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Price for a Plumber! You'll faint when you see this!

Price for a Plumber! You'll faint when you see this!

Old Jan 14th 2004, 6:14 pm
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Exclamation Price for a Plumber! You'll faint when you see this!

Up here in the North East the weather is frigid - the weathermen are reporting that the temps in the next couple of days are likely to be the lowest for 20 years, due to cold air from the Arctic ..

We had a problem on Sunday with a frozen pipe but luckily managed to thaw it out eventually. I've just read on a local website about the price one poor guy was charged when he called out a plumber.....

To thaw out 2 kitchen sink pipes and one powder room pipe; Total time 1 hour 15 mins.

Charge was $250 for Hot Water pipe. $150 for 2 CW pipes and a $49 trip charge. Total cost: $599
:scared:

(You can see this on the http://www.maplewoodonline.com website on the messageboards (Home Fix-It forum)).

My brother is a Corgi-registered plumber in England and it's his busiest time of year. He is actually employed by the local council, but at night and at the weekends he's always getting phone calls from people (all word of mouth) who are desperate for some work to be done at home.

It seems to be a lucrative trade in these northern climes...
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Old Jan 14th 2004, 6:26 pm
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Default Re: Price for a Plumber! You'll faint when you see this!

Originally posted by Englishmum
Up here in the North East the weather is frigid - the weathermen are reporting that the temps in the next couple of days are likely to be the lowest for 20 years, due to cold air from the Arctic ..

We had a problem on Sunday with a frozen pipe but luckily managed to thaw it out eventually. I've just read on a local website about the price one poor guy was charged when he called out a plumber.....

To thaw out 2 kitchen sink pipes and one powder room pipe; Total time 1 hour 15 mins.

Charge was $250 for Hot Water pipe. $150 for 2 CW pipes and a $49 trip charge. Total cost: $599
:scared:

(You can see this on the http://www.maplewoodonline.com website on the messageboards (Home Fix-It forum)).

My brother is a Corgi-registered plumber in England and it's his busiest time of year. He is actually employed by the local council, but at night and at the weekends he's always getting phone calls from people (all word of mouth) who are desperate for some work to be done at home.

It seems to be a lucrative trade in these northern climes...

I'm in the wrong business. My plumbing knowledge goes as far as the plunger and the stuff you pour down drains to unclog them. It's actually amazing how far this will take you, however.
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Old Jan 14th 2004, 6:26 pm
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My other half has been warning me about the weather there. He calls it the Montreal Express or something. I'm going over on the 28th. At the moment I'm wearing a t shirt and jeans and have all the windows open. I can't remember what it's like to be properly cold.

Those prices are outrageous. I remember one cold spell in London when I had to call out a central heating engineer. He charged me £400 (it was Boxing Day) and told me about this really complicated thing he'd repaired. I later found out that all he'd had to do was replace the magnet thingie.
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Old Jan 15th 2004, 7:06 am
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This is why you have mexicans. Plumbers here charge $5/hr.

-= nav =-
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Old Jan 15th 2004, 8:39 am
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Default Re: Price for a Plumber! You'll faint when you see this!

Originally posted by Englishmum
Up here in the North East the weather is frigid - the weathermen are reporting that the temps in the next couple of days are likely to be the lowest for 20 years, due to cold air from the Arctic ..

We had a problem on Sunday with a frozen pipe but luckily managed to thaw it out eventually. I've just read on a local website about the price one poor guy was charged when he called out a plumber.....

To thaw out 2 kitchen sink pipes and one powder room pipe; Total time 1 hour 15 mins.

Charge was $250 for Hot Water pipe. $150 for 2 CW pipes and a $49 trip charge. Total cost: $599
:scared:

(You can see this on the http://www.maplewoodonline.com website on the messageboards (Home Fix-It forum)).

My brother is a Corgi-registered plumber in England and it's his busiest time of year. He is actually employed by the local council, but at night and at the weekends he's always getting phone calls from people (all word of mouth) who are desperate for some work to be done at home.

It seems to be a lucrative trade in these northern climes...

While I was in England my widowed granny's combiboiler went out after my uncle tried to bleed a radiator. Because it was improperly installed (some wiring not connected) back in '87, the safeties didn't save the boiler from melting down before shutting off. According to the new installer, the boiler never should have melted down despite turning a bleeding screw on a radiator. Anyway, the cost to install a new combiboiler came to 1600 dollars (that's about 950 pounds). All of the installers used are professional CORGI registered (both the old and new were done by registered workers - we found the paperwork on the previous install). We were without hot water for half of our visit.

By comparison, I went to see one of my Aunties in South England and she used a non-registered off the record install. For 950 she got a complete new combi system installed (w/ radiators) in a 3 story home. It LOOKS really professional with clean new copper pipes, the only problem is that the system pressure is reading a little over and needs to be adjusted. (no way I'm touching any boilers)

My other Aunt, who ives in York, her boiler just broke down in 2003. She called to say we got a good price because she is paying 1500 pounds, that is well over 2000 dollars.

I am really unimpressed with the way things work in England sometimes. Anway, I got on here and asked about why the boilers are so shoddy and expensive and everybody was defensive. I am just used to the things we take for granted here in the US. If a boiler goes, they are not so complicated since the furnace is separate and costs about $350 to replace with a quality one if you haul it home and install it. Here in the south you can get a really cheap one put in for $300 ( I guess they pay $150 for a cheap factory-shipped boiler and charge $150 for the install), but I wouldn't recommend it.

bottom line: it's bloody expensive in England and secondly, this American fellow should learn home maintenance and wrap his pipes and leave the taps dripping overnight if you live in an area where the pipes can freeze. My family and I just dug up and replaced a whole 180 ft of leaky galvanized pipe to the house and threaded a new european PEX pipe. If we can do that, this guy can learn to take proper care of his pipes and keep them from freezing. I mean we even lived in Canada for one year and prepared for the winter by wrapping the pipes.

Last edited by jaytee; Jan 15th 2004 at 2:36 pm.
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Old Jan 15th 2004, 1:08 pm
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Default Re: Price for a Plumber! You'll faint when you see this!

Originally posted by Englishmum
Up here in the North East the weather is frigid - the weathermen are reporting that the temps in the next couple of days are likely to be the lowest for 20 years, due to cold air from the Arctic ..

We had a problem on Sunday with a frozen pipe but luckily managed to thaw it out eventually. I've just read on a local website about the price one poor guy was charged when he called out a plumber.....

To thaw out 2 kitchen sink pipes and one powder room pipe; Total time 1 hour 15 mins.

Charge was $250 for Hot Water pipe. $150 for 2 CW pipes and a $49 trip charge. Total cost: $599
:scared:

(You can see this on the http://www.maplewoodonline.com website on the messageboards (Home Fix-It forum)).

My brother is a Corgi-registered plumber in England and it's his busiest time of year. He is actually employed by the local council, but at night and at the weekends he's always getting phone calls from people (all word of mouth) who are desperate for some work to be done at home.

It seems to be a lucrative trade in these northern climes...
Oh yeah, snow n ice. I know of them.....
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Old Jan 15th 2004, 1:12 pm
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Default Re: Price for a Plumber! You'll faint when you see this!

Originally posted by JulianB
Oh yeah, snow n ice. I know of them.....
Same here...I saw it on the news the morning...Don't appeal to me ..
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