Any Plumbers do estimations without €100 cost

Acoustic

sick of these yahoo's comming out to try solve a heating problem and then have the nerve to charge a fee without doing anything

if anybody knows a plumbing & heating expert in dublin who doesnt charge for a estimate call out please pm me his number

Joey the lips

It would be a good idea to describe the problem with best detail.But typical trouble that calls for a charge

For example would be, my heating is not working. The plumber comes out the boiler needs re pressurising. This is not a problem that can be explained but fixed and charged for

Pete67

To be fair to plumbers and other tradesmen, time is money. If you call someone out to solve a heating problem, it may take more time to find out what the issue is than to repair it. So a reasonable fee for investigating is justified. You are paying for the expertise as well as the physical work.

Acoustic

i want somebody to come and have a look at the problem , diagnose whats wrong and give me an estimate , then i have the choice as to get it done or second opinion , and only charge me if i decide for him to do the work

i mean theres a recession and if somebody wants the work that bad , they'd at least give a free quote

now my problem is : i have an ideal classic boiler , the house is 10 years old , now it fires up but doesnt give adequate heat , ie the dial on the boiler goes from 1-6 and no matter what number i put it on it doesnt get hotter , also i hate a temperature gauge on my wall in the living room that goes up to 35c , now im no expert but im sure that if u set it to 20c ur heating should knock off once the heat gets to 20 and when it drops under it kicks in again to bring it back up , mine doesnt do that , just stays constant

ive bled the rads etc but their never that hot and the house is freezing so im not sure what the problem is and would like a professional opinion off an honest fellow and not a sham just after a quick buck ie €100 for 10 mins without fixing the problem or knowing the cause

GigaByte

Pete67 wrote: »

To be fair to plumbers and other tradesmen, time is money. If you call someone out to solve a heating problem, it may take more time to find out what the issue is than to repair it. So a reasonable fee for investigating is justified. You are paying for the expertise as well as the physical work.

I don't think 100 euros to call a local plumber out for an estimate is called reasonable.

Bull76

GigaByte wrote: »

I don't think 100 euros to call a local plumber out for an estimate is called reasonable.

The op hasn't said how he has addressed the call to the plumbers. If he wants a quote then he needs to know whats wrong so a cost can be put together.
From what I understand the op wants some one to diagnose the fault and then quote to fix it, then get a quote from some one else giving the diagnose's from the other plumber.
Don't think or would I expect some one to give you any information like that.
Best thing to do is get a good plumber and let him/Her rectify your issue/s. Just my 6 cents.

Bull76

Acoustic wrote: »

i want somebody to come and have a look at the problem , diagnose whats wrong and give me an estimate , then i have the choice as to get it done or second opinion , and only charge me if i decide for him to do the work

i mean theres a recession and if somebody wants the work that bad , they'd at least give a free quote

now my problem is : i have an ideal classic boiler , the house is 10 years old , now it fires up but doesnt give adequate heat , ie the dial on the boiler goes from 1-6 and no matter what number i put it on it doesnt get hotter , also i hate a temperature gauge on my wall in the living room that goes up to 35c , now im no expert but im sure that if u set it to 20c ur heating should knock off once the heat gets to 20 and when it drops under it kicks in again to bring it back up , mine doesnt do that , just stays constant

ive bled the rads etc but their never that hot and the house is freezing so im not sure what the problem is and would like a professional opinion off an honest fellow and not a sham just after a quick buck ie €100 for 10 mins without fixing the problem or knowing the cause

Sounds to me that you have a few issues with your system. Is it serviced regularly? Also, what is the insulation like in your house? Have you clarified what the temp in the room where the Thermostat is? whats the range on your thermostat, seems a bit high if the upper limit is 35c.

As for looking for a quote, the plumber needs to know whats wrong that involves spending time investigating. That cost's, can't expect a tradesman to spend a few hours investigating your system and then not paying him or offering him the job to fix it.
I'm not a tradesman, but you need to be real about what your after.

Acoustic

Bull76 wrote: »

Sounds to me that you have a few issues with your system. Is it serviced regularly? Also, what is the insulation like in your house? Have you clarified what the temp in the room where the Thermostat is? whats the range on your thermostat, seems a bit high if the upper limit is 35c.

