toolaholic said:
Seems like a lot of frustration, sweat ,and tears trying to save a shower valve or faucet ! Do you really make the same money per Hr. as instilling a W. H. I know there is the good will factor ect. Sometimes there's 2 hrs. and
a scratched finish. Are You eating some of your labor? Just curious.
Here is a prime example of do it yourself gone horribly wrong.
Customer 3 years ago goes to rebuild his Delta single handle faucet. One wrench spells disaster and he breaks the body in two.
Swayed by large yellow page ads he hires a company that only sells Wolverine Brass products which in my opinion is an insult to this trade since no supply houses will sell it and you have to play their bullshit games to get their product. I for one will not participate. Well, the service guy tells them the faucet needs to be removed and replaced, doesn't have another Delta faucet and tells them he can install this Wolverine Brass that will last forever and ever and they are best product on the market. WRONG
$600 and 4 trips back to the home after it was installed, it was leaking so bad that I get a call 2 years after the customer has been fighting it and dealing with the threat that the plumbing company now states they are going to charge the customer to keep caulking the trim plate to the valve.
I get there yesterday, the faucet has been roughed in too close to the thin wall of the shower enclosure. No way caulk would work because the screws are buried out. He had the diverter permanently pulled up and a valve on the shower head to slow the ominous leak that if you diverted to tub, it ran like budweiser horses being chased by drunks.
I told him there is only one supply house that might have the cartridge to fix the leak but they don't sell the handles or other parts.....they may have that cartridge though. To have this many leaks was questionable of their product line. Static pressure was 75psi but the EXP tank was blown, the high pressure PRV sitting in the meter pit was the reason for the pressure setting.
He opted to go with a Delta. The new valve I installed is full bodied brass, not the one with 3 copper tubes. I took pictures from beginning to end of how I did it, brought him in to show him how I use grease on the bonnet nut, the rubber 0-rings and the sides of the cartridge and even the allen screw holding the lever handle on. Told him that it was the last time he'll spend money on dealing with that faucet AND he'll easily be able to make repairs to the faucet because I showed him. Even went as far as setting the temp limit on the valve which the last guy never did. Newborn baby in the home; no room for error.
Between the faucet, EXP tank/pipe/fittings and my labor, he walked away $550.00 poorer. But the install I made is a solid move, nothing half-assed like the big company with 42 trucks and more money than water to advertise.
This customer also stated (with my blessing and Angie's List discount if he joins) that he is definitely going to join Angie's List and wished he would of hired my company before.
The company that did the work is struggling bad on AL, have many dissatisifed customers. If he would of seen the reports on AL, he most likely would of went a different direction completely.
He could of spent $125 with me to replace that leaking cartridge, I wouldn't of broke the valve off in the wall, he would of kept $1150.00 and not had such a bad experience.
The point of my rambling?
It all pays the same, doesn't matter if you are herding turds or tightening a loose nut on a trap. Residential service is the most simplistic aspect of the profession of plumbing. It is what surrounds the plumbing (people/availability of parts/incompetent plumbers) is what makes the only difficulty.
It really sucks to have one of my own in the profession giving it a bad name just because they follow the motto of "Get in, get out, make as much as you can because you are never coming back".
No one wins with that kind of logic.
