Scott Gruby's Blog

About a month ago when we had our major plumbing problem, we just picked a plumber to do the work and didn’t shop around. We didn’t have much of a choice as we needed the water back on. We chose Rescue Rooter and the plumber did a good job. When he was doing the work, I was trying to do some calculations to see what it really should have cost based on say $85/hour for a plumber (that’s what I was charged in the past for non-emergency work). The plumber said the rate was the same if it was an emergency or non-emergency. The repair cost a lot, but I started to forget about it.

On Friday, I had Rescue Rooter come out to give me an estimate on putting a T in the main water line to hook up sprinklers to prepare for redoing our front lawn. I almost fell over when he gave me the estimate. It was $520. He knocked $50 off and I said I’d get other estimates. I got a call back and the price dropped to $395. Still, this seemed way out of line. I had already dug the hole to expose the pipe, there was maybe $50 in parts and worst case 2 hours of work. At $100/hour, that’s a total (including parts) of $250. I just got an estimate from another plumber (without seeing it) of around $200; this estimate is much more in line with what I’d expect.

So, it looks like Rescue Rooter ripped me off big time to fix our plumbing issue. Of course, there is nothing I can do about it except write this post. Bottom line, even in a plumbing emergency, shop around if you think the number is out of line. In addition, don’t use Rescue Rooter.

When I look to buy lasting goods I don’t usually don’t buy the top of the line as it is not affordable nor would I get the value out of it (however, I do buy my Macs at almost the top of the line). The other day I had to take my circular saw in for service as it didn’t quite sound right; I bought it a few months ago reconditioned. I know I didn’t buy the top of the line (the saw along with a drill, flashlight and reciprocating saw was $199), but didn’t buy the bottom. When I started talking to the folks at the repair shop, they pretty much laughed at me with my saw. These people repair professional tools and my rinky dink saw was basically a toy. I admitted that I knew what I was getting, but it definitely wasn’t the bottom of the line; it did come with lithium ion batteries which should have moved it up a notch. However, they didn’t agree. After talking with the manager for a bit, I learned that the price of the tool doesn’t necessarily mean anything as they get all tools in for repair; it really doesn’t matter the brand (there are only a few manufacturers of electric tools as there have been a lot of mergers).

In any case, in a few weeks, I should have my saw back fully repaired (yes, it should have lasted more than a few months), but since I don’t use professionally, the tools work work fine. If I get at least a few years out of them, I’ll be happy.

Our washing machine started to become quiet noisy during its spin cycle, so we had a repair guy come out to give us an estimate. Knowing that our washer is 8 years old and a front loader, I suspected that the bearings or motor were bad as the whole drum rests on bearings and puts significant weight on them. So, I hoped for the best, but prepared for the worst; the worst being replacing the washing machine. The guy came out, listened to it for about 2 minutes and said that it will cost about $500 to replace and pretty much he wouldn’t do it (he’s only done a couple because most people replace them). Of course, this visit wasn’t free; $35 to tell me that it was broken and had to be replaced. So we have maybe 6 months left before it blows. A new front loading washer with a warranty runs around $800. While not what I want to buy right now (not after my plumbing fiasco which turned into a bigger mess as I had to redo sprinklers in the back as well), but it makes little sense to put $500 into a machine without a warranty which could go at any time.

I hate to basically dump a washer, but for the extra $300, it is worth it to have years of hassle free operation and a warranty.

I’m almost ashamed to admit that this year I received a tax refund. Why? A tax refund means that you (including me) have provided the government with a zero interest loan. Granted I wouldn’t have earned all that much on my refund, but it’s the principle of loaning the government money. In my case, I was self-employed for a long time and doing an accurate estimate of my owed taxes was nearly impossible as my income fluctuated based on contracts I had and ReceiptWallet income, so I always ended up owing taxes at the end of the year. The latter part of last year, I started a W-2 job which kind of changed the game.

In any case, it seems like Americans expect tax refunds and then spend them. The smart thing to do is to adjust withholdings so that you come close to your tax burden and don’t get a refund or only get a small one. For most people with predictable income, this shouldn’t be hard.

Friday night as we were about to goto dinner, my wife tells me that she sees some water running down the driveway. I took a look, saw a pool of water near the water shut off, shut off the water to the house and asked her to call a plumber. After I turned the water off, I could still hear the water running, so I knew there was an issue between the house and the street. I shut the water off at the street and the fun began!

The plumber took a look and gave me an estimate; as he would have to chop out concrete on our front patio, it wasn’t going to be cheap. The next morning, the plumber, Brandon, arrived, and started jack hammering the concrete. After a little while, he knocked on the door because he had to show me the problem.

It looked like a rubber hose was connected to our main water line. This, obviously, wasn’t up to code. After a lot more jack hammering and digging, Brandon couldn’t find the other end, so he gave me an estimate on running a new main water line. Brandon asked if we had Quest piping in the house; this type of pipe is polybutylene, it was only used between 1978 and 1995. Our house was built in 1973, so it wasn’t used originally when the house was built.

While Brandon was digging and jack hammering, I did more research on polybutylene pipe and became convinced that what we saw was polybutylene and at some point, a repair had been done and instead of putting back copper, a cheaper alternative was selected.

Around 3 pm, I saw that it was going to take Brandon awhile to dig the trench to the straight and I wanted our water turned back on, so I offered to help. Well, we didn’t finish the trench, but Brandon duct taped the broken pipe and put a rubber coupling on top of it in hopes that it would last enough for a few showers (you really didn’t want to smell me after digging for 3 hours). I went instead to say goodnight to my son, turned the water on and quickly realized that the temporary fix wasn’t going to work; water pressure dropped almost immediately.

I ran outside to find water shooting in the air. I went into the garage, looked around to see what I had and found some PVC. I cut the PVC lengthwise and grabbed some zip ties. I put one side of the PVC on the top of the pipe and the other on the bottom and zip tied it altogether. That managed to hold for 2 showers and then I shut it off.

Sunday came around and we managed to lay the pipe and Brandon got a chance to do some plumbing! Who knew that plumbers had to be ditch diggers, tree trimmers (Brandon had to cut a tree root), and concrete destroyers.

So while we now have water restored, I have to get concrete poured to patch the front patio; at this point. I’m not sure that I want to undertake this as we’ll have to get some tiles replaced and who knows if it will match and if the concrete pour will be level with what we have.

The amount that this cost me reminds me of a Fraiser episode where Niles Crane is talking to the plumber about cars and the plumber said that he was getting rid of his BMW, the same model that Niles has. Niles asks why and the plumber said that he upgraded to the next bigger model of BMW which makes Niles mad because he can’t imagine a plumber making more money than he. I know how much work went into this and with any plumbing problem, you really don’t have much of a choice.