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Question for the plumbing experts of HORT

flyfishstout_CO

All-Conference
Aug 28, 2018
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So I have some plumbing issues I'm trying to get fixed. It seems like it's snowballing and I had someone come out last night and give me a quote. I'm curious what others thoughts would be on the approach and costs. FWIW, I'm located in the Denver, CO/Littleton, CO area.

1. The outdoor faucet gears are stripped - the faucet handle won't tighten. A buddy and I took it apart to see if there's anything we could do but it looks like this needs to be replaced and not something I want to handle. Quoted price - $700

2. My water main shutoff has developed a slow leak. It's something I saw as a potential issue when we bought the place because of the mineral deposits and the previous owners had a small cup to catch any water. One thing making this difficult is that the foundation cement needs to be chipped away to make the valve accessible. In addition they want to throw on a water pressure regulator. I know some houses in the area have an issue with PSI but I haven't noticed anything (e.g. water hammer). Quoted price - $1,500

3. The bigger issue is we've had a couple indoor faucets lose pressure from hard water deposits getting knocked loose and plug the faucets. I cleaned them a couple times but it was bad enough that it had filled almost the entire handle of our extendable kitchen faucet. Plumber said this probably means our water heater is going bad. This makes sense since the heater is about 25 years old (I know I know!) and something we have been planning to replace when we bought the house last year. These guys use State water heaters - is this a decent brand? To install a 50 gal, nat gas heater and all the related items (drain pan, gas/water emergency shutoffs, permits, CO detector) they are quoting $3,400 with the heater itself costing $2,100.

4. Finally, the biggest add on and most expensive add on is a "Halo-5" whole house filter system. The plumber said given the hard water deposits it wouldn't be a bad idea to install this. I think this is an upsell deal but don't mind the idea of having an inline water filter system and I think we do have issues with hard water and iron although I haven't gotten a hard water test yet. Anyone familiar with this brand and is this a worthwhile addition to have a water filter right at the water main line? The quote I have for this is $7,000 (WTF!) but also have another option for a ION-9 water conditioner for $1,800.

All in, I'm looking at the most expensive quote coming in right at $12,200. A couple of these things I need to do but also thinking maybe go ahead and get it all taken care of now and not have an emergent situation down the road. One approach I'm considering is agreeing to the whole quote but asking for a 20-25% discount if I agree to pay for everything vs. taking their 12-24 interest free financing option.

Thanks for any thoughts. I'll go ahead and hang up and listen now.
 
20-25 % discount for paying up front?

Where else can you get that return on your money?

This seems way too high to ask for.
 
1. Assuming you can get to the piping inside and not have to rip into drywall and repair, that's stupid expensive. A new hose bibb is $55 at Home Depot. $650 in labor? LOLZ.

2. Seems pricey. Not sure I have a good understanding of the scope of work, but that just seems expensive. Maybe post a pic? Code says the max pressure to any faucet is 80 psi. If you're less than that, you're fine.

3. State is a fine brand. They're owned by AO Smith now. Price for the water heater isn't terrible if it's a high efficiency model with PVC venting in and out.

4. This is crazy expensive. I bought a complete Kinetico water softener with whole house filter and carbon filter for less than that. It was a while ago, but it was less than half of that price. If it's chunks of hardness that you're trying to filter out, you can get an inline filter for less than a hundred bucks. Not a softener or a carbon filter, but it gets out the chunkage.

My opinion: get another quote, at least.
 
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assuming i interpreted what you wrote correctly (i'm not a plumbing expert either), i've had to address 1, 2, and 3 over the last several years and i can assure you that unless hyperinflation has begun, you are being quoted well padded numbers. get another quote...
 
