply chain. Used to be I could get any part same-day from local suppliers. Now? Specialty valves, certain fixtures - two weeks. That Kohler faucet cartridge? Three weeks backordered. So we either make you wait or rig something that works (I always disclose this, but some guys don't).

Look, there are guys who'll show up in a rusted F-150 with a bucket of random fittings and "fix" your problem for $75 cash. You're gonna pay for that "bargain" three times over. Red flags I see constantly: No license number on their truck or business card. Cash-only (they're dodging taxes AND warranty obligations). Can't explain what they're doing in terms you understand. Prices that seem too good - if someone quotes $600 for a water heater install when everyone else says $1,800, they're either using garbage equipment or cutting corners (no permit, no expansion tank, wrong venting). I've seen DIY nightmares too. YouTube makes it look easy. Then homeowners cross-thread supply lines, forget to use pipe dope or Teflon tape correctly, over-tighten compression fittings until they crack. The "I tried to fix it first" jobs always cost 30-50% more because now I'm fixing their fix AND the original problem. Proper licensing in Texas: we need a Journeyman or Master Plumber license from TSBPE (Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners). Ask for that license number. Look it up online. Takes two minutes, saves thousands in potential damages.

Most houses in El Paso are slab foundation. Great for our soil conditions, TERRIBLE when you get a leak in the copper lines running under that concrete. Detecting slab leaks: your water bill jumps $60-$100 for no reason, you hear water running when everything's off, hot spots on your floor, cracks appearing in flooring or walls. Electronic leak detection runs $350-$500 - we use equipment that listens for the leak through the concrete. Repair options get expensive fast. Jackhammer through the slab, fix the pipe, repour concrete and replace flooring - that's $2,000-$3,500 for one spot. But here's what I tell people: if your house was built in the 70s or 80s and you found ONE slab leak, the rest of those copper lines are probably corroded too. You're gonna play whack-a-mole, fixing one leak after another. Full repipe (abandoning the slab lines, running new PEX through the attic and down walls): $6,500-$12,000 depending on house size and how many fixtures. Sounds insane until you consider that second and third slab leak repair. I did a house in Kern Place - they'd fixed three slab leaks over five years, spent $8,000 total. Finally repiped for $9,200. Should've done it after leak number one.

I'm gonna save you thousands right now with stuff that takes 30 minutes a year. Flush your water heater annually. Sediment builds up (especially with our hard water), reduces efficiency, causes early failure. It's a $150 service call or a YouTube video and an hour of your time. Do it every October. Test your main shut-off valve twice a year. Just turn it off and back on (when nobody's showering). If it's stuck or leaking, fix it NOW for $250-$400. Don't wait until you need it in an emergency and it breaks off, flooding everything ($500 emergency repair PLUS water damage). Check your sump pump if you have one (some basements in the Westside have them). Pour water in the pit, make sure it kicks on. Battery backup systems need new batteries every 3-4 years. Replace washing machine hoses every 5 years. Those rubber ones? They WILL burst eventually. Braided stainless steel lasts longer but still needs replacing. $30 in hoses versus $3,000 in water damage when you're not home and it floods for six hours. Here's what kills me - people spend $80,000 on a kitchen remodel with fancy fixtures, then never maintain anything. That garbage disposal needs to run regularly (not just when it's full). Those shut-off valves under sinks should be exercised once a year. The main line should be scoped and cleaned every 3-5 years if you have older pipes or trees nearby ($400-$600 saves you from a $8,000 emergency main line replacement).