the plumbing company charged 800 dollars to change my main shut-off valve. why do people allow tradies to scam us like this?
the plumbing company charged 800 dollars to change my main shut-off valve.
the plumbing company charged 800 dollars to change my main shut-off valve. why do people allow tradies to scam us like this?
if you were dumb enough to agree to that, its your own fault. get everything in writing before giving permission to do repairs
I just paid $325 last week in Marin Co., CA for the same service.
It would depend on the difficulty of work (hours put in especially), and your location.
I don't believe any licensed, bonded, insured legal labor is cheap anywhere in the Bay Area.
"i'd like to get an estimate"
that was their estimate
Call someone else or do it yourself. If youre on city water buy a curb key and use it to shut off the valve at the street. Turn on all the faucets in your house to drain the system, then cut out your old valve, get two slip coulings or two unions and a new ball valve and solder it all together. Or you could use shark bite fittings like a homosexual
i would have done it myself, but i didn't have the sleeves for doing a high quality vertical solder. the plumbing company used some kind of compression device to squeeze the pipe onto the valve. that would be nice to have, but i'd be spending a few thousand dollars on something that i would never use. anyways, i watched them do it so i think i know the right techniques to use in the future to do it myself
I really really hope that this entire thread is just bait
lol you are aware there is more way than one way to connect pipe together right? You don’t need to use a $1000 crimp tool
They're like $65
>If youre on city water buy a curb key and use it to shut off the valve at the street
can you legally do this? I feel like I can shut my off with a socket and breaker bar
Utility gay here, don't touch my curb stop, also don't let your plumber touch my curb stop either. You need to call me and I'll do it correctly. You wouldn't believe how many fricking idiots break them and I gotta fix it. I make sure I get OT though I ain't doing that shit for free.
you'll do it for straight time on a monday morning and you'll fricking like it b***h
>Two unions
>Two slip couplings
>Two
Shit bud might as well just throw two valves in too at that point.
*facepalm*
Yes two you fricking moron. Youre going to cut out more than just the valve and will need a small pieces of pipe into the new valve which you can solder on a vice instead of inplace to make it easier. Installing a union on only one side of a valve is the most useless assanine thing Ive ever heard.
>in b4 why not just use one coupling
Makes it easier to get everything the right size
Nah. just put a shutoff for your shutoff, just as overkill as two unions.
More joints = more possible failures
Way easier to solder in place when it's tight than install two unions.
>Assanine
>Will need a small pieces of pipe
Are you drunk ? Ask me how I know you've never worked threaded pipe lol
Your argument somehow sucks even more wieners than you do. It takes like very little practice to solder well unless you are blind drunk with parkinson's
How does one diy maintain homosexual "propress" shit ?
Oh, yeah, by replacing it completely.
>Or you could use shark bite fittings like a homosexual
Lost thanks for the laugh
Don't touch the outside valve. Use dry ice. Thank me later.
well, what was your fricking second estimate?!?!
The quicker they get to you, the more they charge
Basic business stuff
You must be a commie. FOAD.
Sounds like more of a (you) problem.
I paid only 400 dollarydoos for somebody to install, wire, and plumb a water heater in a different location than the old one.
I bought the water heater myself.
I just did it myself with pex and a borrowed compression squeeze tool thing. Still had to pay for a gas guy though, $250. He helped me carry the old tank out so well worth the money.
i needed to change the plumbing of my shower, and the old valve was not closing all the way. maybe they would have fixed my shower as well at this price
All the more reason you should learn how to change our main shut-off valve.
"People" didn't allow you to get ripped off. You did.
Did this myself about two weeks ago. We are finishing our basement. The pressure regulator and the main shutoff both had a super, super slow leak. I just hung paper towel over them and they were dry at the bottom. No issues for months. But not going to drywall over a slow leak so had to do something about it.
Pic related is end result. Shark bite makes things super easy. But if you’re going to do more than like 3 connections, get the crimper because the incremental cost is much cheaper. All this was like $180
wtf.... bro
Yep plenty of crack lol master shutoff and a pressure gauge before and after the regulator that rare?
I'm not giving you shit about the presence of gauges or a shutoff....
Those Watts pressure gauges tend to go to shit and show incorrect readings when subjected to continuous use, so I hope you won't keep them pressurized.
Why do you have two valves inline with each pressure gauge? Why do you have two valves inline just upstream of the high side pressure gauge tee?
Did you feel like 3/4" pex wasn't going to bottleneck your houses system? 3/4 PEX is approx equal to 1/2 copper because of the way that PEX fittings throttle down the interior diameter of the pipe.
You mention drywalling over your main shutoff???? If you're going to drywall over this, then at least leave yourself a big enough access panel to cut out the entire mess and replace it later.
