water everywhere!

[rocketmanbkk]

I went to change this womans' cistern that had cracked and fix a dripping tap, so bought all the materials etc.

So, tap 1st, stopcock inaccessible, had to use grips to turn a little at a time then couldn't get the nut undone on the tap, nightmare, tried heating it up even!! Did it in the end and changed the washer, all ok but took 30 mins, then noticed the woman had a leak under the sink (it wasnt me - honest!), so I fixed that as well. (i'm good like that)!

Then to the cistern, no water shut off, tried to turn water off in road, nope, no good. Had a problem, told the woman I could cut the pipe and put isolation valve on but it'd be messy. She said OK, so, plucked up the courage, put the pipe slice around the pipe and turned, water started spraying out (fast) but I had to keep going, shat myself, cut the pipe and put a push fit cap on it to compose myself, got the nut and olive in front of me and went for it again, messy and freezing, but did it, it was bad, sorted that out and put the cistern together. Then connected everything up, drip from under backnut to siphon, just kept nipping it up a little at a time, all was ok in the end but i was was wet and cold and what I thought a 2 hr job turned into nearly 4!

So, my questions are:-

Would you have charged to fix leak under sink? (honestly)

what would you have done with cold feed to toilet? Cut it or leave it until the water could be turned off?

What a day but experience again, quiet now this week!

Cheers
Jason

 

[peteheat]

Jason, we've all had jobs like that, question is what did you learn?

I call it a wasted day if I didn't learn from it,

My rules :

1) Never price a job without looking at it first.

2) There is no such thing as a two hour job, add the time to collect materials etc and you are probably up to 6 hours which means you have a spare 2 hours you can't sell that day so you must charge for 8 hours.

3) Yes fix any leaks beside where you are working, if you don't it's a guaranteed call back which if you don't attend to means you have lost that customer and any possible referrals.

4) Would have been noticed when you looked at the job.

5) You missed the opportunity to sell a new stopcock.

I'd probably have missed number 5 when looking at the job but would have recommended one and most likely would have sold the customer on how useful they are.

Like you said, experience.

Have fun.

 

[secret squirrel]

I don't do anything live, seen it go wrong and that scared me enough!

Different if water is already pouring through the ceiling though. I give an estimate, I tend to charge half a day for toilet cisterns never ever goes as planned and neither do taps!

Any easy job always takes longer.

 

[rocketmanbkk]

Thanks for your replies.

just trying to get to grips with pricing/ timings etc.

good to know what others with more experience do/ think etc. it all helps me.

cheers

 

[stevetheplumber]

i dont do anything indoors live except low preasure taps where ill do the washer or body live and low preasure ballvalves with all the taps running to take the pressure of
carry a freezer kit for everything else

 

[smtplumbing]

rocketman lessons learned we have all been there, when i check job i would sel a stopcock and a freeze kit sorted no problems

 

[smtplumbing]

stevetheplumber when i was learning the trade my old tradesman was asked to change a tap washer he thought it was a low pressure tap how wrong was he mains pressure the washer was jammed in the tap haha

 

[PlumbersMate]

I cuts cold mains to a shower which I thought was tank fed, luckily it was over the bath and luckily the stopcock worked! The buzz is so good though, and nothing wakes you up more than a bit of cold mains in the face

 

[rocketmanbkk]

Yes, it did give me a buzz in my boxers!

 

[mfgs]

I don't do anything live indoors, if it goes wrong it can cost thousands. If you do decide to do it though, have the isolator read with a bit of copper made into one side of it, ensure the valve is open and put a hose on the end of the copper and run the hose to the bath or outside etc then jump the isolator on without water spraying all over the place while you try and do up the nut.

 

[PlumbersMate]

I don't do anything live indoors, if it goes wrong it can cost thousands. If you do decide to do it though, have the isolator read with a bit of copper made into one side of it, ensure the valve is open and put a hose on the end of the copper and run the hose to the bath or outside etc then jump the isolator on without water spraying all over the place while you try and do up the nut.

Thats a great tip