Plumbers here charge from $160/hr (sole trader) to $430/hr (company) then charge call out fee, or per km in their vehicle etc.
They don’t study as long as doctors but charge much more.
How will people with toilet problems be able to afford that?
In Australia, people have no hope if they are not millionaires or not a tradie.
Why Are Plumbers in Australia So Expensive?
Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 17/05/2018 - 09:41
Last edited 21/05/2018 - 20:19 by 1 other user
Last edited 21/05/2018 - 20:19 by 1 other user
Comments
Reference?
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/375804
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/378288
Pick a profession, it'll be trolled soon. Come on down and play Whinge-BINGO!
Yeah I'm sick of the whinging on here!
I think it works off who "Stephanie" patronizes next.
She was ill went to the doctor and didn't want to pay the bill. She's presumably in some hot water and has engaged a lawyer.
Who's next? Could it be the Uber driver? The crossing guard? Seeing eye dog?
Stay tuned to find out who gets lynched next.
I was disappointed when I clicked into the the thread but OP wasn't Stephanie.
They charge so much so they can pay for their doctors bills.
…and don't forget their legal bills.
The costs seem high, but there are a lot of inputs:
- Overheads of the business (tools, insurance, vehicles, wages, superannuation, etc)
- There is probably a shortage of qualified people, most likely due to the lack of support in recent years / decades on TAFE colleges and apprenticeships
- Demand has not decreased, more likely increased with higher population, growth in housing construction, etc.
In light of this post, I choose the power of plumbing.
Could you do one for prostitutes next please?
@idonotknowwhy: oh yes please. Can't wait for that one
"She gets to have sex while she's doing her job, she should be paying me!"
Because plumber cannot be outsourced to filo, viet or india for goodness sake!
And also electrician, toilet cleaner, soldiers, politician, etc.
Time to change your career.
But neither can doctors or lawyers but yet people whine about those professions. Probably a bit of built in ivory tower syndrome in their minds. Strangely though, a lot of lawyers and doctors I know didn't come from high class families.
Isn't that a plumbing job too :)
Demand has not decreased, more likely increased with higher population, growth in housing construction, etc.
And… of course…. EVERYBODY PoOpS
I miss R.E.M.
They are working on new album see their Facebook page.
Because you can't DIY.
And no-one wants to be a plumber because it's a shitty job. Ew yuk, a trade!
Because you can't DIY.
So I'm not allowed to unblock my own toilet?
I'm surprised you managed to block yours.
You can, but you can't install your own plumbing. Kind of like how you can plug in an appliance, or turn the power point on, but you can't run a new [fixed] power cable.
Username does not check out.
You can DIY, my Dad and I haven't ever hired a plumber. We've completely stripped and renovated multiple bathrooms by ourselves. Toilets, sinks etc. Not that bad.
Any pipe work?
I hope you did 4 years training to fit those pipes. Wouldn't want your house catching on fire.
Flames would make the pipes leak and extinguish the 🔥
Had a plumber here yesterday. All he used was a shovel and about $50 worth of stuff from Bunnings. Billed me for $600 for 2 hours work. Outrageous.
That may appear to be expensive, but consider these:
- The 2 hours on site, involved x hours on the road to get to site, and probably some after job downtime (unless they had back-to-back jobs)
- The travel included use of a vehicle (registration, insurance, maintenance, fuel, etc)
- Allowances need to be made for business operating costs (GST, accounting, workers comp insurance, tools, etc) as well as a salary / wage to the worker (incl. superannuation, leave accruals, etc
- The stuff from Bunnings needed to be sourced; each trip to get (or re-stock) materials is non-chargeable time
I'm not a small business operator, and I don't have a trade skill.
If I can't do it myself, I accept that I just have to pay a tradie (but I do try to get value for my money by combining maybe a few jobs into one visit if possible).I wish my company paid me for the time I spend on public Transport/ or travelling to work, parking and stuff that is needed to get the work done for e.g. a degree.
If I work away I get living away from home allowance, travel allowance, etc. This is for a large, national company.
So yeah. It happens.
