NEED A REALITY CHECK ON PROJECT TIME

[DWC in NorCal]

I'm the volunteer HOA President for my condo building. We just replaced the water main valve for our building and the invoice seems way out of whack.

We had shutoff valves on all three sides of this old valve setup so you could turn off the water and then remove the old setup you can see here. New valves then swapped in. The total cost of all materials was about $3,000. Can anyone give me a ballpark estimate of the reasonable amount of time you would spend on a job like this? (Permits were obtained separately so just trying to figure out how many hours it would reasonably take to remove and replace the old setup as you see). Thanks in advance!

 

[Geofd]

Is that one pip feeding 2 different systems???, when we change os+y valves we usually install a brand called " American ball valve" it's just a preference, it's a "ball"valve rather than what you have
From what it was to what it looks like now
Is a big change, you may think about the copper coming off that 1st valve at some
Point some of the components look kind of rough, those American ball valve are designed to fit between the flanges

 

[MicEd69]

An industrial rule of thumb for new construction for piping work is that materials account for around 25% of the cost of a simple installation. So, that would make your cost of labor for the installation of your $3,000 of materials something around $9,000. Adding maybe $3,000 for the dismantling of the old stuff, I would make a guess of the total job cost to be around $15,000. And depending on the urgency of the work, overtime used, difficulty of dismantling, and other issues that could impact the costs, I could see a price in the $20,000 range to be within reason.

Is that close to what you were charged?

 

[Rossando]

One day job with one or two helpers.
I'd see this figure be 10k easy in my area. My coworkers did one similar and it was a two man job for getting in in place and once that was done only one guy stayed to finish the installation the Test and purge etc.

Wasnt there an estimate you guys approved before the start of this job?

Lots of factors in these companies when they are selling jobs like this. They absorb a lot of liability and from my perspective the more I absorb the more the price goes up, definitely more to construction then time and materials. By the time I get to jobs I'm already in the negative because of insurance, gas, fees etc.

 

[Geofd]

I'm still curious to know what both branches do??????

 

[DWC in NorCal]

An industrial rule of thumb for new construction for piping work is that materials account for around 25% of the cost of a simple installation. So, that would make your cost of labor for the installation of your $3,000 of materials something around $9,000. Adding maybe $3,000 for the dismantling of the old stuff, I would make a guess of the total job cost to be around $15,000. And depending on the urgency of the work, overtime used, difficulty of dismantling, and other issues that could impact the costs, I could see a price in the $20,000 range to be within reason.

Is that close to what you were charged?

Sadly, no. Just yesterday he sent a supplemental invoice and is trying to charge us $30,000 total! I'm going postal on this right now.

 

[DWC in NorCal]

I'm still curious to know what both branches do??????

One direction to our building fire sprinkler system and the other to the individual condo water meters.

 

[DWC in NorCal]

An industrial rule of thumb for new construction for piping work is that materials account for around 25% of the cost of a simple installation. So, that would make your cost of labor for the installation of your $3,000 of materials something around $9,000. Adding maybe $3,000 for the dismantling of the old stuff, I would make a guess of the total job cost to be around $15,000. And depending on the urgency of the work, overtime used, difficulty of dismantling, and other issues that could impact the costs, I could see a price in the $20,000 range to be within reason.

Is that close to what you were charged?

My high end estimate was $8K. Ready for what he's trying to charge us?

$30,000. Yes, $30,000.

 

[havasu]

How many estimates did you receive? Were they all in the same ball park?

What was the reason for the supplemental invoice? Was this agreed upon?

 

[MicEd69]

Yes, that does seem a bit higher than I would have thought. But again, the urgency and the responsibility for the work may have played into the cost. As one of the lines is for the sprinkler system, he may have had to take a rider out on his insurance to cover anything that may happen when the sprinkler was out of service. And even if he didn't have to do that, he still took that responsibility upon himself when the work was done. That is sometimes hard for a customer to fully understand.

 

[GReynolds929]

Was there not a bid or estimate. Did you agree to the work without pricing being discussed. Were multiple bids obtained. Was there a contract. Was there a clear written scope of work to be performed. Lots of questions remaining.

 

[Geofd]

One direction to our building fire sprinkler system and the other to the individual condo water meters.

Is there a testable backflow device on your sprinkler main normally they come into the building separately so there is no possibility
Of cross connection