Our house, and thus water heater, is 15 years old. We've never done anything to maintain the water heater -- this was the first house we bought, and I had no clue I had to do anything to maintain a water heater. Here in Payson, we have VERY hard water, so there's probably 48 gallons of minerals built up in that 50-gallon heater.

Now, we're getting some water on the concrete floor below the water heater.

I'm just going to replace it now, since it's probably not long til it would have to be done anyway.

What's the best route to do this? Just go to Home Depot or Sears and have their installers put it in? But a water heater on my own and call a plumber? Call a plumber and have them install one of theirs?

I'm a water-heater newbie. But I have a wife and two daughters. If we don't have HOT water, we may as well not even have water.