Ball Plumbing's website is getting better

Yikes! I didn't know the website was that screwed up! Most of the mobile function was gone along with most of the pages.

Good thing all you need is a phone to call a plumber: 360-647-2255 or 360-757-4455 will get us there pronto.

Sorry for the inconvenience of a terrible website....

(To be fair, some of it was a certain 3rd party installation, but I sure can't throw stones. Anybody who works with their hands--or in customer service--should have a hard time throwing stones.)

Ball Watches

There are other companies called Ball like the Ball Watch Company, for example.
http://www.ballwatch.com/

This watch is about average for their offering at just under $4k. That's a lot of stoppages..lol

Revamped www.ballplumbing.net

I got tired of the ridicule about the "baby poop brown" colors, the dead links, and the references to 1995 design.

I found and destroyed most of the "baby poop brown" except for a few locations where the color code was hidden by original coder.

I put the prices on their own page (www.ballplumbing.net/prices.html) and added a Specials page (www.ballplumbing.net/specials.html)

Nothing fancy, but better that it was this morning.

Google Places Lisiting Gone Again

We've had a real challenge keeping our place on Google Places. Now, it's gone again!

Installed a customer-supplied kitchen faucet

She calls us from Lowes, while waiting in line to purchase a cheapo Moen kitchen faucet. That wasn't the problem, though.

The problem was what a local plumbing company did to her before she found Ball Plumbing. They quoted pre-tax $479.00 installed for a similar faucet or $279.00, if she bought the faucet. When she balked, they charged her $49.00 call out charge.

I installed her kitchen faucet for the one hour minimum of $132.00, pre-tax. Took 40 minutes.

So, her cost was roughly $250.00 using our plumbing service and buying her own cheapo faucet. She saved $229.00 off the top. Well, add in the $49.00 service charge and it's lowered to $180.00, but that's still a savings.

If she would have bought our really nice stock model Delta kitchen faucet, her cost would have been pre-tax $375.00 for a really nice kitchen faucet. But, that's still $125.00 more than she wanted to spend in her Roosevelt neighborhood home.

Ball Plumbing charges $132.00 for the first hour, which includes travel and one hour of labor.

For each additional 15 minutes, it costs $22.00.

Really, it's cheap at half the price.......yuck yuck.

Sewer Stoppage Charge

How much does it cost to unclog a sewer stoppage?

In 2010: $254.73 (Using the 2010 price book)
In 2014: $245.21 (Using the new hourly rate, as outlined below)

The drain stoppage I did yesterday took 90 minutes from arrival to getting paid. I had to search for the sewer access and then I ran the snake twice the full 100' to the city sewer.

That doesn't include the 5 minutes taking/processing the job order or the 20 minutes to drive there. Those costs are included in the first hour.

Plumber labor break down: $132.00/first hour. $44.00 for additional 30 minutes ($22.00/per 15 minutes) = $176.00

Equipment charge: $50.00 (The big sewer machine)

Tax: $19.21

Total: $245.21

That was for nearly 2 hours (if you include travel), plus equipment. It would have been faster if I didn't have to spend all that time searching for the sewer clean out. Plus, I had to clear the utility closet out to access the sewer clean out.

New Pricing

Actually, not new pricing, but different wording. The prices will stay the same this year.

This is how we charge:

First hour (includes travel, truck charge, etc): $132.00/ first hour.
Additional time will be charged every 15 minutes: $22.00/ per 15 minutes.

Helpers: $44.00/ first hour and $11.00/15 minutes thereafter.

Equipment and  parts will be marked up above our cost (not yours---yuck yuck). I did a price check and we're below Lowes prices on most things with far better quality.

Here's to a New Year in the U.S.A.!

Go 'Hawks Go.......................