I charge $48,000 and I find one valve every three years
my hat's off to you and you're my new hero;:waving:
i don't like to throw around the money issue but we're pros and should be comp'd for it.
it takes too long to go to a job and meet with the client, properly diagnose the system and locate the valve(s) to be charging a small amount for.
the lawn is worth thousands and the owners are paying you to find something that they can't on their own without renting a locator;
scenario #1, owner spends time looking for valve, no go. calls pipe and sprinkler suppliers till he finds a place to rent a 521, $50+ deposit, drives down and gets a 521, they give him a quick run through (maybe) he spends unknown amount of time looking for valve and finds it....$50 and his day is shot.
scenario #2, same as above but he still can't find the valve and he's piss'd at the supplier and tells them the 521 doesn't work, he's out $50 and a day to boot.
scenario #3, he calls rhett and rhett tells him that he wants **** to find the valve, owner gets piss'd at rhett and says hes already spent $50 and lost a day of his life looking for a valve with some pos 521 he got from some pos supply house and his yard is burning up, rhett says **** and the valves found, guaranteed. owner lets yard burn, shoots self.
scenario #4, same as above except for the death and distruction, rhett this time tells the guy that he guarantees the locate, finds the valve collects the **** and is on his way, the owner might be jacked about the **** but he will remember rhett as a good businessman and solid locator, shoot, rhett might just get the repair to boot.
i have a number of calls with people saying my fee is too much, i tell them to ask around the suppliers for a troubleshooter and my name comes up first, twice last week this happened, in fact i just called a guy (because of this reply) and he'll abandon the zone rather than pay to find it, he's already spent too much and nobody can find the valves (7 zones, 1 valve stuck open) he's gonna dig the heads up and cap them. if people want to do things like this, let them, they aren't gonna repair your 521 if it stops, replace it if it gets stolen, buy you batteries or pay for your fuel in the truck, what if you need a new multimeter or a pulser or TDR, $70 is beer money, you as a contractor are worth more than that per hour aren't you?
boots, i'll run the TDR and 521 for $24,000, with 18 months lead time of course:laugh: