# Covid and Plumbing



## Lettusbee (May 8, 2010)

Water heater swaps require a permit here as well. 

Big name plumber will charge about 2 grand for a basic swap on the ground floor. Plus sell you the heater with a markup. And get the permit and tell you that you have to take a day off work to meet the inspector. Lot of 

Then there's the 1 man shows that will meet you at home depot so you can buy the cheapest water heater you want, then load it up in his truck, take it to your house, do the swap, take the old unit, and be out of your life in an hour or 2, and to hell with any permits. All for about 300 bucks. That guy is my hero.


Big Johnson said:


> In MI you have to be a plumbing contractor (which takes about 8 years to get) to change out a WH.


Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk


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## Big Johnson (Jun 2, 2017)

Absolutely but if you’re a democrat and voted for this system you need to pay up and not try to sidestep the rules you wanted to get enacted.


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## Jaws (Dec 20, 2010)

15-1800 to change a 50 gallon out with the water heater before covid here


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## Jaws (Dec 20, 2010)

Big Johnson said:


> In MI you have to be a plumbing contractor (which takes about 8 years to get) to change out a WH.


Supposed to be here


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## AustinDB (Sep 11, 2006)

plumber just quoted a 40G Rheem LP replacement for $1300 for mats (exhaust upgrade included to bring it up to code) and $1000 for one day installation. He said the WH went up 10% since he quoted a week or two ago.


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## Djea3 (Jul 6, 2020)

Am I reading this correctly? It takes not more than 2- 3 hours including procurement and disposal to install a water heater and bring to current code in general. I would NEVER pay 1000 for 2 hours work, not even my attorney earns that kind of money.
I have installed at least 20 water heaters in my life including entire solar water heat systems, and have installed drip pans, earthquake straps and even installed in attics. Never spent more than three hours including purchasing and even re-plumbing to current codes (except the full solar systems with mixing valves etc). There is NO way I would ever pay more than 300 for labor for an H2O heater install.
The cost of a new water heater is relative to the quality of the product and its warranties. Stainless tanks are more expensive (although as a manufacturing engineer in metals I would say that the manufacturers make people think that stainless steel is way more expensive than it actually is). The cost of labor is simple, currently electrical and plumbing contractors charge a minimum or around 200-240 for service call of 2 hours including travel (depending on where you live) and around 80-95 for the next hours. Even in CA rates are rarely over 115 an hour for honest companies.


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## Jaws (Dec 20, 2010)

Djea3 said:


> Am I reading this correctly? It takes not more than 2- 3 hours including procurement and disposal to install a water heater and bring to current code in general. I would NEVER pay 1000 for 2 hours work, not even my attorney earns that kind of money.
> I have installed at least 20 water heaters in my life including entire solar water heat systems, and have installed drip pans, earthquake straps and even installed in attics. Never spent more than three hours including purchasing and even re-plumbing to current codes (except the full solar systems with mixing valves etc). There is NO way I would ever pay more than 300 for labor for an H2O heater install.
> The cost of a new water heater is relative to the quality of the product and its warranties. Stainless tanks are more expensive (although as a manufacturing engineer in metals I would say that the manufacturers make people think that stainless steel is way more expensive than it actually is). The cost of labor is simple, currently electrical and plumbing contractors charge a minimum or around 200-240 for service call of 2 hours including travel (depending on where you live) and around 80-95 for the next hours. Even in CA rates are rarely over 115 an hour for honest companies.


 Then you would not be getting a water heater installed here - none of the plumbers hive a chit if you think it's fair lol

I don't think trades have water heaters installed, But if you are a school teacher or a banker or somebody who does not know how to use tools then you better bust out your credit card and pay up or else try to find a handyman, there aren't any good ones around anymore. Might find a journeyman plumber to do it on the side.


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## Jaws (Dec 20, 2010)

My plumber would not even answer your phone call for $300 I don't think. Lol


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## Seven-Delta-FortyOne (Mar 5, 2011)

Problem with your theory is scale.

Even if a plumber could schedule 2 back to back installs in the day, and go from one to the other, he won’t pay for all his overhead, or even a decent wage to himself, charging $300 per install.

Ton of risk and ton of liability in this trade. Rates reflect that as well.


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## rrk (Apr 22, 2012)

A plumber charging $85-95 what 3rd world country do you live in?
Double that easily


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## Jaws (Dec 20, 2010)

I'm 90% sure on of my electricians is around 165 an hour for 2 guys and the other about 140. My plumber doesn't do service calls unless it's for a builderand doesnt have an hourly rate, I recommend a differnet plumber for service usually, but a service call is not likely to be less than 750 even if it's just a repair for a homeowner. I don't do repair work but going off of what homeowners say on a closed Lake group that's a fairly common. My plumber is an honest guy, it's just not a cheap trade


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## Jaws (Dec 20, 2010)

rrk said:


> A plumber charging $85-95 what 3rd world country do you live in?
> Double that easily


Yep.


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

I outsmarted myself on this one, and am now paying dearly. I Bought a Rheem from HD and hired a plumber from thumbtack to install, since my preferred place was slammed and giving me runaround. Now we can't get it to fire up, and seems to be the gas valve itself. 4-5 days shipped to receive it. Tenants shall having cold showers in the meantime.

Should have just paid the going rate, I guess. 40 gl, installed, from my plumbing company of choice would have been $1950, but I'd be done with all this [email protected] already.

BTW, customer service calls to Rheem were insane. 50 min queue per call to order a damned part!? And we had to call them more than once. Not going to go the big box/Rheem route ever again if I can help it.


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