I am so glad I'm out of the new construction phase of plumbing. Just reading about the pricing and what I've experienced back in the day was torment.
Even if I got the work, it seemed that the "actual" number and the "final" number didn't equate to the surprises that would come along the way like:
Can't get the truck close enough to the house, walk everything through mud
OR
Better yet, not allowed to pull the truck to the house because the concrete truck dragged dirt out of the jobsite for 1.3 miles and now everyone has to park on the street in front.
Tub(s) arrived crack, can't install and no one is getting paid till it does
OR
Find the crack after the windows are set and now it's a group effort between the framers/plumbers, and possibly the bricklayers dropping their scaffolds down to get this new one in.........no one is getting paid extra.
Fighting for space in walls and the heating/air company comes in and whacks your pipes out because they have to through your once owned space.
Can't get the second rough air test to hold because it's been cold weather, you need the whole subdivision to be quiet so you can hear the leak and of course, that doesn't happen.
You bring 400 PVC fittings and twice through the job either you or your accomplice has to run and get a specific fitting because the framer doubled up a joist or some nonsense.
You have a 9 or 10/12 pitch roof and is slick as snot when there isn't rain or sleet and the homeowner or builder is pissed you won't boot the stack and water is roaring into the building warping the oriental strandboard. Roofer not being there for 3 weeks is not a problem???
No staircase between floors, everything is done with a aluminum ladder and in most cases, dirty slick feet.
Between the torpedo heater and the air compressor keeping you assured of deafness in the future, the carpenter is tied to the same temporary electric pole (if were lucky not to run 400 feet to another house built by the same builder) and now every time we run the hole-hawg one of us has to go hit the reset on the GFCI.
Water lines to a second floor bathroom that HAS to be ran through the joists, in the center for code reasons, and now you're cutting 18" pieces and sectioning a 20' run thimbling through the joists. I come from the day where you could drill the bottom of the joist and use nail drive guards. Not no more.
Finding out your accomplice/helper installed the shower valve(s)upside down because they didn't set the arrow up, effin priceless. Finding out at the finish, back to back tubs nonetheless.
Homeowner involved in the decision making of the construction of the home, wife keeps changing her mind where the vanity mirror is going to go and now the vents are in the way, you submit the cost to make the changes and they look at you like you just took their kid for ransom. No charge of course, it's only a few fittings and some pipe, sheesh.
On the finish there is a sound in house that is associated to the plumbing system which is a hum or ticking (< we know what that is) and now we're part of the punch list for months after they are living in the structure and can only come when it's convenient for the homeowner between moo-choo's teeth cleaning and daughter Clara's dance class. Bullshnit!
Reduced water pressure in a few of the faucets EVEN THOUGH you knew to remove the aerators before opening the system, but you didn't have water to the house when you set the finish because the water company is two months behind from making a one hour connect in the front yard that someone has already bent off the copper flush with the ground for scrap and now, NOW it's a two fitting connect at the meter.
Floor drain backed up in the house (why it's our fault, no one knows) because it's been used as a garbage receptacle and makeshift urinal for the past 8 months even though you left that pipe extended above ground in the basement so this wouldn't happen. Thing is that the carpenters know that you can take a hammer to the base of that pipe and swing at it and knock the pipe completely off at the floor. Pipe cracks longways and instead of using a 3" test ball to test, you're now using one of those long Donkey dongs to get at least into the start of the trap to get the test to hold because no one is going to pay you to jack it up and replace that upright just to get a 5 minute test to hold.
Been there, done that, any plumber worth their weight hasn't experienced the above at least one time or another in that side of construction, you haven't done enough new construction. You can have those jobs as I've walked the walk in my humble beginnings. In these new homes, these guys only get around $800 after taxes if they are lucky, throw it in lightning fast and MUST COUNT their time for the finishes, the testing off of the system and all associated callbacks on an average 2.5 bath home. That's not making money folks, that's production housing and you are after that income for baseline income only.
Rehashing all of this in my mind was not therapeudical in the least.