I shouldn't have been surprised since I had tried to patch the leak last time as opposed to literally fixing it. Big difference. This time I decided not to take any chances and called a plumber to get an evaluation and most likely a professional repair of whatever needed to get fixed. How much could it run, right? After all, this is a drain and not a water line and I had already done all the hard stuff like cutting open the ceiling. The service charge for someone to walk through our front door was a more than reasonable $29. C'mon in, dear plumber pal of mine!
Imagine my shock and dismay when he gave me this repair estimate of almost $700 to replace the "p-trap" that he said had a hairline crack in it. Love how he calls it, "an investment". Good thing he was such a nice guy otherwise I would have told him where he could put his "investment".
That initial service fee of $29 was more like the initial service fee you pay when you first step inside a New York City taxi. Faster than the way a NYC cab fare escalates, he had his hands around my wallet for $81 since he had spent some time trying to fix the leak before giving my wife and I his grim diagnosis. Frankly, I thought the whole repair would have run me around $100, maybe $200 but $700? I paid the $81 fare to get him out of my house and while I still had a leaking shower drain, just like when my ancient cars start acting up, at least now I had a professional diagnosis and I knew what needed to be done.
Apparently, I'm naive when it comes to what tradesmen are allowed to charge when it comes to home repairs these days. He claimed the estimate was all by the book too. Yeah, but whose book? I get that they have over head and are entitled to make a profit but, c'mon. $700 to replace a couple of pieces of PVC pipe? I shudder to think what plumbing fees would run on a major renovation if just changing a shower drain could be so expensive.
A wonderful associate at Lowe's answered all of my questions and everything that I needed to do the job myself cost me, you sitting down?, a whopping $27. Yes. Twenty. Seven. Dollars. I've never done much plumbing but with the prospect of not so much saving but not spending so much money, what did I have to lose? The nice plumber even said that he would apply the $81 he charged us already and apply it towards the estimate if we decided to have him come back and do the work. I had literally nothing to lose and roughly $600 to gain. Or not spend.
Now, I have to wonder if he would do that if I brought him back in after I had screwed something but I'll never know since I was able to complete the job with little drama. It did take me most of a Sunday afternoon and some deep throated creative combinations of swear words but I can take, "replace shower drain p-trap" off my bucket list. By the way, talk to any plumber or electrician and they will tell you that a lot of their work involves picking up where a customer either got stuck or screwed something up.
Almost forgot to mention that when I was talking to the associate at Lowe's, when I told him that a plumber wanted $700 to replace my shower drain he said, "Only $700? Wow, you got off easy".
A wonderful associate at Lowe's answered all of my questions and everything that I needed to do the job myself cost me, you sitting down?, a whopping $27. Yes. Twenty. Seven. Dollars. I've never done much plumbing but with the prospect of not so much saving but not spending so much money, what did I have to lose? The nice plumber even said that he would apply the $81 he charged us already and apply it towards the estimate if we decided to have him come back and do the work. I had literally nothing to lose and roughly $600 to gain. Or not spend.
Almost forgot to mention that when I was talking to the associate at Lowe's, when I told him that a plumber wanted $700 to replace my shower drain he said, "Only $700? Wow, you got off easy".
No comments:
Post a Comment