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