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1. Do it yourself... $50
2. Locate your municipal shutoff and make sure it works. Assuming this is your primary stop, (the one before the water meter), your municipality will likely require that a licensed plumber replace this valve. Test your pressure and if it's less than 80 psi you could choose to forego the pressure regulator, (60-70 psi is a typically nice place to be)... $400-600
3. Replace the water heater yourself unless you aren't comfortable with doing that... $1,000-2,000
4. Skip the whole house filter... $0
 
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Your plumber is going for the home run here. Woodford outdoor hydrant. Model 19. You can leave the hose on and it won’t freeze and burst. Probably 250-300 to take out an old and install a new. Depending on access. State is a fine brand of heater. Installation in KC runs from 1800-4000K. Depending on the plumbing company. Lots of the big service plumbers rip you off. Look up the Pentair whole house filter system. PC-200. Probably 800-1000 to install. It’s put in right after the main water shut off. Main water shut off. That should be your easiest fix of all. In most cases it’s just a quarter turn ball valve. At least it is in KC. It’s plumbed in either copper or pex and he just unsolders it’s or cuts it out. A new quarter turn ball valve doesn’t cost anything. And you don’t need a pressure regulator.
 
1. Assuming you can get to the piping inside and not have to rip into drywall and repair, that's stupid expensive. A new hose bibb is $55 at Home Depot. $650 in labor? LOLZ.

2. Seems pricey. Not sure I have a good understanding of the scope of work, but that just seems expensive. Maybe post a pic? Code says the max pressure to any faucet is 80 psi. If you're less than that, you're fine.

3. State is a fine brand. They're owned by AO Smith now. Price for the water heater isn't terrible if it's a high efficiency model with PVC venting in and out.

4. This is crazy expensive. I bought a complete Kinetico water softener with whole house filter and carbon filter for less than that. It was a while ago, but it was less than half of that price. If it's chunks of hardness that you're trying to filter out, you can get an inline filter for less than a hundred bucks. Not a softener or a carbon filter, but it gets out the chunkage.

My opinion: get another quote, at least.
Yeah with the first one there’s no way it’s that expensive unless there’s some drywall demolition involved. I had to replace an outdoor hydrant this summer and lucky enough I could access it from my unfinished utility room. Easy job and I think the hydrant was $30.
 
With plumbers, I’ve always used the same one I do business with, so I don’t consider other options, but with a few YouTube videos, a few trips to Lowes or wherever, you can do the small stuff yourself and bonus you get to keep the tools for something later on.

I’d get a recommendation from a friend, longer term resident of the area who knows the long term quality plumbing outfits.
 
1. Assuming you can get to the piping inside and not have to rip into drywall and repair, that's stupid expensive. A new hose bibb is $55 at Home Depot. $650 in labor? LOLZ.

2. Seems pricey. Not sure I have a good understanding of the scope of work, but that just seems expensive. Maybe post a pic? Code says the max pressure to any faucet is 80 psi. If you're less than that, you're fine.

3. State is a fine brand. They're owned by AO Smith now. Price for the water heater isn't terrible if it's a high efficiency model with PVC venting in and out.

4. This is crazy expensive. I bought a complete Kinetico water softener with whole house filter and carbon filter for less than that. It was a while ago, but it was less than half of that price. If it's chunks of hardness that you're trying to filter out, you can get an inline filter for less than a hundred bucks. Not a softener or a carbon filter, but it gets out the chunkage.

My opinion: get another quote, at least.

I agree with all of this. I’d have looked at the quote to replace your outdoor faucet and not read any further because I’d throw it in the trash.
 
Thanks, everyone.

I'm getting another quote to see where another group comes in at but seems like everyone is in agreement that these costs are pretty high.

The outdoor faucet does require drywall to be removed but agree seems like $700 is about double what it should be.
 
Thanks, everyone.

I'm getting another quote to see where another group comes in at but seems like everyone is in agreement that these costs are pretty high.

The outdoor faucet does require drywall to be removed but agree seems like $700 is about double what it should be.
I bet you can find a local handyman to fix the faucet for no more than $200, even with drywall taken out. He’s just going to cut a little window and patch it back up. He’ll spend maybe 20 mins messing with drywall.
 
And if he spent 20 mins on the drywall all he did was cut it out. Matching drywall to look like nothing ever happened is always fun…
 
Ask your real estate agent for a couple plumber referrals... make sure they know where you got their name.
 
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