It is essential that you look into the qualifications of anyone that you hire to work on a water main construction project. Local, state, and federal licensing requirements must be met for anyone that constructs water mains. The licensing requirements for your area are available from your municipal building inspector.

Before getting an estimate, ask if the company owns the construction equipment it uses or if it rents the equipment for each job. When a construction company owns the equipment it uses, the cost of the job is often much cheaper.

Ask for estimates from more than one construction company. At the very least, you may be able to find a more competitive price by gauging the different estimates against each other. However, you could also end up driving the price down further if you give construction companies the opportunity to outdo each other on price.

Never pay a deposit of half the total estimated cost of the job. There is no reason for you to pay this much as a deposit. You should expect to pay roughly 25 per cent of the estimated cost as a deposit.