I actually don't shit on sharkbites as much as most people do, but it's not a good idea to install one with radial/bending force on the pipe coming out of it like in the far right of your pic. Especially upstream of the main shutoff lol. Hopefully you have another easily accessible shutoff outside or something.
Yeah the pressure gauges aren’t constantly pressurized. Dual valves there due to ease of going from 3/4 pex to hose thread.
Dual valve for the high side is in case one goes to shit.
I did put a 14”x14” access panel over it.
Flow rate is fine and in fact better in a couple places due to replacing 1/2” copper with 3/4” pex for some longer runs. That’s even with dropping the pressure from the original street pressure (previous regulator was maxed out) of 110 psi to 70 psi.
Outside shutoff isn’t super accessible but I could do it in 60-90 seconds if necessary. Wife maybe 3-4 min.
I will work on the bending forces though, thanks for the heads up on that.
Thanks for your critique.
lol wtf is going on here
Did the $180 you spent on supplies include the crack that you smoked before crafting this masterpiece?
Bro do the world a favor and just learn to solder. It's easy and actually looks good; and, would have been way cheaper, to top it off.
Also the two valves next to each other: why ?
Crimp = cringe
>crimp = cringe
Just say you don’t know shit about plumbing
This homie really put isolators for his isolators so he could do online maintenance when his homosexual shark bite shit pops off down the line.
Going to send this to my coworkers, so we can laugh at you
>t. plumber
Yo dawg, we put a valve on your valve so you can change your valve when your valve breaks.
Just get a propress
>But muh plastic o rings
Unless youre a craftsman, people will make fun of your boogery soldder joints. The sleek look of zoomlock gets all the neighborhood milfs wet.
>Man babies who can’t use a tool have to pay real men to fix things for them. PrepHole armchair handymen offer solutions
Plumber here; you will pay the price, man baby.
Seriously, though, what are the margins for a small plumbing business?
I know people get screwed with tech support, especially if they come to the house, because they are tech illiterate people.
I'll give you a tip, they make a lot of their money from the parts, not just the labor. Every time they put something new in, get a breakdown cost and then google the parts to see how much they actually are, and then take off 40% of that cost to get the cost that they paid for it at the local plumbing supply wholesaler
What's their NET profit margin annually? I always hear, generally in business, it's hard to make more than 20% profit, with exceptions.
Generally most plumbing companies are making like 10-20% profit. the rest is eaten up by taxes, insurance, training, maintenance of tools and vehicles, marketing, and pay for office people. Taxes and insurance takes up so much money it's ridiculous. Ontop of that as well if your guys start fricking up and causing water damage to homes it just gets even worse.
Part mark ups help but it's not a saving grace, plumbers usually get some commission on the part mark up but it's a lower amount and some shops don't even give that.
>insurance takes up so much money it's ridiculous.
Blame the shit actors. Literally. If 10% of the business wasn't constantly fricking shit up insurance would be 75% cheaper. It's the reason you should be terrified anytime someone goes 'let's relax regulations to get more people working'.
Not just that, but the industry is actively trying to erase small players. It used to be that you needed two pipe wrenches, a hacksaw and a propane torch and you could do 99% of plumbing jobs. Nowadays you need more than $10,000 just to get started
>It used to be that you needed two pipe wrenches, a hacksaw and a propane torch and you could do 99% of plumbing jobs. Nowadays you need more than $10,000 just to get started
this place cracks me up
Care to elaborate?
How are they doing that?
You literally cannot bid on municipal jobs because even replacing a small portion of drain requires renting $500,000 of gear shipped from another state and you are never going to get a good rate for it as a new player in the game.
I did it myself. The valve on the municipal system is the shut off. The one at the house is for convenience.
They scammed you because it is true what they say "Life is hard, it is harder if you are stupid"
Plumber wanted to charge me $7000 to dig up my sewer pipe. I ended to doing it on a Saturday with two friends and $150 in parts.
>plumber wanted money for work
>luckily my and my friends labor is free
>$5K a day for labor is a reasonable and sane rate and not at all a fricking scam ripoff
>dood just do a days worth of digging for a case of beer
>thats how businesses should run
what are the biggest expenses for tradies? there's no way that they are only making average wages when they are charging hundreds an hour
what the company charges and what the wagie gets are two different things
i mean more for family businesses
insurance, equipment, training
not too hard to figure out
What trades in your state/city are unionized?
Do they pay well?
How many years of school/apprenticeship do they require?
I started a job doing hvac work in a laboratory, but because of the location, and lack of education, I had to learn on the job. Now I feel like a one trick pony chained to my employer.
Is going to school worth it if some of the stuff I learn is redundant?
learn to code