As for looking for a quote, the plumber needs to know whats wrong that involves spending time investigating. That cost's, can't expect a tradesman to spend a few hours investigating your system and then not paying him or offering him the job to fix it.
I'm not a tradesman, but you need to be real about what your after.

sounds like your trying to justify them charging the earth , maybe a plumber yourself

if he said it will cost you ? and thats it and i will gaurantee it is fixed , then id gladly hand the money over

if he spends 5 mins literally and doesnt do anything and actually hasnt a clue ie it could be this or it could be that etc why should i pay him for 5 mins and also not knowing or even wanting to know whats wrong with it

too many yahoo's unfortunately

Joey the lips

If i were a plumber I would stay away from this job as well and that just based on what I am reading...;)


If i go to a doctor and ask him why I have a cold if he give me a diagnoses I pay him. If he gives me a perscription i pay the chemist.

If you want a plumber to run a diagnostic that will prob take half a day you will need to consider that the plumber must be paid. That is why most plumbers dont investigate they just usually say you need a new X. Because they know you will not pay them. I have often asked a roofer plumber bricky to do jobs for me and I always call them and ask them for the best advice.

When I quoted I was often asked if there is a charge for quotations. The reason being is that it took me a long time to quote.

If you ask for a dry rot survey you will be charged for the survey. Not the result.

I can go on but i get the feeling I have made my point to the dismay of the op. Sorry for that.

PLIIM

Pete67 wrote: »

To be fair to plumbers and other tradesmen, time is money. If you call someone out to solve a heating problem, it may take more time to find out what the issue is than to repair it. So a reasonable fee for investigating is justified. You are paying for the expertise as well as the physical work.

Except that ive had some out who you are paying them to find out they actually have no expertise.

Joey the lips

PLIIM wrote: »

Except that ive had some out who you are paying them to find out they actually have no expertise.

Nobody can legislate for a muppet and a reckless and dangerous muppet to boot.

For gas I always use the RGII for plumbers I use my contacts.

NinjaTruncs

Bring your plumbing to him and you may get a free estimate, asking someone to call to you and take up his time will cost you money.

He could easily use up a hour of travel time and another hour looking at your system, that's a quarter of a day, I don't think you would go do a 1/4 of a days work for free at someones house would you?

Acoustic

PLIIM wrote: »

Except that ive had some out who you are paying them to find out they actually have no expertise.

finally

well said

thats what i mean , they come in tap on something and say i think u need a new boiler when for all i know u dont or charge the earth

Acoustic

NinjaTruncs wrote: »

Bring your plumbing to him and you may get a free estimate, asking someone to call to you and take up his time will cost you money.

He could easily use up a hour of travel time and another hour looking at your system, that's a quarter of a day, I don't think you would go do a 1/4 of a days work for free at someones house would you?

no i wouldnt

but i wouldnt pay for 5 mins at €100

if he spent 2 hours id gladly pay

Joey the lips

Acoustic wrote: »

no i wouldnt

but i wouldnt pay for 5 mins at €100

if he spent 2 hours id gladly pay

With due respect your not telling the full story. It would take the plumber 5 - 10 min to look at your plumbing which he would have done and checked the obvious. For example the wireing the stat etc,

It really is a diagnoses you want. What you can do is tell a plumber that if they figure out the problem and its reasonable you will pay them a bonus for fixing it quickly. The bonus can be 20 euro. The plumber will work quickly and you will get a result.

I am of the opinion that if you phone 3 plumbers and they all say the same you are either very very unlucky or they are right.

If your unlucky I apologise.

yoshytoshy

We charge €65 an hour ,if your heating is fixed in the first hour thats that.
If its two hours its €130 ,thats how we usually work out prices. Obviously that doesnt include materials.

You cant expect someone to call out to a repair job and not get paid.
If you want a quote for a new boiler ,radiator or cylinder ,then that is completely different and most people dont charge for that ,we don't.

Acoustic

yoshytoshy wrote: »

We charge €65 an hour ,if your heating is fixed in the first hour thats that.
If its two hours its €130 ,thats how we usually work out prices. Obviously that doesnt include materials.

