These terms cover using this website and having us do heating and air, plumbing or electrical work. The parts most likely to matter to you are section 3, what a price on this site does and does not commit us to, section 6, which licences cover which trade, and section 8, what the warranty covers and where equipment warranties differ from ours.
These terms are between you and Bulwark Home Services Inc., which operates as Bulwark Trades, of 720 Industrial Blvd Ste 500, Grapevine, TX 76051. Using this site, submitting the form or booking work means you accept them.
It describes the services we offer and lets you ask us to come out. Submitting the form is a request, not a booking. Work is scheduled when we confirm it with you directly.
We try to keep the site accurate, but service descriptions are general. What is right for your house depends on what a technician finds when they look at it.
We price by the job rather than by the hour. The sequence is always the same:
No figure quoted on this site, over the phone, or by text is binding until it is given to you in writing on site and approved by you. Phone estimates are a range based on what you have described, and they change if what we find differs from what was described.
If we find more than the quote assumed. All three of these trades run out of sight: duct in attics and chases, water lines behind walls and under slabs, wiring inside finished walls. If opening the work up reveals something the approved price did not cover, we stop, show you, and give you a revised price before continuing. We do not carry on and bill you for it afterwards.
The diagnostic fee. We charge a fee to send a licensed technician out and diagnose the problem: $89 to $99 during normal business hours, and $149 to $199 after hours, weekends and holidays. It pays for the visit itself, so it is earned once the technician arrives whether or not you go ahead with the work. That range covers all three trades. Where a diagnosis needs specialist equipment beyond a standard visit, a sewer camera inspection, a refrigerant charge analysis or an electrical fault trace, we tell you the price of that before we run it, not afterwards on the invoice.
If you authorize the repair, the fee is credited in full against the price of that repair, so you are not paying twice. You are told the amount on the phone before we send anyone, never when the invoice appears.
The 60 minute arrival we refer to is a target for genuine emergencies in our core service area, not a contractual guarantee. Traffic, weather, and the fact that the truck ahead of yours may be standing in someone else's flooded kitchen all affect it. We will give you an honest arrival window when you call, and tell you if it slips.
We work across the DFW metroplex. Availability and response time vary by distance, and for outlying cities we schedule rather than dispatch. If we cannot get to you in a reasonable time we will say so rather than book you and run late.
Texas licenses these three trades separately, under separate regulators. We hold them separately too, and this section says exactly where each one stands.
Plumbing. Performed under a Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners licence held by our Responsible Master Plumber, Jared J. Allen, licence 47173. The TSBPE regulates plumbing in Texas. Complaints can be made to the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners on (512) 936-5200, Monday to Friday 7:30am to 4:30pm, or via the complaint form at tsbpe.texas.gov.
Heating and air conditioning. Performed under a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation air conditioning and refrigeration contractor licence, [PENDING: taclb_license], held by [PENDING: acr_contractor_name]. TDLR regulates air conditioning and refrigeration contracting in Texas and takes complaints at [PENDING: tdlr_complaint_contact].
Electrical. Performed under a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation electrical contractor licence, [PENDING: tecl_license], with master electrician of record [PENDING: master_electrician]. TDLR is also the regulator for electrical work.
Refrigerant. Technicians who open a sealed refrigerant circuit hold EPA Section 608 certification, and refrigerant we recover is handled and documented as federal rules require.
To do the work we need safe access to the property and to whatever the job involves: the attic, the equipment platform, the condenser and the disconnect, the fixtures and main shut off, the panel, and an adult over 18 present who can authorize the work. You confirm that you own the property or are authorized to approve work on it.
Attic and crawl space work needs a usable route to the equipment. Where access is unsafe, blocked, or does not meet the clearance the code requires, we will tell you what has to change before we can work, rather than improvise around it.
Please tell us about anything we could not reasonably know: previous repairs, pipe material, where lines run, prior electrical work, solar or battery systems, pets, alarm systems, and anything under a slab or in a yard we might dig. We are not liable for damage to unmarked private lines, irrigation, low voltage or landscaping features we were not told about and could not reasonably locate.
Our workmanship is warranted from the date the job is completed. One year on labor is the baseline, and the bigger the job the longer we stand behind it:
| Work | Warranty |
|---|---|
| Service and repair, all three trades | 1 year labor |
| Air conditioning, furnace and heat pump installation | 2 years labor |
| Water heater and fixture installation | 2 years labor |
| Repipes, sewer and water line replacement, excavation | 3 years |
| Panel and service replacement, rewires | 3 years labor |
| Drain cleaning | No warranty against re-clog |
Drain cleaning is the exception and we would rather say so plainly than bury it. Clearing a line restores flow on the day. It cannot stop the line filling again, because what caused the blockage, grease, roots, a bellied pipe or a broken section, is usually still there. That is why we camera the line afterwards: so you can decide about the cause rather than pay us to clear the same drain twice.
