What you're actually agreeing to
A "free estimate" means a company sends someone to your house at no charge to look at the problem and give you a price. It's a sales call. There's nothing wrong with that, and plenty of good plumbers do it, but it's worth being clear-eyed: the person in your kitchen is there to close a job, and the companies that advertise it hardest are often the ones that have built their business on what happens in the next 45 minutes.
The Illinois Attorney General's lawsuit against a large Chicago-area plumbing company, filed this fall, lays out the pattern in detail: technicians on commission, a tablet with options you can't read, pressure to sign now, and, in the allegations, unlicensed people doing the work. We've covered it here. Everything below is how you avoid being that homeowner.
The nine questions
1. Are you a licensed plumber? Can I see the license? In Illinois, plumbing work has to be done by a licensed plumber or an apprentice under direct supervision. The license is a card with a number, issued by the Illinois Department of Public Health or the City of Chicago. A professional shows it without blinking. "The company is licensed" is not the same answer; ask about the person who will do the work.
2. Who, exactly, will be doing the work? The estimator and the installer are often different people. Ask whether the installer is a licensed journeyman, an apprentice, or a subcontractor, and whether they're an employee of the company on the truck.
3. What is wrong, specifically, and how do you know? A real diagnosis names a part, a location and a cause. "Your system is failing" or "this is all original and needs to be updated" is not a diagnosis. If they're recommending a sewer replacement, ask to see the camera footage. If they're recommending a water heater, ask what failed.
4. What's the full price, and what could change it? Get the complete number for the work described: parts, labor, permit, disposal, everything. Then ask what would make it go up and by how much. "We won't know until we open it up" is sometimes honest, but the honest version comes with a range and a promise to stop and call before exceeding it.
5. Does this need a permit, and who pulls it? In Chicago, most plumbing beyond a like-for-like fixture swap requires a permit, and water heater replacements do too. A company that says "you don't need a permit" for work that needs one is saving themselves time at your expense; the problem surfaces when you sell or when an inspector notices.
6. Why this option and not a cheaper one? Good-better-best menus are a sales technique. Ask what the "good" option actually leaves undone, and whether the plumber would do it in their own house. Ask what happens if you do nothing for a year.
7. Can I have this in writing to think about? Any quote that expires when the technician leaves the house is designed to prevent a second opinion. A fair price today is a fair price tomorrow. "This discount is only if you sign now" is your cue to say thank you and call someone else.
8. What am I signing? Don't sign a screen you can't read in full. Ask for the document emailed to you before you sign, or printed. Read the financing terms if there are any; some "payment plans" are high-interest loans with the plumbing company as the lead generator.
9. What's your cancellation policy? Then read the next section, because Illinois law answers part of this for you.
What Illinois law gives you
For home repair contracts over $1,000, the Illinois Home Repair and Remodeling Act requires a written contract that includes the total cost, and requires the contractor to give you the state's "Home Repair: Know Your Consumer Rights" pamphlet. If a contract was signed in your home as the result of a sales visit, the federal Cooling-Off Rule generally gives you three business days to cancel a purchase over $25 — and the seller is required to tell you that and give you a cancellation form. A company that doesn't mention your right to cancel is already breaking a rule.
If something goes wrong, the Illinois Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division takes home-repair complaints. Keep your paperwork, your photos and your texts.
Red flags, short version
- Won't show a license, or shows the company's but not the person's.
- Price jumps once they're in the basement, with no new finding.
- Recommends replacement without diagnostics (no camera for sewer, no testing for a heater).
- Discount that disappears if you don't sign today.
- Tablet signature with no printed or emailed copy.
- "No permit needed" for a permit job.
- Pushes financing before explaining the work.
How to make a free estimate work for you
Get two or three for anything over a couple thousand dollars. Tell each company you're getting others; a good one won't mind. Use the first visit's diagnosis to sharpen your questions for the second. Compare line items, not just totals. And decide on your own schedule, in your own kitchen, with nobody standing over you.
Plumbers 911 Chicago dispatches union plumbers from Plumbers Local 130 who completed a five-year apprenticeship and hold a City of Chicago or State of Illinois license. Ask them every question on this list; they'll expect it. Call 833-758-6911, any hour, and a live person answers.