New drain pipe under concrete slab replacement- am I getting overcharged?

[WILLY TINKLER]

I have am having a new pvc drain pipe being put in going to the kitchen sink. The old pipe was old metal pipe which was clogged full of grease and the bottom was rotted though all the way to the grease trap connection. The 50 gallon concrete great trap was clogged to the top with rock hard lumps of grease. Also the outflow sewer pipe was choked with grease another 30 feet to a pvc y-connection which had to be hydrojetted through. The guys had to knock the old metal pipe out of the concrete slab and come through the slab with another pvc pipe under the kitchen cabinet.

The guys doing this for us said it cost around $900. Is this a normal price nowadays for a job like this? Thanks Included some photos.

 

[Sylvan]

For only $900 you got what you paid for no doubt about it

Personally I would have run a minimum of 3" piping underground and not use a Fernco coupling as I like shielded couplings Mission couplings for example

I would also have installed a clean out outside the foundation wall to allow easier water Jetting /rodding

Monday I send one of my employees to water jet 2 - 3" outside storm drains and and 2 - 4" main sewer traps

Took him about 2 hours and I charged $1,500

I carry several million dollars in insurance, I pay my top employee over $125 per hr and know my actual overhead


Someone willing to excavate, file the job, have it inspected, use clean back fill below and above the piping and make sure it has proper pitch charging so little needs to attend some classes on pricing a job properly such as Maurice Mayo or Means pricing

I wonder if the installer is licensed , has insurance and the employees are legal

Consider yourself very lucky that so many people do not know how to price a job properly and have employees who work for minimum wages or even less

Looking at the pictures and your description of work I would have charged around $7,800 but I would have used 3" cast iron under ground with a 3" wye and 1/8 bend right out side the foundation wall as a CO and 2" no hub cast iron kitchen waste with a properly vented line and a 2" x 11/2 Brass P trap

 

[Sponsor]

 

[WILLY TINKLER]

For only $900 you got what you paid for no doubt about it

Personally I would have run a minimum of 3" piping underground and not use a Fernco coupling as I like shielded couplings Mission couplings for example

I would also have installed a clean out outside the foundation wall to allow easier water Jetting /rodding

Monday I send one of my employees to water jet 2 - 3" outside storm drains and and 2 - 4" main sewer traps

Took him about 2 hours and I charged $1,500

I carry several million dollars in insurance, I pay my top employee over $125 per hr and know my actual overhead


Someone willing to excavate, file the job, have it inspected, use clean back fill below and above the piping and make sure it has proper pitch charging so little needs to attend some classes on pricing a job properly such as Maurice Mayo or Means pricing

I wonder if the installer is licensed , has insurance and the employees are legal

Consider yourself very lucky that so many people do not know how to price a job properly and have employees who work for minimum wages or even less

Looking at the pictures and your description of work I would have charged around $7,800 but I would have used 3" cast iron under ground with a 3" wye and 1/8 bend right out side the foundation wall as a CO and 2" no hub cast iron kitchen waste with a properly vented line and a 2" x 11/2 Brass P trap

I did not know people still use cast iron under a concrete slab as it rusts so bad? So you say the $900 charge was a drop in the bucket?

 

[WILLY TINKLER]

For only $900 you got what you paid for no doubt about it

Personally I would have run a minimum of 3" piping underground and not use a Fernco coupling as I like shielded couplings Mission couplings for example

I would also have installed a clean out outside the foundation wall to allow easier water Jetting /rodding

Monday I send one of my employees to water jet 2 - 3" outside storm drains and and 2 - 4" main sewer traps

Took him about 2 hours and I charged $1,500

I carry several million dollars in insurance, I pay my top employee over $125 per hr and know my actual overhead


Someone willing to excavate, file the job, have it inspected, use clean back fill below and above the piping and make sure it has proper pitch charging so little needs to attend some classes on pricing a job properly such as Maurice Mayo or Means pricing

I wonder if the installer is licensed , has insurance and the employees are legal

Consider yourself very lucky that so many people do not know how to price a job properly and have employees who work for minimum wages or even less

Looking at the pictures and your description of work I would have charged around $7,800 but I would have used 3" cast iron under ground with a 3" wye and 1/8 bend right out side the foundation wall as a CO and 2" no hub cast iron kitchen waste with a properly vented line and a 2" x 11/2 Brass P trap

$7800 ??? Are you really being serious? What would new drain lines be for a hole house...$75000? This is located in Texas...does this have any effect? My neighbor told me I paid too much and it should have been only about $500 for this job.

 

[Dj2]

"My neighbor told me I paid too much and it should have been only about $500 for this job."
- How did your neighbor arrive at $500 for this job?

 

[Sylvan]

I guess Texas plumbers like to work at break even prices or pay minimum wages to non skilled employees

The cost of living in NYC is high and my top employee not only has profit sharing his base salary is $5,000 a week ($125 per hr)

In life you normally get what you pay for and if your neighbor is not a plumbing contractor then I have to assume he is another one of those who feel only he /she deserves a living wage

I have an office and full time office staff and carry several million dollars of insurance for each of my companies so I have to charge accordingly

A plumbing contractor on long island replaced a a Weil-McLain boiler EGH 125 S PIN 286K BTU for $71,000 so I reckon re piping a entire home would cost a lot more then the $75,000 you quoted