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TapwellPlumbing & GasCall
About Tapwell

Two plumbers, four vans, and a phone that somebody answers

Tapwell started because of a Sunday. Not a business plan — a Sunday, in 2016, when a family in Willetton rang nine plumbers about a burst pipe and got nine voicemails.

0491 570 156See the invoices
Trading since
2016
Plumbing licence
PL 7742
Gas licence
GF 3318
Vans
Four, all camera-equipped
The start

How it started

Dan Whitlock had been on the tools for eleven years, most of it for a large outfit where the after-hours phone went to an answering service in another state and the jobs came through the next morning sorted by nothing in particular. He took that Willetton call because a mate forwarded it to him at home.

The house had been flooding for four hours. Not because it was difficult, and not because nobody was available — but because at some point the industry decided that answering the phone after five was somebody else's job.

So the whole business was built backwards from that one thing. The phone gets answered by a plumber, at any hour, before anything else about the business is decided. Everything since — the fixed pricing, the published invoices, the twelve-month warranty — has been an argument for why somebody should keep ringing that number rather than a cheaper one.

Who turns up

Two names, and the licences against them

There is no roster of subcontractors behind this. If you book Tapwell, one of these two is on the job.

  • Dan Whitlock

    Plumbing Contractor · PL 7742

    17 years on the tools

    Does most of the emergency work and all of the drain diagnostics, which is why there is a camera on every van rather than one shared between them. Answers the after-hours phone four nights out of seven.

    Will talk you through shutting your own water off rather than charging you to drive out and do it — which has cost this business real money and brought back considerably more.

  • Sam Ortega

    Gas Fitting · GF 3318

    12 years, the last eight on gas

    Holds the gas licence and does the appliance work, hot water changeovers and compliance. Every gas certificate this business has ever issued has her name on it.

    Is the reason gas has its own page on this site instead of a line at the bottom of another one. It is a separate licence and most plumbers do not hold it.

Checkable

Everything you are entitled to ask for

Everything below is checkable, and you are entitled to check it before letting anyone into your house.

Plumbing Contractor licence
PL 7742
Gas Fitting licence
GF 3318
ABN
62 145 908 337
Insurance
$20 million public liability, certificate on request
Warranty
12 months on workmanship, in writing on every invoice
Hours
24 hours, 7 days — including public holidays
  • Master Plumbers and Gasfitters Association of WA
  • Plumbers Licensing Board of Western Australia
How we work

Four things, in the order they were decided

Everything else in this business is downstream of the first one.

  • The phone, first

    Every other decision in this business is downstream of somebody answering. It is not a service level — it is the actual product.

  • The price before the work

    An hourly rate makes the customer carry the risk of the plumber being slow. A job price puts it back where it belongs.

  • Show, do not tell

    The camera screen gets turned around. The thermal image gets shown. The pressure test result gets read out. People believe what they have seen.

  • The honest no

    Telling somebody their hot water unit has five years left costs us a sale about once a week. It is the single best thing we do for the business and we did not plan it that way.

The vans

What is on the van

Most jobs finish on the first visit because of what is already in the vehicle. This is the actual list.

  • High-pressure jetter and a root-cutting head
  • CCTV drain camera with a sonde locator
  • Acoustic leak detection gear and a thermal camera
  • Hot water units in the three sizes that come up most, in gas and electric
  • Electronic gas detector and a combustion analyser
  • Tap, mixer and toilet spares for the brands common in these suburbs
What people say

The reason this business has never advertised

  • Hot water replacement

    “Hot water died on a Sunday morning with a house full of guests. Someone answered on the second ring, told me straight away it was probably the tank rather than something cheap to fix, and gave me the price over the phone. We had hot water again by mid-afternoon and the final bill was less than the quote.”

  • Blocked sewer and reline

    “Showed me the camera footage of the roots in the pipe on a screen rather than just telling me it was blocked, and marked where it was on the lawn. Quoted the reline right there and did not push me to decide on the spot. Very easy to deal with.”

Ten years on

Four vans, two licences, and a phone that still gets answered by somebody who can fix what you are describing. We have never advertised on the radio and we have never cold-called anybody.

If you are weighing us up against a cheaper quote, the fair thing to say is this: sometimes the cheaper quote is the right call, and we would rather you rang them than felt talked into us. What we will not do is be the quote that starts low and finishes high.

Open 24/7

Ring us and find out whether you need us

It costs nothing to describe what is happening to somebody who can tell you what it probably is. If it can wait until morning we will say so.

0491 570 156Book a plumber instead

Plumbing Contractor PL 7742 · Gas Fitting GF 3318 · 12 months on workmanship, in writing on every invoice