Travelling to work and travelling for work are two different things
In your dreams, perhaps go become another plumber then
They sort of do, since you negotiated a package with them and knew how much commute time would be involved. The plumber is the same, their rate factors in work-related non-earning time like travel, picking up materials, invoicing, bookkeeping, etc.
@jno:
Indeed they are, but trades people charge even their first and last trip of the day, as well as one's made during the body of the day to the customer. So for them there is no difference ;)
Everyone has to pay car insurance and maintenane costs. E.g taxi or
Sourcing every company does that
Etc etTravelling to a job after hours is fair enough, but you can’t assume they can start the clock when they leave their house/previous job. Yeah you can build some of your overheads into your charge out rate, but you can’t put it all on your customers - in any event, he’ll claim all of those overheads and travel in his tax return.
Your last point does not work, they will itemize and bill the heck out of you for every point. Then they'll rely on the "I did so many jobs all in one go! I saved YOU so much time!"
But there is only one 'call out' charge.
No different from any other trade really. Plumbers don't deserve to get paid a fortune
Is that right. My freaking neighbour is a plumber, I got him to do a job at my place and he charged me a $100 callout fee I think it was, to travel next door literally. Pig's ass about wasting time on the road.
Your plumber would have quoted a callout fee (I assume you asked for a quote), which is probably his/her standard fee.
Your neighbour could factor in maybe one or two of these jobs a year?
why don't you DIY ?
i wanted to DIY wire light fitting but got bombarded by Ozb
That's nothing, I had a 'grey army' plumber come out to do the every 2nd year drain unblocking, to be charged 500 dollars for less than 20 minutes work. The argument from them was that they used a very expensive HYDROJET machine, and that they needed to charge more because of that. I told them it wasn't my problem they used a more fancy machine. I called up my usual plumber who charged me no more than 170 to 230 for the same job and he said they are taking advantage of people.
Grey Army on the Northside of Brisbane*.
Always worth getting two or more quotes
Thanks for the heads up I nearly called the Grey Army to a big plumbing job we have. I just booked a sole trader instead. Cheers buddy.
So you used a plumber other than your 'normal' plumber?!
Edit spelling
Yes, I thought I'd give them my business this time, except it wasn't an older gentleman who came out. They are grey army in name only, it's all subcontracted work now. My usual plumber has had plenty of my business previously, and now likely until he retires lol.
Had a similar situation with a blocked drain a couple of years ago. When I joked about making $400 an hour he proceeded to point to his ute, and his compressor, and all the other shit which added up to about $30k and used that as justification. As if everyone doesn't have work related expenses.
Was his ute an AMG 6x6?
Grey Army are alright depending on who you get.
You paid him 600 to know which screw to turn.
yeap. 600 to turn "screw you"
If it was so easy why didn't you do it yourself?
Think for a minute about the accumulated knowledge your plumber may have had to utilize to fix your problem. That's called IP….consultants, lawyers and doctors get paid for that intangible IP as well. Why shouldn't your plumber? People really look down on tradies and think their job is easy. It's hard not only physically, and good tradies are actually super smart intellectually (required for problem solving) but also has many peaks and troughs if you are self employed so you could go months without work.
I'm 197cms,so as a result not too many people are able to 'look down' on me😅
And the trades then look down on them, from their lifted $70,000 hilux and million dollar double story property :)
That feel when the autists start down voting.
Feels bad.man
All the while crying that they are "hard done by" and don't get a "fair go" compared to white collar professionals etc.
I love the fact that tradies can earn a great living. They just tend to have their cake and eat it too.
They charge so much because who else wants to be armpit deep in your plumbing and sewerage issues?
Next time, use AirTasker, ya tight arse…
Just like everyone else, plumbers charge whatever they think they can get away with. This is "market forces" at work.
Yup supply and demand essentially, though I do believe there might be an unwritten plumbers cartel arrangement where you don't undercut normal prices or give specials like your local car service centre might, if only on a nod and a wink basis.
