Reasonable Cost?

I recently had a small job done by a plumber, and I'm wondering if I got a bargain, paid a typical price for this task, or was overcharged. This is in the greater Los Angeles area. I'd appreciate some feedback on the reasonableness of what I was charged. Here are the details.

I had a 30-year old wobbly toilet. Plumber came out to inspect the job. He said he would remove the toilet, remove the old flange, install a new flange, and then reinstall the toilet. Said it would take a couple of hours, and the price would be $250. I agreed to that. He returned the next day and did what he said. It took him 1 hour and 45 minutes, 30 minutes of which were a trip by him to a nearby Home Depot to purchase the correct size/style/type flange - different than the small selection he already had on his truck. Toilet is now firm, and I'm satisfied with it.

Comments?

Thanks.

Reply to
CWLee
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Sounds reasonable. I might get it a little cheaper here (SW Fla) but this is not LA.

Reply to
gfretwell

"CWLee" wrote > I had a 30-year old wobbly toilet. Plumber came out to

Not a bargain, not a royal screwing though. You usually pay $100 jut to have them walk through the door and about $80 to $120 an hour for labor. Unless it was done recently, I'd have him rebuild the toilet while there. Only a few bucks more at that point.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

In article , "CWLee" wrote: [...]

The relevant sentences in your post are these: "... the price would be $250." "I agreed to that." "Toilet is now firm, and I'm satisfied with it."

The guy quoted you a price, you agreed to it, he did the job, you're satisfied with the results -- what's the problem?

Reply to
Doug Miller

Probably about what my plumber would charge. You have to consider their traveling time and initial call to evaluate problem and give estimate. Cost and maintenance of truck, insurance and other expenses of plumber must be considered. Couple of years ago, county strapped for money, imposed new $400 license fee on all contractors above what state already requires. All these things add up.

You want to get cheap plumbing done, get some guy working under the table and pay cash.

Reply to
Frank

Yes, it was a reasonable price. The fact that he came out the first day and gave you a price and then had to come out a second time to do the job makes it even more reasonable. For the plumber, that's two travel times to the same job, and any time he spends travelling to jobs and going to jobs to give prices is time that he is not on another job making money.

Reply to
Jay-T

Our mobile home park suffered frozen sewer lines due to a record cold Winter. The guy charged $400 hr to sit on his butt slowly feeding a

3/4" hose down the lines. You got off cheap.

nb

Reply to
notbob

Not to feel so bad-- you were paying for his experience and expertise in knowing that the hose was the was to fix it, what size hose to use, how fast to feed it, and the temp of the water, etc., etc....

Reply to
Shaun

Put into perspective, I recently had a plumber come out to re-seat a faucet that I could't get to stop leaking after installing it, a wall hung faucet, should have been really easy, but I digress. He was here for no more than 10 minutes max, including time spent talking about the weather, charged $60.00, so I don't think your plumber was outrageous, but mine was IMO.

Cheri

Reply to
Cheri

It was a difficult enough job that YOU couldn't do it yourself. The guy drove to your house, and fixed what you couldn't. $60 was a gift.

Reply to
salty

The sewer lines that were jetted cost the park a total of $38K over a

3 month period. The high pressure machine used on the job, designed specifically to jet frozen sewers and one of the best on the market, cost only $8K w/ 250' hose.

Our park board is populated by morons elected by other morons.

nb

Reply to
notbob

Hi, That job is in the territory of DIY. I'd do it myself. Time is money. I don't think he charged too much.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

No, it wasn't a gift...not at all, it was outrageous, but I didn't mind paying it. Most plumbers have a standard fee for coming, his was 60.00. I gave him a 20.00 tip (making the total 80.00) because his wife said he was sleeping when I called, and he was still here within 1/2 hour. I'm sure he went back home to bed.

Cheri

Reply to
Cheri

But...I will be able to do it next time, since I had forgotten that you had to tighten down individual sides one at a time and equally, to prevent one side from leaking, but I won't forget it again. However, at my age, I'm sure the new faucet will outlive me, since the last one I installed there was almost 20 years ago.:-)

Cheri

Reply to
Cheri

Your park board is probably hiring buddies or relatives. Not unknown for maintenance associations to do so.

Reply to
Frank

I'm the OP, and I never said there was a problem. I have no complaint about the workmanship or the price. My post was intended to solicit feedback about the reasonableness of the price I paid. So far, I interpret the responses to be that what I paid was about right.

Reply to
CWLee

Wait! You mean it wasn't even normal business hours? That was far beyond a gift. You still owe him. Seriously.

Reply to
salty

It sounds more like your "trailer park" suffered from a design flaw in its "sewers"... If the ground had frozen that hard many of your "homes" would have suffered from some sort of unexpected "movement"...

Oh, and when someone is jetting out lines like that, they usually charge by the linear foot of pipe they flush out, not by the job...

Reply to
Evan

Right, that is called a "service charge" which is what it costs to get the trade professional out to your house with all their tools, equipment, supply of spare parts and the knowledge they possess...

It sounds like you either didn't know how to do the repair you were attempting or didn't have the right tool or a large enough tool to unstick something that was stuck...

As far as inflating the cost of your service, with a "tip" such gratuities are not required nor expected in the trades, the guy fixed your sink for $60 in less than 10 minutes, which was a skilled labor task, you don't need to "tip" him for that, as he is NOT a "service" employee being paid less than minimum wage to wait on your table at a restaurant -- you TIP those workers, not the ones who earn exponentially more...

Reply to
Evan

Even if you had paid more, what do you expect a bunch of people on usenet to be able to tell you about it ?

We have no pictures to see what the actual scope of the work was, nor how difficult it was for the plumber to obtain the parts he needed other than your very vague descriptions...

This "buyer's remorse" stuff is really childish... You hired out work you either couldn't do on your own or didn't WANT to do... The project was accomplished and you were happy with the work, it is not like you are going to have an identical project to do anytime soon so its not something you can compare prices on...

Reply to
Evan

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