this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2026
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What's up with homeowners and trying to be as cheap as humanly possible? Like my dad got a quote for our roof for 6 grand, so he told them to beat sand and asked his friend to do it for the price of parts. I sure hope he knows what he's doing because his friend isn't a roofer, he's just a general handyman.
Similar to car mechanics, a lot of these private businesses will just try to scam you. If it comes down to trust, well, I know I can trust my friend, but who knows if that random roofing company aren't just going to fuck me out of several thousand dollars?
Suburbanites and their libertarian brainworms.
Also the industry being filled with people taking advantage of presumed wealthy people (cuz, you know, house) who don't know better and not being able to tell a fair price. Got quoted 800usd to replace a water main shutoff valve stem last year, as an example.
That's correct. The industry is also fucking FULL of private equity plumbing companies that nickel and dime for everything. An example; as a routine part of chasing a sewer clog sometimes I need to pull a commode. I will typically just re-use the commode supply line unless it is leaking, visibly damaged etc. Lot of places will not pull a commode without requiring you to purchase a new commode supply line due to "liability", they claim it might rupture because it's reused and it must be replaced instead. That supply line costs me about three bucks wholesale and then places like Roto-Rooter will charge you forty bucks for the supply line and fifty bucks for labor.
The shop I work for gets a bit exorbitant even then. Example sewer call:
$145 trip charge just for me to darken your door
$175 per hour for me (TWO HOUR MINIMUM!)
$85 per hour for my greenhorn
$100 equipment charge
$50 gas
$25 consumables charge (gloves rags shoe booties etc)
That's how you end up with an $25 dollar brass valve costing 800 to install
I will however, find any and every way possible to stick you with as large a bill as I can legally manage if you are a land lord/property manager etc. I will lie to landlords about the tenants responsibility for clogs/breaks/negligence. I absolutely enjoy that part, comrade. It's never the tenants fault, even if it is.
Based.
My landlady has "cheap as humanly possible" mindset. For any kind of repair work - she hires the cheapest guys possible and then she gets pissed off when they do a shitty job. Luckily for me when I had a rain leak in my living room - she spent a bit more so the guys did a good job. But I'd spy a look at them and they'd be on the very dangerous "do not step" part of the ladder. I half-expected one of the guys to fall off and break his neck.
Tbf I'm a pretty good plumber and I've used the "not a step" part of the ladder. I've also used the "do not climb" side of the ladder b/c sometimes it's Friday 4:45pm so I'm not making another trip for different ladder.
The guy at the top was leaning too. It wouldn't take much for the ladder to topple over. I don't know how much time they spent in that perilous position but they did it early in the day and the job took three days.
Oh no. Thats actually a really good way to end up paraplegic first thing in the morning. I've used the top step on occasion to snag a hand tool or something left on a suspended ceiling or on top of a wall, or climbed the wrong side to retrieve a tape measure left on top of the ladder, but I won't actually work up there. I'm the OSHA competent person where I work so I can't bring doing dumb stuff like that too often.
Earlier today when I was commenting on AI I said that people love convenience more than common sense. I never thought of convenience as a siren song but it certainly is.
The trick to being a cheapskate is knowing when not to cheap out on stuff.
If it's safety related or could destroy something, don't cheap out on it.