How do plumbers decide on what to charge?

[master plumber mark]

COOKIE ...I cant immagine makeing a pass at the customer daughters.

or the lady of the house either......

that is pretty low and that fellow will not last long in any town....



Their is a small town near Indy , and their is a local small
town plumber that is a womanizer and word has gotten around .......

None of the ladies in that community want his truck parked in their
driveways.......

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now COOKIE ....about your boyfreind....

Perhaps he just scares the clients so badly that they are afraid
of going after the bully.... perhaps he has nothing to lose........



I have found that it is not a very good to get into a

"Pissing Match" with someone that is insane and psyco too.....

and has nothing to lose either.....


I have laid off an employee or two in the past instead of outright fireing them for that very same reason... they were scarey and insane I thought it best to just let them think they got the better of me and make it a blow up into something.


So maybe its best to just let it pass,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

or on the other hand... disguise your voice

do the "pay phone gag" on him every few weeks. LOL

[Cookie]

I have done pretty much everything I am going to do to him. I could put charges against him for his actions in the house. He has a definiate MO, whereas, the other families whose daughters he made advances against, they were without a male figure in the house. So, sure he intimidated those women. But, I got a couple of strapping huge kids, who bench press cars, a dog with a set of teeth makes you wonder where her eyes are looking at; and I am mighty. He is not nuts anyways, he is just a person who takes advantage of others because, others allowed him to. The buck stops here. I always liked that movie Tombstone, and I will...run him out of town. But, of course he will need tires. What is kind of funny, was his response, when I said the word, RAPE, he said, "lady, lets not get nuts here" and, his feet could not move fast enough.

HEY, he aint no boyfriend of mine! I would date Lucifer himself first. I have fired people, scary or not. You got the laws behind you. I know what you are saying though. Ever see the Seinfield episode where, Elaine keeps promoting this one person, because he was scary? It was really funny.

Mark, I don't know how I forgot to mention this, but, he has also been ordered to pay me back my money.

[master plumber mark]

maybe you will get your money
out of this loser....good for you...

[jadnashua]

Unless the floor is rotten and/or moves when you sit on the toilet, it should be possible to get a decent seal at the toilet. It isn't rocket science. If the floor moves, then you might have luck with a waxless seal, since they have some give to them while still being able to maintain a seal. Wax won't... or, if that seal is good, then the toilet is defective.

Constant moisture will give you grief, and it could do it quickly...either don't use that toilet (if you have a choice) or fix it.

[Randyj]

Dang Cookie... your luck sounds 'bout like mine. If it weren't for getting ripped off and people doing shoddy work and overcharging me I never would have become a DIY professional handyman/plumber.... I got into this more out of necessity than desire. My kids call me a "perfectionist" as if it were a curse word and my last 3 ex-wives call me a "workaholic" as if is a disease. Now I'm shacked up with this woman who loves everything I do and wonders why the hell I don't do more...then her feelings are hurt because I make more in less than a day than she does in a week. Usually I just feel defeated and unable to satisfy anyone... I guess that's why I cry all the way to the bank

[Cal]

Your flange is cracked . One or both of the bolts is not being able to hold the toilet down. Sorry ,,,no quick fix on this one. Toilet needs to come up , flange needs to be cut out and replaced .

Hope you do get Santa-Plumber under your tree .


We got a guy like that in our circle of plumbers too . He was "the-man " in this one community ( 2600 NICE Homes) I've been trying to get going in.

Tells ALL the women how bad his marrage is ,BLAH,BLAH,BLAH . Has caused a large ,negative image of himself and his company ,,,,,,,

Oh well ,,, His BAD ,,,, Gotta strike while the iron is hot !!

Cal

[Cookie]

Cal,

Long story on this one, but, it has 2 new flanges. One I know was put in, the other one, I think he did nothing, but charge me for something I didn't get. I know it is the floor. Around the 6 inch gap is just 1/4 in. Louan Board. It covers the whole floor, but, that is the only thing, covering the gap. I can see the screws from the access panel, in the closet, which I paid twice of by the way, and, the screws dangle straight thru the floor. Only 2 made it into the studs, the floor joists that is.

One good thing about Xmas, even if I don't find a plumber under my tree, are my neighbors bringing me over candy, I just got a big box, lol.

[Cass]

I'm coming over for a piece of that candy. Chocolate I hope.