Equipment warranty is not the same thing as our warranty, and the difference matters most on HVAC. Manufacturer warranties on parts and equipment we install are registered in your name and are governed by the manufacturer's terms, which are usually longer than ours. On air conditioning and heating equipment those terms normally require the system to be registered within a set window after installation, and several manufacturers require documented annual maintenance to keep the parts warranty alive. We register the equipment for you and tell you what the manufacturer expects; keeping to it after that is yours to decide.
A manufacturer parts warranty covers the part. It does not usually cover the labour to fit it, the refrigerant, or the call out. Our labour warranty above is what covers that, for as long as it runs.
If something we repaired or installed fails inside the warranty period, tell us and we will come back and put it right at no charge for the covered work.
The warranty does not cover: damage from misuse, freezing, power surges or storm damage, or work done by somebody else after us; parts or equipment you supplied; pre-existing conditions we identified in writing and you chose not to address; problems in a different part of the system than the one we worked on; failures caused by neglected filters, blocked returns or ductwork we quoted and you chose not to have corrected; or normal wear on a repair we told you was a temporary measure.
The warranty covers the person who paid for the work and does not transfer automatically if the property is sold. If you are selling and want it to carry across, ask us and we will look at it case by case.
Exact terms are printed on your invoice. Where the invoice and this page differ, the invoice governs, because it describes the specific job.
Payment is due on completion, before the technician leaves. On larger jobs we bill in two parts: a 50 percent deposit when the work is scheduled, and the balance at completion.
We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, ACH and check. If you want to spread the cost of a larger job, ask us and we will tell you what is available at the time.
Late balances carry interest at 1.5 percent per month, an annual rate of 18 percent, or the maximum the law allows, whichever is less.
Texas law gives contractors lien rights on unpaid work. We would always rather resolve a dispute by talking to you.
Please give us at least 24 hours if you need to move or cancel an appointment. That is enough for us to give the slot to somebody else who is waiting.
The full diagnostic fee applies when a technician arrives inside the agreed window and either cannot get access to the property or the equipment, or there is no adult over 18 there to authorize the work. It does not apply if we are the ones running late, or if you cancel with reasonable notice.
By giving us your phone number you agree that we may call and text you about your request and any resulting work, including using automated systems. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out of texts, or tell the office. Consent to marketing messages is not a condition of us doing work for you, and opting out does not affect messages about a job already booked.
If you smell gas, leave the building and call your gas utility from outside before you call us. If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get everyone outside and call 911 or the gas utility, then us: we will not run a furnace again until the heat exchanger has been inspected. If there is standing water near electrical equipment, or a panel is arcing, smoking or hot to the touch, do not enter and do not attempt to switch anything; call the power utility or 911. Nothing on this site is a substitute for shutting off the water at the main, killing power at the meter, or calling emergency services when the situation calls for it.
The text, photographs, layout and brand marks on this site belong to us or are used under licence. Please do not copy them for another contracting business. Links to other sites are for convenience and we are not responsible for what is on them, with the exception of bulwarkplumbing.com, which is our own site for the plumbing side of the same company.
The website is provided as is. We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted or error free, or that the general information on it applies to your particular property.
This section does not limit our liability for the work itself. Our warranty in section 8 stands, and nothing here excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded. Subject to that, our liability arising from a job is limited to the amount you paid for it, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss.
Call us first. Most complaints are a misunderstanding about scope and are fixed in one phone call. If that does not resolve it, either of us can take the matter to court.
If the work itself is the issue, you can also raise it with the regulator for that trade: the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners for plumbing, or the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for air conditioning and for electrical work. Contact details are in section 6. That route is open to you whatever we say here.
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, and the courts of Tarrant County, Texas have jurisdiction.
We may update these terms. The version that applies to your job is the one published when the work was approved.
Bulwark Trades
720 Industrial Blvd Ste 500, Grapevine, TX 76051
(972) 440-5366
scott@bulwarktrades.com
These terms were drafted to reflect how the business actually operates. They have not been reviewed by an attorney. Have Texas counsel review them before launch, particularly sections 6, 8, 9, 14 and 15, confirm the TSBPE and TDLR complaint wording, and confirm that the equipment warranty language in section 8 matches what the manufacturers we actually install require.