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PlumbingSocal

Active Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2021
Messages
28
Reaction score
7
Location
Lake Arrowhead, CA
I worked for a couple companies. The first company was at 125hr (new construction) for a plumber and helper and the next company charged 225hr for service work for 1 person.

We never shared our hourly rate but charged by job based off difficulty/time. At 225 an hour 8/10 customers said yes (free in person estimates) -but half of those complained about price and I don’t see our name being referred around nearly as much as others. Most days I would bring in between 1000 and 1200.

Working for a friend soon who’s letting me run the show and will be doing service work. Toying around with the idea to see how customers react with 180hr (maybe more referrals? Raving reviews? Upsells?)

How did you find your sweet spot?
 
You’re in California so big difference in our cost of living and cost of doing business. What I charge wouldn’t even be relevant.
 
Having many friends who have sizeable homes in Lake Arrowhead area, especially in the Cedar Ridge area, plumbers are strictly a word of mouth from one home owner to another. There are many "fly by night" plumbers and contractors who have ripped off these multi-million $ home owners, that they are extremely apprehensive to bring in new names/companies. My suggestion is to try to get your foot in the door, even at a loss, make a great impression, and that area is yours.
 
😂😂😂 Whatever works I guess

I don’t have a store front and all the costs associated with that. I don’t have employees. So my overhead is low.

I could charge way less and still make a nice profit, but why give it away ? Why work 8hrs when I can raise my prices and work 4-6 and make the same basically if the market will pay it ?

Work smarter not harder🤓
 
A group of professionals getting together to decide on price could be considered illegal. There are forums who don't allow this for that reason. For the ones dumb enough to do it online good luck to you.
 
I’m trying to rig the prices in my city with the help of all the plumbers across the country that are on the forum 🤡

My plan is to become the “ Pipe King “ and set prices all over the World 🤣

I will have a monopoly on POOP in 3,2,1

hshahahahahahaha !!!!!
 
In my home town, plumbers are charging about $100 per hour , no helper.
if helper then about $168 per hour. We have a association of all the plumber that you must belong to to have a contractor license. Sort of like the bar association for lawyers. this association sets the standards for all plumbers. There are hefty fees to belong, also hefty fines if you do contractor type work without belonging. LIke $30,000.
this association sets a suggested service call fee.
this actually works very good, they have inspectors that check up on all plumbers .
 
Who checks on the bar association? They govern themselves. Why would they have inspectors?

I asked a question to Artic Bill about how things operate in Canada.

What do you know about this association in Canada ? Are you Bills spokesperson ? 🤣
 
Who checks up on the Association and their inspectors ?
All members can and will report funny business, Also the board of directors are all plumbers elected by plumbers . It does work very well . there are very few fly by nighters , I myself have called them in.
Just imagine all plumbers are on a level playing field.
it is called corporation of master plumbers. but in French
if you want more info
CMMTQ - Corporation des maîtres mécaniciens en tuyauterie du Québec
 
All members can and will report funny business, Also the board of directors are all plumbers elected by plumbers . It does work very well . there are very few fly by nighters , I myself have called them in.
Just imagine all plumbers are on a level playing field.
it is called corporation of master plumbers. but in French
if you want more info
CMMTQ - Corporation des maîtres mécaniciens en tuyauterie du Québec

There are no real problem with fly by nighters that are legit businesses here.

We all have insurance and bonds, at least where I work.

The general public can call and report any problems with the quality of work to the local code enforcement and or the State. Our requirements are that you hold a masters license from the state then you’re required to have a bond and in some locations proof of liability insurance.

If the state or local authority conclude through a process that your work created a problem, they can file a claim on your bond. This will provide payment to correct the mistake.

The homeowner can also take you straight to court snd argue his case.
 
We have professional associations here too. Price is the part that would be different. According to the law's logic this protects the consumer. Everything else sounds the same as here.
 
How much do you want to make a year?

To how much you want to take home, add the cost of your vehicle, plus operating expenses, and something to replace it (you can get a cost per mile from the GSA website that they reimbiurse for personal vehicle use, and use that), add the cost of whatever health and life insurance you want to carry and your workmen’s comp, plus bonding and insurance for the company and work, and license fees, plus something into a retirement fund. Basically add up everything you will need to spend on your overhead, labor, tools, and equipment for the year. Divide that number by 2000. (Fifty weeks @ forty hours/week).

Don’t add in materials, price them at invoice plus a percentage, to cover any costs of getting them, and if you ave to finance them for thirty or sixty days until the customer payment is complete, and you can pay the supplier.

In most places teh Small Business Administration has. Volunteer coaches, retired folks, who can help you develop a business plan and the costing and charge rates.
 
Buy your material at the right price and mark it up as much as possible. I double my cost on a lot of items, or more when I find a deal. Sometimes I just add 20%, depends on the cost of the item.

Try to buy what you use on a daily basis in bulk.

Don’t create junk buckets. That’s very important, a lot of money is wasted by being lazy or too busy to organize.
 
we have a thing called the allpricer . It tells you what to charge for any and all material .
here it is Allpriser
so you buy where you want with your discount and the all priser tells you what to charge .
 
There are no real problem with fly by nighters that are legit businesses here.

We all have insurance and bonds, at least where I work.

The general public can call and report any problems with the quality of work to the local code enforcement and or the State. Our requirements are that you hold a masters license from the state then you’re required to have a bond and in some locations proof of liability insurance.

If the state or local authority conclude through a process that your work created a problem, they can file a claim on your bond. This will provide payment to correct the mistake.

The homeowner can also take you straight to court snd argue his case.
by fly by nighters i mean those that run unregister business , pay no tax,
no insurance, and pay their guys cash money.
 

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