[kordts]

I was at 75 bucks an hour. The next town south has plumbers who charge 40-50 bucks an hour. The next town north has one guy at 110 and one at 120. I moved my shop to booming exurban town 30 northeast and went to 90. I am the lowest priced quality plumber for miles around and don't really advertise. I do a lot of commercial-industrial and would like to get away from residential. Do the plumbers out there know what the MEANs Estimating book says about markup? Industry average is 1.9 times on anything over 1000 dollars. Under it starts at 2.3 times. I decided to start charging proper markup and it really helps. I made more money as 4th year apprentice, I lowered my wages for the last 18 months so I wouldn't bankrupt my business. I still can't afford to make a pension contribution, so when shops charge a lot more than me, I don't think they are greedy, I think they are probabkly making a small profit.

[Cal]

Cookie,

Sounds like you have this VERY figured out. Sorry someone F$%^ed it up so bad.

Anyway to get to that 3" pipe that extens up to the flange? Possably some form of a 2"x4" braceing around the pipe from underneath ? Just a suggestion.

That rocking is going to get real wet soon !

Cal

[Randyj]

Kordts... I've been in other business before. The BIG thing to making money is to keep your operating expenses as low as possible. Payroll for employees works for some, commission works for others. For me, it's a van and a tool box with no more insurance than is absolutely required. I don't have a shop to work out of. I do all of my own vehicle repairs... have oil changed at Wal-mart. I paid $1300 for a 40 ft semi trailer that I keep tools in and can use as a makeshift shop when needed (recently wired it with lights and outlets). I have a friend who is in the sign business. He used to have an old crane truck and worked out of his basement and was making $50k/year in the 1980's. He decided that he wanted to be a big time sign company, bought a new crane truck and built a big shop building, hired 3 guys... took him 15 years to get back to where he started and still is not doing much better than the $50k/year although he has gone from $45/hour to $80/hour. I might spend $1k per year on new tools/equipment... usually far less than that. I'm just starting out in a new community and yesterday did the gas line job I was asking about. I took about 4 hours traveling, gathering materials and figuring out how to do the job...then 4 hours on the job. I made $140 above cost. WHY only $140? It was for a key person who can promote my busines. I've got to get my name out there. He can give me lots of references and posts on the same forum I do which is read by lots of people in this vacation community. So, for about $15 per hour that I made I could potentially see many thousands in business next year. I could have made $600 on that job but there was something much more important to me here than just the money.... it was an investment.

[Cass]

You can get $10,000,000.00 worth of Ins. for around $800.00 / year. So the cost is not that great.

The problem with doing jobs for low $$$ is when you go up in price the people who called you because you were low will not call any more, they will go to the next lowest priced person then you don't have that customer any more and have to find another one to tale their place..

[Cookie]

Cookie,

Sounds like you have this VERY figured out. Sorry someone F$%^ed it up so bad.

Anyway to get to that 3" pipe that extens up to the flange? Possably some form of a 2"x4" braceing around the pipe from underneath ? Just a suggestion.

That rocking is going to get real wet soon !

Cal

Cal, I am not sure what 3 inch pipe you are talking about. The black thing perhaps? It can't be supported from underneath, their is no space for it to put even one small board. The upstairs toilet just moves alittle. The basement one is the one that rocks and rolls, so, if so, it will just wet the basement floor and go down that drain. That is the place for this to happen.

[Randyj]

The problem with doing jobs for low $$$ is when you go up in price the people who called you because you were low will not call any more, they will go to the next lowest priced person then you don't have that customer any more and have to find another one to tale their place..

That tends to be true... I don't do the low price thing for everyone... normally I don't get out of bed for less than $50/hour... the going rate around here is roughly $60. If I quote a job I double on what I estimate. Recently did a kitchen sink swapout... $175 plus materials...took about 1 1/2 hours. But, that customer was not a key person for advertsing purposes. I had nothing to gain by giving them a break. Some of the locals who call themselves plumbers are $25/hour. I've seen their work, you don't want it. Realestate agents want someone $15-20 per hour to work on fixer uppers and do maintenance... they don't get me.

In the big city it's $120...70 miles away... and the inspectors are pure hell.... Around here lots of plumbers underbid and I've seen jobs that 3 plumbers have walked off of because they realized they were not making money after they got started.

[master plumber mark]

I have done it all and got the
Tee shirts and lumps to prove it....


The new home building contractors are the worse...
they are the absolute skum of the earth......stay away from them at all costs...

Commercial work is always underbid......

Getting paid and getting the retainage back
from those commercial companies can take forever.... if you like to dig and do slab work ....go for it...


Having EMPLOYEES is the absolute worse nightmare
anyone can experience.... they will run you into the ground
whineing about everything..from payroll to health benefits, vacation days.
and a X-mas bonus
the more you try to build up your business,
the more many of them desire to see you fail.....




just let me go out and install water heaters,toilets, faucets,
and all the other delights that go along with plumbing...

that is one of the advantages of being in a mid sized city of 2 million,

somebody is stopping up something somewhere every day and night...