re: The Texas Builders Association threatens GOP if they take away their cheap foreign labor

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I don't get how they can write off the cash/illegal payments and make it work. If anyone wants to explain that to me, I'm down.

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Builder hires contractor. Contractor hires framing sub. Framing sub hires multiple subs with questionable workers. But everyone with money (everyone but the last layer of subs, the ones with pickups/vans that have no logos or phone numbers, etc) has plausible deniability. That's how it appears to work in the burbs of Houston at least.

Their old ladies have anchor babies, so we're not giving benefits to illegals, we're giving benefits to the parents of American citizens, which includes CHIP, Medicaid, SNAP, etc.

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The PE guys piss me off, just seems like such a lazy dirty sleezy model they run.

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One big topic on the OT is always the price of replacing an HVAC

I have a national account to buy Goodman units. Goodman is a cheap brand but you see a lot of them installed everywhere.

A 3 ton Goodman installed by an HVAC company is running $10K to $12K, last I checked. That is just replacing the inside and outside unit. No ductwork.

I can buy that same unit with the collars and plenum material, new whip, and lineset if needed for $3500 to $4K give or take and depending on which state I buy it in. Most replacements take 4-6 hours, maybe.

I understand that the A/C company must warranty their work, pay one or two guys for work that day, and turn a profit, but I am not sure that justifies a markup where they double their money on each job.

Everyone blames the EPA rules for raising the prices on equipment, and that is some of it, but a lot of the price increases came when PE entered the industry and raised prices so the little guys followed suit and started charging more too.