water cockstop

Megaross

northernstar007 said:

the full valve has been replaced
got a company out, called at 8am and were out at 9.30 informed me its 2 hrs work @ £100 p/h plus parts +vat
£250 in total, i know but in the middle of a replacement kitchen i didnt have time to get other prices 

£250 and 2 hours to replace a stopcock? Jesus. I'm in the wrong line of work.

Section62

Megaross said:

northernstar007 said:

the full valve has been replaced
got a company out, called at 8am and were out at 9.30 informed me its 2 hrs work @ £100 p/h plus parts +vat
£250 in total, i know but in the middle of a replacement kitchen i didnt have time to get other prices 

£250 and 2 hours to replace a stopcock? Jesus. I'm in the wrong line of work.

Probably closer to 4 hours work when you add in travel time.

The almost immediate response suggests they have dealt with it as an emergency rather than planned work.

£100/hour is what the company charges, the plumber doing the work will see much less than that in their bank account.

They don't get to keep the VAT either.

Megaross

Suppose so.

My main point was them taking 2 hours to change a stopcock. There's charging 2 hours to include your travel and then there's taking 2 hours to do a really easy job.

Glad I've never had to pay a tradesman, what some people pay for easy work blows my mind. 

Section62

Megaross said:

My main point was them taking 2 hours to change a stopcock. There's charging 2 hours to include your travel and then there's taking 2 hours to do a really easy job.

How do you know it was a "really easy job"?

The OP didn't post a picture so none of us know what access was like, what the pipe materials are, or anything else which may impact on how long it may take to do the job.

Sometimes people on this forum are a bit too quick to make other people feel bad about what they've paid for a job, without really having an understanding of what it really costs to get some smaller one-off jobs like this done.

stuart45

Whenever I worked as a jobbing bricklayer for firms an hours work for one man would often be half a day for me and a labourer. 
Get to the yard about 8, spend half an hour in the office while the foreman dished out the jobs to the various trades, another half hour in the yard loading up tools etc, stop at the merchants of anything else was needed.
Next stop the cafe for a fry up.  
Get to the job about 10:30, finished in an hour or so, have a coffee with customer, and then clear up and almost time for lunch.
The boss has to allow for all of this in the price of the jobs, plus running a yard, 2 office staff, a foreman that gets most things wrong and have a profit for himself.

Megaross

Section62 said:

Megaross said:

My main point was them taking 2 hours to change a stopcock. There's charging 2 hours to include your travel and then there's taking 2 hours to do a really easy job.

How do you know it was a "really easy job"?

The OP didn't post a picture so none of us know what access was like, what the pipe materials are, or anything else which may impact on how long it may take to do the job.

Sometimes people on this forum are a bit too quick to make other people feel bad about what they've paid for a job, without really having an understanding of what it really costs to get some smaller one-off jobs like this done.

Even if you need to cut out a section of pipe and replace and it's in a really confined space where you can barely get your hands in and it went about as bad as a job could go, it wouldn't take any competent plumber 2 hours.

Section62

Megaross said:

Section62 said:

Megaross said:

My main point was them taking 2 hours to change a stopcock. There's charging 2 hours to include your travel and then there's taking 2 hours to do a really easy job.

How do you know it was a "really easy job"?

The OP didn't post a picture so none of us know what access was like, what the pipe materials are, or anything else which may impact on how long it may take to do the job.

Sometimes people on this forum are a bit too quick to make other people feel bad about what they've paid for a job, without really having an understanding of what it really costs to get some smaller one-off jobs like this done.

Even if you need to cut out a section of pipe and replace and it's in a really confined space where you can barely get your hands in and it went about as bad as a job could go, it wouldn't take any competent plumber 2 hours.

How many stopcocks have you changed or had changed?

The first job is to get the water turned off.  Which means finding the external stopcock, hoping it isn't jammed stuck and/or needs the access chamber dug out to find the valve. And as you said, it is wise to go round the neighbours warning/checking with them before turning the water off as the supply could be shared.  All these little bits add up - and the clock is ticking.

Draining down properly (so no water spilt on the customer's expensive flooring) and refilling making sure there are no airlocks also add to the overall time taken. The "scrunched rubble sack" technique may work Ok for a DIYer, but paying customers expect a more professional approach - else they will be after you for compensation for the damagd caused.

I'd say allowing an average of two hours isn't that bad, given the huge variety of circumstances that can be encountered on this type of job, and a client that wants the job done properly first time.

Megaross

I've changed 3 in my life that I can think of.

2 hours does seem to be taking the biscuit in my opinion but if someone's willing on paying, guess you might as well charge it.

Ganga

I changed ours after i seized up ,the hardest job was getting my hand down the main stop valve in the garden ,you should have seen the size of the spiders down there!  

bris

Rosa_Damascena said:

Mr.Generous said:

Sometimes the stopcock leak can be easily fixed by just nipping the nuts a bit tighter.

Is that supposed to be funny?

Actually no it's true.

There is a nut on the valve that loosens when the stopcock is used. When you open it again water can weep from this point. It's either a nut or if old enoough a disk.

Nip it up a bit and it stops the weeping.