A friend of mine was a plumber was going through a quiet time and allowed himself to be negotiated down on a job and later that day his figure for the job got quoted to another in the trade. An evening phone call and argument resulted with sayings like "you're taking the bread from all our mouths" thrown in.
For the contributor who describes plumbers as being types working knee deep in sewage, my friend didn't accept drainage work only blue water work.
You've gotta hang a carrot over your plumbers head. Mine does cheapies because he wants to renovate my wet rooms and I have 5.
You have 5 wet rooms in your house?
Yeah 3 bath, kitchen, laundry.
all trades work is overpriced because that is what they can charge, and people will pay.
its the same reason so much of what we pay for nowadays is so expensive. previous generations would have stopped buying goods and services if the price went up too much, the current generations don't care and will keep buying anyway. so companies keep pushing their pricing up
up, just like the debt mountain
Just like Sydney house prices :(
You can literally look up data from the ABS and see that what you're saying isn't true at all. Current generation spends less on pretty much everything except rent/house prices as a percentage of income than any generation before it. Housing and rent, is 3 times higher though.
You forget the invoice rorting and cash jobs that tradies do. They make out that they are poor earning under a 100k a year, but that is only 50-60% of the work they actually put on their books.
Because using a lisenced plumber in most cases is government mandated.
Hence why a lot of people are against further government control.
China
Which fuelled tradies to go and work in the mines, those that stayed could demand top dollar and its just flowed on.
Well in the Hunter valley anyway.
negative gearing, Investors don't care how much the work costs, its all deductable.
lol the downvotes, he's right though, partly.
also in Sydney, several big projects like northconnex, westconnex, Sydney metro etc have soaked up many tradies. The ones with free time are price gouging, and are shithouse quality.
^ YES….. in 2012-13 $750/shift was the going rate in a lot of mines for a casual, not many apprentices would make that in a week?
To pay their lawyers to sue the Doctors.
They're a rip off but what can you do? they are a registered trade and have a monopoly on the industry as do electricians…
1000's of independent small businesses is kinda the opposite of a monopoly….
kinda the opposite of a monopoly
Would calling them a cartel make you happier?
Demand and supply
Yep. For many trades, you can't just go to tafe, learn all there is to know about a trade, prove you can do it competently in assessments, and get your licence.
You have to do an apprenticeship for X years with a licensed tradesmen.
Don't believe me? Just try to figure out how to become licensed to replace a powerpoint in NSW in only a few hours of googling.
Plumbers figured out that if they just never took on any apprentices, there wouldn't be enough of them and they could charge whatever they wanted.
So that's what's happened.
- moved comment *
Sounds like any skill based job. Except tradies get paid to learn (and complain about it). The rest of us that went to uni had to pay for the privilege of learning. And then work on top of that to earn an income.
kids these days are too precious to be tradies.
The reason anything costs what it does is cause people are willing to pay it, and there are alot of stupid people like this, so the plumbers get used to dealing with stupid people, and think their rates are too low and increase their rates, plumbers don't competes with the other guys rates unless they really need work, and at the moment plumbers have more work than they can deal with. Usually trades make good money in a good economy, but their rates drop drastically in a recession as everyone is competing for work that becomes much more scarce.
Also you need a painter, and you can wait, most trades arent necessary, but your toilet gets busted, you need a plumber quick smart, thats not something you can just put off for whenever.
Most of a plumber's costs are unsurprisingly, labour costs.
If you don't want labour costs - go down to Bunnings and do the work yourself. Watch a YouTube video and save yourself $600.Next week: Mechanics are too expensive in Australia.
This, right here.
It's labour costs, and largely not materials.
Consider how much it costs to buy an air-conditioner. You pay $800 for the air conditioner itself and then usually $500-$600 (I think) to install it, which is labour (and some very minor material costs). The labour costs to install it are nearly as much as the product itself.
Mechanics aren't expensive as such, its more often their standard practice is to overcharge people if they dont understand the issue/s with their car and price gouge based on the customers ignorance.
Problem is though, there's a lot of people who just take the car to the mechanic to fix it. It's just asking to be overcharged.
And the labour costs are normally ridiculously high.
Ok Stephanie