You cant expect someone to call out to a repair job and not get paid.
If you want a quote for a new boiler ,radiator or cylinder ,then that is completely different and most people dont charge for that ,we don't.

thats fine , thats what i mean , a plumber should be able to know in a few mins whats needed , and quote for that

not just turn up and expect easy 100 for doing sweet fa in 5 mins

happened twice to me , when all i wanted was a quick look at it and give me an estimate , asked was there a call out charge and told no , bit diff story when they hear

they should only charge for work done and not estimate

Davy

Acoustic wrote: »

they should only charge for work done and not estimate

As already pointed out, thats for new work.

You have a fault. The work being done, is identifying the problem. Its their knowledge that identifies it, if it was easy you would do it yourself.

ronkmonster

It's the plumbers expertise that would enable him to know what the problem is in 5 minutes. You're paying for their knowledge of how to diagnose and fix your plumbing, not how long it takes them to figure it out.

If it's an easy 5 minute job, why don't you look stuff up yourself?

Bull76

Acoustic wrote: »

sounds like your trying to justify them charging the earth , maybe a plumber yourself

if he said it will cost you ? and thats it and i will gaurantee it is fixed , then id gladly hand the money over

if he spends 5 mins literally and doesnt do anything and actually hasnt a clue ie it could be this or it could be that etc why should i pay him for 5 mins and also not knowing or even wanting to know whats wrong with it

too many yahoo's unfortunately

As I already stated, I'm not a tradesman. But have experience in fault finding and fixing issues. I'm practical and very technical minded.
But what your looking for is not acceptable. What you need is an experienced plumber, no plumber tradesman will give you a quote to fault find anything. How can they.

NinjaTruncs

Acoustic wrote: »

thats fine , thats what i mean , a plumber should be able to know in a few mins whats needed , and quote for that

not just turn up and expect easy 100 for doing sweet fa in 5 mins

happened twice to me , when all i wanted was a quick look at it and give me an estimate , asked was there a call out charge and told no , bit diff story when they hear

they should only charge for work done and not estimate

I'm not a tradesman, but i doubt many will want to put in an esitmate for free on a 5 minute job, i would say most wouldn't do a free estimate on anything under a day as it wouldn't be worth it.

You keep saying it will only take 5 minutes and should only pay for the time it takes, but if a trades man had 5 jobs in one day and each only took 5 minutes it wouldn't leave him with much pay if he only got paid for 5 minutes form each, you also have to pay for his expertise and time spent travelling.

Outkast_IRE

There are a few excellent plumbers on boards from all areas and every one of them are goin to read this and go im not touching off this job!!!:D

Micky Dolenz

Wow, thats mad.

This is how it usually works, you call service person, they come, find problem, fix problem, then charge. Not find your problem and go happily on there way to find the next one with only a thank you for their time.

Recession or not, only a fool will work for nothing.

Acoustic

NinjaTruncs wrote: »

I'm not a tradesman, but i doubt many will want to put in an esitmate for free on a 5 minute job, i would say most wouldn't do a free estimate on anything under a day as it wouldn't be worth it.

You keep saying it will only take 5 minutes and should only pay for the time it takes, but if a trades man had 5 jobs in one day and each only took 5 minutes it wouldn't leave him with much pay if he only got paid for 5 minutes form each, you also have to pay for his expertise and time spent travelling.

i know a plumber and a sham guy at that

and he said to me before , he'd gladly go all day everyday estimating jobs and live on that money , and in some cases do sweet fa work , as he could do 5 or 6 estimates a day at €100 a pop , is that right ??????? NO

people are miss reading what i mean

i dont have a problem paying for a service ok

what i have a problem with is plumbers who havnt a bulls notion what there doing , saying it could be a number of things , i just want somebody to come in and spend 30 mins looking at it and giving me a straight answer as to what the problem is , give me an estimate and id let him do it

just hate the it could be a number of things etc , i mean come on if your 20 odd years in the game surely you'd know 30 mins later whats wrong

but dont have the neck to charge me when you havnt a clue yourself and your the expert , im not paying for that

Acoustic

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

There are a few excellent plumbers on boards from all areas and every one of them are goin to read this and go im not touching off this job!!!:D

couldnt give 2 fooks to be honest , plenty more around

people are screaming they can't get work etc

Acoustic

Acoustic wrote: »

couldnt give 2 fooks to be honest , plenty more around

people are screaming they can't get work etc

And your posting here because?

