FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
My pricing system isn't complicated at all: Muck-Vac service is $369 which includes part, labor and tax for the Gilroy area. I have a $20 travel fee to San Martin & Gilroy and a $30 travel fee for Hollister, San Juan Buatista and $40-50 travel fee for Salinas and San Jose depending on how far I have to travel. Extra anode for customers with a water softener is $50 plus tax. If a flex anode is needed for low clearance ceilings with a second floor space restriction above the sheet rock ceiling and costs $25 more than the standard anode rod. If a flex line needs replacing it's an extra $35 each. Stainless 1" flex lines needed for hard plumbed tanks is $120 for 2. Any other work is billed at $125/hr.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I've been trained to install the new Ward Flex gas piping for those customers wanting to convert their kitchen stove to gas. I've also got the flush kit to clean out the new tankless water heaters that require a vinegar flush of their heat exchanger every year or every 2 years if a softener is in use.
- How did you get started doing this type of work?
I started Collett's Water Heater Cleaning & Plumbing Service in 1993 when I met Mike Kennedy from Gull Industries in San Jose who came to our condo complex in Morgan Hill to clean water heaters that after only 6 years old making a horrific noise and the anode rods were just bare wires. As chairman of the maintenance committee I started setting up other owners for his service. He then told me I should start doing this so I watched him service a water heater then he watched me do one and he could see that I already had a command of the tools and plumbing methods. He was confident I had what it takes to start my own business and so I did so I bought the equipment and serviced the tanks in our complex. I got my plumbing license in 95 and in Oct. moved to Gilroy where I continued to expand my business while still working as an engineering in the fluctuating semiconductor industry. After IBM laid me off after 9/11 I've been doing plumbing full time.