Plumbers in Gilbert

Early in the last century, Gilbert called itself the hay shipping capital of the world. The fields lasted a long time. Then, starting in the 1990s, they turned into subdivisions nearly all at once, and the town grew to roughly a quarter of a million people in about twenty-five years.

That pace left Gilbert with an unusually synchronized housing stock. Whole neighborhoods were framed, plumbed in copper or PEX, and fitted with the same builder-grade water heaters within a year or two of one another. Which means they wear out within a year or two of one another. When one house on a street calls about a leaking tank, the neighbors are rarely far behind.

The pipes are young and mostly healthy. The weak points are the parts with burners, elements, and moving parts: water heaters, softeners, pressure regulators, and irrigation valves. A few habits help. Drain a bucket from the bottom of the heater once a year and see what sediment comes out with it. Check the date on the heater’s label; if it is past ten years, price a replacement now, calmly, instead of at 6 a.m. with water across the garage floor. Tank versus tankless runs the long-term math on the choice, and the hard water calculator shows what the minerals cost you in the years between.