by Aaron on December 19, 2011
“Do I need to replace my waste piping?”
“When do I need to replace a waste line?”
“Do roots really break my piping?”
“What is an offset?”
All these are pretty much asking the same question. Generally the story goes that a plumber came over to your home because there was a backup and after they cleared the line they sent a video camera down to make sure everything was ok. Oops! As if having backed up plumbing east bad enough now the plumber telling you that your waste line needs to be replaced? Can it really be??
Well there are many factors and questions that go into whether or not a waste line needs to be replaced.
One of the major questions you should ask is “how old is my waste line and how much do I want to out into it?”
Also the question of what is causing the break needs consideration. Think of repair vs. replace as a sliding scale of investment for your line. If, for instance, your waste line to your home is 10 years old, there is a slight offset in the line and no other problems, maybe a spot repair is more cost effective than pipe bursting. Now on the other hand say your home was build in the 1950′s, there are several offsets including root intrusion, then we are probably further down on the replacement aspect of the scale. In the end it’s down to how much investment you want to put in vs. what the problem is. Obviously for one time permanent fixes we suggest pipe bursting replace – its a no hassle one time fix all solution that can be done on the lower side of $4k-$7k. On the other hand we have many customers that we suggest, and are very happy to have a spot repair on a good line and will last for 30 more years.
In the end the most important aspect is get the data (age of line and cost of repairs) and a plumber who you trust to do your plumbing and who’s relationship you trust in the long term. If you pick a plumber with up front straight forward pricing like ours, the decision usually becomes and easy, worry free one. Feel free to email is with any questions or call us.
-Aaron Eddy
925-462-1090
by Aaron on March 2, 2010
It’s very common when trying to find a plumber to ask how much an hourly rate of a company is. People call me here in Pleasanton from all over the Tri Valley trying to find a plumber and usually by asking, “what is your hourly rate?” What you as a client are really asking is “how much will it cost me for you to make the repair/replacement ect.?”
I’ts a good practice for any homeowner to figure out before hand exactly what a job is going to entail. Unfortunately, an hourly rate will not give you the answer to this question. The hourly rate is only based on one dimension of the job which can differ from technician to technician at any given plumbing company, as well as not giving any indication of how much materials will cost. Many companies will use an hourly rate as a “lost leader” only to markup materials by ten or more!
By asking how much and hourly rate is to figure out a cost you would actually have to ask something along the lines of, “…how much is your hourly rate and how long on average would it take to do ____ job and are you sending the most competent plumber to do the job to lower the time it takes to do the job and is there a ceiling to which the job cannot go over and if so what guarantees and warrantees do you provide with your work and how much is mark-up on materials I don’t provide myself…… WHEW!!!!”
As if that is not enough when trying to find a local plumber, in an hourly rate system we have found that it actually rewards bad work. When you think about the concept behind an hourly system it means the less a person knows and the longer it takes them and the more mistakes they make, the more the homeowner will have to pay for any given job! So in an hourly system why would a plumbing company hire good technicians? And sadly many times they don’t.
This is why at Cal Coast Plumbing we use a Straight Foreword Pricing Guide that we have created over the last 20 years to work as well a possible for a customer wanting a plumber. All our plumbing technicians are knowledgeable, trained and ready to (after a brief assessment) give you a SET, UP FRONT PRICE of how much the job will cost BEFORE the job begins, so you know your total investment before hand and can be rest assured that the price wont change! In all our experience it is the best scenario we have found that works best for everyone, just check the testimonials on the front page of our website by local customers like you!
We are pleased and confident that we can provide YOU with a risk free way of pricing any plumbing job you have, knowing full well all of our plumbers are knowledgeable to give you correct recommendations and knowledge so that you can make the best informed decision possible.
And as always we are pleased to hear any question you have by calling us at
925-462-1090
-Aaron Eddy
