Maintenance

Basic Plumbing Costs 101

by Rusty Guilliams, CAMT, CPO

I have had the pleasure of educating maintenance personnel on plumbing problems throughout my career. It is important they understand the problems they may encounter, how to fix them, and the costs associated with each situation.

One of the first things I try to educate them on is the cost associated with the parts. An example would be the price in the difference of replacing pex vs. copper and shark bite fittings. If you were to have to run a 10foot section of pipe, which included a 10-foot stick, two 90-degree elbows and two couplings, there is a great cost variance. Pex would need one 10-foot stick ($9.48), two connection couplings ($2), two 90-degree elbow fittings ($5.68) and eight crimp rings ($2.48). This would bring the cost of this job to $19.64.

If you were to use the easy and more expensive shark bites and a copper stick, you would incur a much higher cost to complete the same job. A 10-foot stick of copper is $29.07, two half shark bite fittings are $16.32, two shark bite elbows are $18.22, which would bring your cost to complete the same job to $63.61, a difference of $43.97 to complete the same job and causing three times the expense. Evaluating the cost over the course of a year, consider how much you could save on just this repair.

The second basic plumbing issue for us to review is a much simpler one. Maintenance gets a lot of calls about the toilet filling slowly or not filling at all. This could be multiple things such as the fluid master valve, 401 seal, flapper or the quarter turn shut-off valve. Most of the time you will find it is the fluid master or the 401 seal. They both take about equal time to fix but the cost difference is quite significant. A fluid master costs about $8, and if it is not broken at the slide-on connection or the float there is no reason to replace it. The 401 seal is about $2, so as you see there is a $6 difference in the two parts, or again basically four times as much. I close out all work orders, and when I notice certain techs are using all fluid masters and no 401 seals it is important that I make sure they understand the difference.

These are only two examples of plumbing issues and the cost difference in possible solutions. It is important to evaluate each situation. You want to make sure to review the best action to take care of the resident and be budget conscious for your community.