Ask a plumbing question.

 

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop.... um....... in a toilet?

 

What about house wiring? That's all part of circuits, isn't it? You can ask a question about house wiring and it will be answered on AAC. Yet, one is prohibited from making mods to house wiring without inspection from a certified professional. We wouldn't be so snobbish and turn away a DIYer with a question.

 

Showing the age of your toilet now.

 

Plumbing is not the only profession with this sort of tendency. I think that the closer a profession is to being "something that anybody could do," ...
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Bingo! It's so simple to put a wrench on a pipe fitting and unscrew/screw it that you could teach an assistant to do it in one day.

And plumbers want to charge $150 an hour for a job so simple that anyone with 1 day training could do it. And if anyone can do it with practically zero training, the task has very little value! It's a $10 an hour task like cleaning floors or carrying bricks.

The only way they can protect that extortionate charge:value ratio is to enforce it through some union type activity.

 

If your toilet is stopped up.....call a plumber....Ask all your do it your self people

that don't get the job done. If you have a flooded floor even more........

 

I've worked in the trades pretty much my entire career. As a Millwright/Electrician I've worked along side, have supervised, and have contracted a wide range of tradesmen. I see the use of plumbers for the skill sets they bring to the project. Should a group of professionals be chastised for not engaging hobbyists? It's a sad day on any forum that claims some technical expertise, when they openly put down other skilled groups.

 

Also, like this site, the plumbing site is probably privately owned. And the owners can set their own terms of service, just like here.

 

Couple of years back I needed to do some serious plumbing before finishing off a room to correctly install a clothes washer. I found a DIY site where real pros would answer questions for free. I got such good advice and detailed answers from one gentleman I sent him some money as a thank you.

Wish instill had that link.

 

A couple of weeks ago I went to the orange hardware store and the resident plumber told me I couldn't put the disposer on the right tub of a dual tub kitchen sink. Odd...that's where the power wire and the dishwasher dump line are. I wish the previous owner had not removed the old disposer and left no evidence of how the pipes used to be connected. Fortunately, plumbing isn't very hard to figure out.

 

A couple of weeks ago I went to the orange hardware store and the resident plumber told me I couldn't put the disposer on the right tub of a dual tub kitchen sink.

I don't know what forum that guy's been visiting, but every disposal I can think of has been on the right side. My old house, my mother's house, my sister's house, my other sister's house, and on and on. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen one on the left side.

Maybe dual tub sinks are fashionably installed backwards in Texas. You guys must all have your faucets on the leading edge, where you can turn them around backwards and run water onto the kitchen floor.

 

All of the ones I can think of offhand are on the left. It must be a regional thing.

 

In Michigan and in Texas, the one's I've seen were on the right.

 

Mines on the left. The house didn't have one when we moved in (32 years ago)... The drain line was directly below the right side, and the disposal drains out the side so it made sense to put it on the left. Everything just fell into place, and I am NOT a plumber, usually if I touch it, it leaks...

 

... It's a sad day on any forum that claims some technical expertise, when they openly put down other skilled groups.

It depends on the level of skill vs the level of charge! Someone that cleans my floors has lots of skill too, but if they tried to enforce $150 an hour for floor cleaning by the use of a big nasty union, that attacked people that would clean your floor for less than $150, then they should be "openly put down".

Extortion is charging much more than the true value of something, backed up by force.

I replaced a hot water system and the "plumbing" part consisted of unscrewing two pipe fittings, and adding some teflon tape and screwing them back up. It was NOT a $150/hour value job for your "skilled group" it was the type of simple low-pay job I could teach a 12 yr old to do in 30 minutes.

 

It depends on the level of skill vs the level of charge! Someone that cleans my floors has lots of skill too, but if they tried to enforce $150 an hour for floor cleaning by the use of a big nasty union, that attacked people that would clean your floor for less than $150, then they should be "openly put down".

Extortion is charging much more than the true value of something, backed up by force.

I replaced a hot water system and the "plumbing" part consisted of unscrewing two pipe fittings, and adding some teflon tape and screwing them back up. It was NOT a $150/hour value job for your "skilled group" it was the type of simple low-pay job I could teach a 12 yr old to do in 30 minutes.

I hear you, but...

I was called out to a industrial site last week because some 'complex PLC' equipment wouldn't run. Turned out to be a door switch. Any unskilled worker could have closed the panel. I charged them $120/hr including travel. I get lots of calls from people looking to hire, but they can't pay the rate.

 

Likewise in TV repair I would sometimes get paid $100 to replace one 5 cent resistor in a TV set. The value in our expertise is inherent and not artifically inflated and backed up by a union (at least in my case I was never in a union).

The difference is that while almost anyone could have replaced that resistor, only one person in 10000 would have the skill to know *which resistor* needed replacing in a TV set with almost a thousand parts in it.

Now if the TV was stupidly simple, and the ONLY thing inside was 2 resistors, then I would have needed *a union* to enforce me still getting $100 for the repair...

 

Unions exist for artificial inflation. This is why when the rest of the world is taking paycuts or loosing their jobs in an economic crisis, these thieves are striking for higher wages.

 

Now if the TV was stupidly simple, and the ONLY thing inside was 2 resistors, then I would have needed *a union* to enforce me still getting $100 for the repair...

'Need' = profit, union or none. No doubt a number of unions have been fronts for other activities, but on the same token, unions have been largely responsible for workers rights. I've worked both sides of the fence and don't have a problem with unions.

 

I don't have a problem with the concept of unions, but in any specific example where a union forces an artificially inflated high price for something that is close to extortion and is immoral.

Likewise doctor's unions and the legal protectionism around that whole industry, if you need something like a simple antibiotic you can't just buy it, you are forced to pay a doctor first because he is the only one that is allowed to write the script. So the system forces the doctor to get paid whether or not you actually needed him.

Kindof like being forced to pay a plumber for a consultation first, before the hardware store will sell you some copper pipe and a wrench.