Water Heater

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jwelectric

jwelectric

Senior Member
Location
North Carolina
Moat of the time when I do a service call it is me and a helper.
I charge $65.00 to change a water heater element and $95.00 to change both of them. I furnish the elements.

I your opinion is this to much or not enough?
 
Re: Water Heater

I think its a fair price. But the helper is not needed for this job and the owner of the house should be told theres no charge for the helper or they think you are over charging them and want it even cheaper.
I also have a helper with me alot of the time when he is not needed, what do you do if you need him and dont have him. so i charge accordingly to what i think is fair and make sure the owners understand the billing.
 
Re: Water Heater

when i was young and tough i could carry an old 30 gal by myself. now, if you are by yourself, it better be able to fit on a dolly, the whole way dolly friendly, otherwise helper saves plumber's back, owner's walls, door jambs, etc.

paul
 
Re: Water Heater

I let the helper do all the work while I run off at the mouth with the home owner. When I hand them the bill I tell them how much I enjoyed talking with them.
 
Re: Water Heater

On a serious note to this helper issue, I worked for an EC who had a service man die under a house.

This happened before I was employed with this company in the 70's.

The way I was told, the electrician had crawled under the house in the AM. They found he was laying on a black iron waste line just below the surface when he got hung up on a 120 volt circuit with one of his hands. He was removed that evening.

If there would have been a helper with him outside as a "go for", the result may not have changed, but who knows.

After this, this EC made changes, and this was in the early 80's, a time when there was not as much emphasis on safety.
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This same EC had a policy that when working in hot attics in the summer, you would not start a project (unless a true emergency) after 11:00 AM, and in any case, there would be a helper stand at the attic access simply to keep a conversation going with the person inside the attic.

This policy was implemented after an electrician had passed out in an attic, and if the home owner had not been on their toes there could have been another sad ending.

The bottom line is, in certain situations a second person should be part of the job period.

Whether or not we can charge for it is up to you.

The EC above did, and still kept a good size service department. He made it clear to the customer that for certain jobs the customer would pay this combined service fee and they could call some one else if they desired to.

Roger

[ March 11, 2005, 07:29 PM: Message edited by: roger ]
 
Re: Water Heater

Roger and all this is why I have the helper. I have been hurt while working by myself and learned my lesson. Pop always said that an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.
 
Re: Water Heater

Story in the news about a year ago. An electrician working by himself climbed up into the ceiling space of a Macy's store on Saturday. They noticed his car in the parking lot Monday morning. Took a while to figure out where he was but apparently he suffered a heart attack and died. Who knows the outcome if there had been someone else with him.

Because of the work we do we should not work alone. It's always a good idea also to always carry a cell phone. Never know.

-Hal
 
Re: Water Heater

Have had customers complain when i took a helper that was not needed.Often this cant be avoided.He might well be with me all day on other work that he is needed for.And what will they say if i tell them i need to reshedule there service call because i need my helper ? Catch22
 
Re: Water Heater

I almost spent a weekend in an elevator, since my colleagues shut it off at the end of the day without knowing I was there fixing it. Fortunately I had some tools and freed myself.
 
Re: Water Heater

Originally posted by jwelectric:
Moat of the time when I do a service call it is me and a helper.
I charge $65.00 to change a water heater element and $95.00 to change both of them. I furnish the elements.

I your opinion is this to much or not enough?
Click to expand...
------JW, In all due respect to you guys out there catching Residental Service calls.I can't help but think thats a low rate.I probably should not even comment,because I don't do service calls.But if I was out of town,water heater element(s) went out on the wife, and she had to call a service rep.If she told me by phone electrician charged her $165 plus.I would not consider it being of a unreasonable price in nature.

Taking in account a extra charge of first hour in operation for service truck,and the upward gas prices in operation of vehicle,the material mark-up.I think the helper at least should be tacked on and included in the first hour premimum of miminal.Wouldn't that be the cheaper of, in the charge of a second truck/ and man hour charge in the first hour in route,if the second was needed?

I could be wrong,but sounds MORE than reasonable to me.Maybe because I don't do Residental Service calls.But the Plumber or a Locksmith charges more than that for the home service call..
 
Re: Water Heater

The key here is putting value into your service call.There is always something for a "helper" to do. Whether it be to perform the initial inspection of the main service, cleaning the site while paperwork is performed.
Again the key is value, See a broken outlet, have the helper change it while you are performing duties called for in the initial service call.
Customers will not have a problem with paying the 2 man rate.

It's kind of like when you go into a 10 min oil change place and pay 30 bucks for something you can do for 10. The check all fluids, air pressure, vacuum out the interior, ect. Most of the secondary task are perform by jr. techs.
 
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