Acoustic

gary71 wrote: »

And your posting here because?

because theres too many con artists in the trade

Pete67

You are in control of who you let into your house to look at your heating. Do some research, get personal recommendations, use registered, insured contractors with a reputation to defend. As a wise old foreman said to me once, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!

Alun

Acoustic wrote: »

because theres too many con artists in the trade

Possibly, but it's not confined to plumbers. I don't know what you do for a living, but I'm willing to bet that there are a good few con artists there too.

If you're going into each and every discussion with tradesmen of any ilk with the preconceived notion that they're going to con you and rip you off, and give off that attitude, consciously or otherwise, in your dealings with them, you'll never get anything done.

Maybe if you'd approached this forum with a friendly question as to what might be wrong with your system, and also tried to educate yourself as to some of the basic workings of a central heating boiler and associated heating system, you might have got some answers which either could have resulted in you being able to effect a simple fix yourself, or at least be able to tell when a potential plumber was bull****ting you.

Some of the people on here are heating engineers themselves, who might just have offered to help you out, but since you appear to have adopted such a combative attitude to the whole trade from the start, I seriously doubt that will happen.

BTW, I'm not a plumber myself before you ask.

ronkmonster

Acoustic wrote: »

i know a plumber and a sham guy at that

and he said to me before , he'd gladly go all day everyday estimating jobs and live on that money , and in some cases do sweet fa work , as he could do 5 or 6 estimates a day at €100 a pop , is that right ??????? NO

people are miss reading what i mean

i dont have a problem paying for a service ok

what i have a problem with is plumbers who havnt a bulls notion what there doing , saying it could be a number of things , i just want somebody to come in and spend 30 mins looking at it and giving me a straight answer as to what the problem is , give me an estimate and id let him do it

just hate the it could be a number of things etc , i mean come on if your 20 odd years in the game surely you'd know 30 mins later whats wrong

but dont have the neck to charge me when you havnt a clue yourself and your the expert , im not paying for that

What you are calling a quote isn't a quote though. It's the diagnostic portion of the job. Which can take 5 mins if he did a similar job recently or 30 mins if he has to investigate everything. Why should him diagnosing your problem be free. It could be more work diagnosing the problem than actually fixing it. Yes they give you a quote to do the repair work part and parts but if you decide you can live with the problem then you just pay for the time he's spent finding out what's wrong.

Acoustic

Alun wrote: »

Possibly, but it's not confined to plumbers. I don't know what you do for a living, but I'm willing to bet that there are a good few con artists there too.

If you're going into each and every discussion with tradesmen of any ilk with the preconceived notion that they're going to con you and rip you off, and give off that attitude, consciously or otherwise, in your dealings with them, you'll never get anything done.

Maybe if you'd approached this forum with a friendly question as to what might be wrong with your system, and also tried to educate yourself as to some of the basic workings of a central heating boiler and associated heating system, you might have got some answers which either could have resulted in you being able to effect a simple fix yourself, or at least be able to tell when a potential plumber was bull****ting you.

Some of the people on here are heating engineers themselves, who might just have offered to help you out, but since you appear to have adopted such a combative attitude to the whole trade from the start, I seriously doubt that will happen.

BTW, I'm not a plumber myself before you ask.

ahh here stop will you , i know theres cowboys in every trade , i was recommended 2 plumbers by people i know , both came in and still didnt know what was wrong and left with the same idea , doesnt exactly fill you with great confidence does it ?

i'll explain my situation so and see if anybody has answers

i have an ( ideal classic F244 boiler ) that has a switch 1-6 on it , now my understanding is when u raise from 1-6 it should fire up the boiler more and be hotter , the 2 guys i had in , both took the casing off the boiler and could out their hands on the heat exchange because it wasnt that hot and when they switched the switch from 1 up to 6 the boiler did nothing , it was like it stayed at level 1 , now all the radiators get heat , just not enough , now the temperature gauge in the living room im not sure is working , when the temperature hits lets say 20c ( whatever u fix it at ) it should knock off the heating and knock it back on when the temperature dips below this ?? well mine doesnt do this

so a small recap , all radiators heat up luke warmish , no more than that , temperature gauge in living room isnt working , and the boiler isnt firing up past 1