Plumber cost questions

Hypatia

I moved into a place and the toilet is old and wobbles. I figured rather than getting it repaired, I could get it replaced with a Toto toilet. I got a quote from a plumber that seemed reasonable based on the cost of the toilet online and he said he had to order the toilet and would let me know when it gets in. Now that I've gotten into this adventure, I have a couple questions:

1. In the quote, he says he charges an hourly rate plus materials. He said their labor rates were $X/hour, charged in 15 minute increments, and they have a service call fee for the first 30 minutes. That all seemed fine, but then he also said, "The apprentice that is with the plumber is charged at $45 an hour." Is it normal that there's an apprentice that I'm charged for accompanying the plumber? Do I get a choice about this?
2. The plumber went ahead and ordered the toilet without asking for any money from me, but it hasn't come in yet. Since it's taken a while, I went and got other quotes and there's someone else who seems more responsive and cheaper. My husband said we should just tell him we aren't interested anymore, because plumbers work on invoices and if we tell him to forget it he isn't going to lose any money, he just won't take the toilet/will return it. Is it normal to just call it off at this point, no harm no foul?

zepherin

45 dollars an hour is actually very reasonable.
The apprentice likely makes about 20 bucks an hour if they aren’t a first year. The fringe (insurance pension time off) for plumbers is about 8 bucks an hour. Taxes (including workman’s comp and liability) are going to be about 15% of the 20 bucks an hour giving a partially burdened rate of 31 bucks an hour. Overhead and G&A for a residential plumbing shop is going to be about 30 percent. So 40 bucks an hour of cost to the company. 5 bucks an hour is their profit or about 8 percent. And may be less if you are in an expensive area.

Journeymen are making about 38 and masters are doing around 46 with the same fringe packages

dispatch.o

If you don't own the place you should do none of this and contact the property manager or owner.

Is the other guy in a union? Is he licensed and insured?

Plenty of 'handymen' undercut local tradesman and fuck up jobs good and proper. Are both estimates in writing?

Elvenshae

zepherin wrote: »

45 dollars an hour is actually very reasonable.

Not if it’s being charged in addition to the plimber’s hourly fee. Replacing a toilet is a one-person job.

Unles they’re offering, e.g., to charge you for 1 hour of journeyman time and 1 hour of apprentice instead of 2 hours of journeyman.

zepherin

Elvenshae wrote: »

zepherin wrote: »

45 dollars an hour is actually very reasonable.

Not if it’s being charged in addition to the plimber’s hourly fee. Replacing a toilet is a one-person job.

Unles they’re offering, e.g., to charge you for 1 hour of journeyman time and 1 hour of apprentice instead of 2 hours of journeyman.

I assumed two people were coming to do the job. I’ve always seen toilets done as two, it’s way easier and substantially faster.

The way it looked there wasn’t an hourly estimate so much as a rate and the OP paid for the time they were there plus the material cost of the toilet.

Hypatia

Just to clarify, the rate actually cited was: "A $95 service call for the first 30 minutes. After the first 30 minutes, $118 an hour and billed out at $29.50 per 15 minutes. The apprentice that is with the plumber is charged at $45 an hour."

I'll follow up and ask, but I'm guessing that means the cost per hour with the apprentice there is going to be $118 + $45?

HappylilElf

Hypatia wrote: »

Just to clarify, the rate actually cited was: "A $95 service call for the first 30 minutes. After the first 30 minutes, $118 an hour and billed out at $29.50 per 15 minutes. The apprentice that is with the plumber is charged at $45 an hour."

I'll follow up and ask, but I'm guessing that means the cost per hour with the apprentice there is going to be $118 + $45?

I would ask but if that's accurate then it's not going to be that bad. Installing a toilet, especially when at least one person involved is very experienced with it, isn't a super time consuming job.

In fact as Elvenshae said you might be saving money by paying for the apprentice because it's a much easier/faster job with two people.

This is of course assuming they don't find something super ugly during the replacement but at that point I'd suggest renegotiating before they start in on fixing said super ugly.

zepherin

Hypatia wrote: »

Just to clarify, the rate actually cited was: "A $95 service call for the first 30 minutes. After the first 30 minutes, $118 an hour and billed out at $29.50 per 15 minutes. The apprentice that is with the plumber is charged at $45 an hour."

I'll follow up and ask, but I'm guessing that means the cost per hour with the apprentice there is going to be $118 + $45?

That’s not terrible, but replacing a toilet with 2 people shouldn’t take more than an hour. If they don’t run into any issues and the people are fast they might be able to do it in 30 minute...but what happens is that they get there and go over the paperwork with you, that’ll take about 10 minutes they cut the water and flush the toilet unhook then drain that’ll be 10 minutes. And another 10 to 20 to hump the old toilet out and the new toilet into the house hook up and leave. If the shutoff valve has failed, which happens quite a bit. They’ll have to cut water to the house and drain out the whole system this will add about 15 minutes.

Pro tip: if you want to speed up the removal and save money have the water cutoff and toilet drained when they get there.

Hypatia

Awesome, thank you very much for all the advice! That helps a ton