Plumbers in Mandeville area to replace water heater?

Go to Lowes/Home Depot and buy one and put it in for her and give her 80 bucks for being a shitty SIL.

E&E Plumbing. Great family owned business and reasonably priced. I trust E&E to leave any of their workers alone in my house working.

quote:

---

The plumber and that truck is at work. If he's not making money, he's losing money. That's likely his hourly rate. You can't expect him to drive there and spend an hour of his day on the hopes that you grant him the job.

---

I disagree. Build bids into your hourly rate. I work for a professional service company and we sure as hell don't charge to give bids, and the rates of these trades are approaching, and sometimes higher than ours

Difference is, these guys have you over a barrel and know it. They know you need it done, and will pay it. They are also in your house and know where you live

If what you are saying is true, they could just give high bids and never do any actual work, and just charge an hourly rate for their bids.

Service Fee.
All repair companies charge a service fee. It's standard. Can't do free estimates. Places that do free estimates have long jobs that bring in thousands, standard service people charge a base rate just too show up.

I can agree with that

ETA:

It's a water heater, 300.00 to buy. Who repairs water heaters today?

OP should have handled all of this anyway, not his MIL.

When I first started ding appliance repair I gave free estimates, but realized some were using me to diagnose, then go DIY.
For me the diagnostic is the hardest part.


There have been times when it's something stupid like a breaker or a bad outlet and I'll usually waive the fee, or just ask for a 1/3 depends on if I did anything($20).

quote:

---

He doesn't need to go to her house to give a quote on installing a water heater.

---

There are a few important things you might want to know.

Size of the WH.
Size-ampacity of the electrical circuit.
Material it is plumbed with.
Size of the attic access if its relevant.

Old work is more expensive than new construction for a reason.

quote:

---

I would just offer it as a reduction to the estimate. Or waive the fee in the estimate

---

Most of the people I know that charge for estimates will deduct that price if you get them to do the work. Not saying it's right or what I would do, but like Napoleon said, they use for the diagnosis and then try to fix it themselves or get someone else to do it.

quote:

---

quote:
Size of the WH.


Really? That can be given by the homeowner.

quote:
Size-ampacity of the electrical circuit.


bullshite, it's 220 30 amp
quote:

Material it is plumbed with.


A plumber should have all possible materials on his truck.


quote:
Size of the attic access if its relevant.


Horse shite. It got up there it can come down. If it's in the attic you are bidding 2 people anyway.

---

You pontificated a lot to not know what the hell you are talking about.

Most homeowners don't know the capacity of their WH and many don't want to go where the WH is to try to figure it out and many would fail in the attempt. Remember we are talking about mainly people who can't do the job themselves.

The circuit SHOULD be a 240v 30amp 10ga circuit BUT when doing old work you find all sorts of unusual, jury rigged and non-code wiring.

Maybe he does have everything in the truck to deal with any form of connection but PEX, iron and copper each take different amounts of time and materials to do the job. Again with old work you never know what you might find and what extra time and materials it may take to do the job.

While your comments on attic access are generally correct including being a 2 man job sooner or later you will find something that has been changed where the access is now restricted.

Charging for bids is a touchy subject, someone pays for them one way or another. While we are programmed to think it is automatically "wrong" does it seem right the people that actually hire someone pays for all the bid time for people that didn't hire them? My personal expectations are if I am bidding new work I expect a "free" quote, if I am calling out a trade for a non-functioning system in my house I expect to pay a service call because I generally see it as a diagnosis prior to the fix or replacement. I do get why others don't see this as normal.