A leaky faucet or a water heater with a bad tank can cost a homeowner hundreds of dollars a month.What’s even worse is not having the money to fix it or not knowing it’s a problem in the first place.
On Saturday, March 28, plumbers from Local 34 in St. Paul and Local 15 spanned out across the Twin Cities in an effort to help others through “Water’s Off,” their one day in the year when they diagnose and fix whatever they can for homeowners in need but who can’t afford a plumber.
“We work with community action programs in Washington and Ramsey county (St. Paul) and Local 15 works with the counties on their side of the river. There are people who are on energy assistance programs,” said Local 34 Business Manager Dean Gale. “Those people are offered the opportunity to participate in this program in order to get plumbing help.”
The typical work done in the program during the day are replacing kitchen faucets, things like pipes that have worn out over the years, fixing drains and repairing toilets.
“When we go into a house, we use a checklist. We check all their plumbing for deficiencies. We identify repairs we can make in a two to three hour window because our crews have multiple jobs we have to do today,” explained Gale.
Typically we’ll do things like replace a kitchen faucet, replace a shower valve, rebuild toilets – things like that. When we get into bigger projects like they might need a water heater or things that’ll take more time than we have we write up a recommendation and leave it with the home owner. We try to make minor repairs we can make in one day.”
When the plumbers are volunteering work on these houses they find many times they are 100 years old. They have some very old plumbing. Luckily, the union plumbers are well versed in dealing with problems. They can diagnose and fix things. If a problem turns out to be a bit stickier, they’ll go back the following week to finish things up.
That effort to go the extra mile is repaid in gratitude.
Tony Mitshulis, a Local 34 member who works for Kraft Mechanical, recalls one particular instance where we they were able to drain someone’s kitchen sink that hadn’t been drained in 10 years. “I see it in their faces… when someone can finally take a hot shower or a sink that works. I know they appreciate it, and we appreciate it just as much,” says Mitshulis.
Says Gale, “It’s our feel good moment. We are a part of the public and we show we care.”
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