My house is undergoing renovation. One thing that intrigues me is how much more per hour plumbers charge than electricians.
I’m paying about $42/hr for an electrical “technician,” but about $80/hr for the plumber–excluding supplies. These are fairly competitive bids.
How can plumbers charge more than electricians?And why more than stone masons, HVAC specialists, or other tradesmen? Is the required body of knowledge that much more difficult to master?
FWIW, my plumber drives a Lexus LS sedan and a Mercedes coupe.
the plumbers rates could be linked to overheads as in machinery and equipment.
and to cater for wastage and storage of parts and indemnity insurances if held
There should be little or no difference in the two trades, to my knowledge. (At least in the UK)
The rates seem excessive, but if you say they are competitive in your area, then so be it.
The main reason they can charge those rates is because people are willing (albeit grudgingly) to pay those rates.
Is your plumber part of a large company, or working solely for wages?
Seems to me his price may be covering admin / office expenses too, because of the difference. Maybe your spark is quoting a ‘wages only’ price.
Rates are usually closer. Might be more electricians than plumbers in your area. FWIW $ 80. an hour seems pretty damn steep for a plumber’s time. Usually (in this area ) it’s in the 40’s and 50’s per hour.
My theory is that plumbing is more of an art than science, and fewer people can do it themselves. I am not only quite capable, but rather talented in woodworking, carpentry, masonry, glass, electrical, carpets, tile, appliances, welding, etc. But I’m a disaster waiting to happen when it comes to plumbing. Plumbing is not something that you can learn from a book or just stroke along with common sense and a couple of laws. I always looked at plumbing as a true apprenticeship job, where much practice alongside a master teaches one the intuitive things one needs to know.
I forgot to winterize my outdoor faucet last year so it burst. It took me an entire day, several trips to the hardware store and many burns to myself to cut some stupid pipes to length and sweat the joints without burning the house down. I also had to replace the water line to my fridge once. Wanna see a monkey get friendly with a football? Give me some 1/4" copper tubing and some compression fittings. I fear plumbing. I always tighten too much and break stuff, don’t tighten enough so it leaks, mismeasure, use too much or not enough tape and putty, solder too hot or too cold or unevenly, and give myself a headache and provide far too much amusement to the wife. Yet I am still determined to learn the trade because I’m too cheap to pay someone else.
Turbo, I disagree that plumbing is any harder than other trades. Perhaps, arguable, it used to be.
At least you can’t kill yourself,or someone else, with plumbing if you get it wrong (unles you get it REALLY wrong, of course).
And with the use of plastic piping, pepex or Wirsbo (with clipped connections) , the connecting of pipes is becoming less skilled and a more simple job. No need to cut /weld joints, and even to the cutting of pipes is simpler now.
It would only be on renovation projects, where the plumber is working with old installations (like in the OP) where a higher thatn average level of skill may be required.
I agree that installing new plumbing using PVC is a cakewalk. I love PVC. But usually when you have a need for a plumber, it is to repair existing stuff, made of copper or cast iron. Not something the average joe can look at, run out for some parts and fix without making a bigger mess. I know there are a lot more people than myself who can never remember which nut turns which way on a sink trap. The scariest words I hear in my house are “water leak”, especially if it involves cast iron.
I’m with Aro on this one; renovations would totally suck, but new construction is pretty straight forward. I’m in the process of building a house right now and have done everything but the concrete work and some of the framing. I have in-floor slab heating which is so cool, in a warm sort of way.
Oddly enough, what I did find the most difficult (it was more psychological than physical), and what scared the bejeebers out of me, was my under-slab plumbing; making sure I had the right slope for my main sewage line to my septic tank, the right venting etc. You only get one chance at that before you cover it in concrete. In the end, it all flows downhill like it should.
I’d be happy to post a few pix for interest’s sake: I don’t have a web site with the pix posted. Am I able to attach the images to the post itself or just just a hyperlink to them? Sorry, I’m not sure of the board capabilities nor the etiquette.
Electricians make lots of money out of DIY’ers making a complete bollox of everything.
Folk seem to be happy to ‘have a go’ at installing a new point, but often don’t realise just how much work will be needed to repalace the melted wiring, or blasted fuseholders.
When your house is filliung up with water, or the drains are blocked, the perception is that the need is immediate as the damage is obvious, so folk will pay more.
When something electrical goes down, folk usually can get along without it for a short while, unless it is the entire installation or the fusebox, the perception of emergency is not apparent.
That said, in the UK, electricians usually make more per hour than plumbers, and there are certainly more career choices as an electrician.
Contract electricians on short term penalty clause work can sub themselves to a big construction company and make upward of £700 per week, and get living expenses, especially on big projects down in London.
Electricians have two classes (not including low voltage and assembly work and high voltage maintenance)
Residential
Everything else including residential (commercial, industrial)
Where I live residential electricians make about $12 an hour less than commercial/industrial electricians. Plus the overhead to run a residential shop is less than that to run a shop loaded with commercially qualified electricians.
Also union electricians make more than nonunion electricians.
What you may have at your house is a nonunion residential electrician ($14/hour take home) verses a union plumber ($27/hour(compareable to union electrician of commercial grade))
The workers benefit package varies greatly among the different levels adding to the cost to have the worker at your house.
Numbers will vary according to where you live but the principal is the same.
I think plumbers have to be fully liscensed for residential work and commercial work, whereas an electrician can be residential only.
In Canada, at least in Alberta, there is but one Journeyman Electrician Certification. In trade school they study everything from low voltage, residential wiring, motor and control circuitry as well as apartment wiring, explosion proof and oil field skid shack wiring. It is a four year apprenticeship though. Not sure about the U.S.
My point being, if the electrician strips an extra millimeter or two off the insulation when making a connection, no biggie. But even the tiniest crack in the pipe is a major calamity. Not every exposed bit of copper is The Towering Inferno waiting to happen.
