Portland Plumbing Flat rate versus Hourly

Where plumbing is concerned, there are two different methods of pricing. One is flat rate and the other is time and material, also known as hourly. Flat rate is an agreed upon price between the customer and the plumber be fore a project starts. Flat rate can be beneficial for some customers. If a customer is worried that a certain job will take longer than expected and is unsure of what the final cost would be with an hourly rate, a flat rate would put their mind at ease. Many customers prefer flat rate pricing when it comes to something like the installation of water heaters. Water heaters can go smoothly and take little time to install or they can be more complicated and take several hours. With flat rate pricing it wouldn’t matter how long it took. The price would be the same and the homeowner can comfortably go into the project knowing exactly what the bill will be when it’s all done.

Time and material, or hourly, is pricing preferred by many home owners and Portland plumbing contractors. When performing a plumbing repair the total cost of the job would be tallied up after the repair was accomplished.  The final price would be what the plumbing contractor hourly rate was plus material.  After all is said and done the homeowner pays the Portland  plumbing contractor for his time and material. The benefit of hourly is the homeowner only pays for the time it took to do a particular project. With a knowledgeable technician jobs can be completed in a very professional, timely manner.  Down side to this is the project cost can be affected by a technician inexperience or work ethics.

With the flat rate system, the price is agreed on before the project starts. The homeowner knows exactly what out of pocket expenses are involved before committing.   The pricing, cost can be on the higher side.  This is to protect the plumber from working for free because of unforeseen issues or worst case scenarios.   These problems would have to be planned into the flat rate pricing.  The benefit is the homeowner knows what to expect when the job is finished.  On the down side the homeowner pays for worst scenario regardless if the job goes quick with out expected issues.  Also the Portland plumbing contractor can charge more for hourly profits.

Beware of high rates masked by the flat rate Portland Plumbing contractors.

After looking at both pricing techniques I’ve come to the conclusion that both have they’re place in the Portland plumbing industry.  Both can be affected by poor trades man performances.  With flat rate one can feel they are getting a sales person over a plumber.  Sometime companies focus lots of there training on sales rather than good plumbing technique. With time and material a homeowner relies on the technician to be experienced and aggressive, using his time to complete a task in a timely manner.

Portland plumbing contractor use both billing systems.