Replacement Hydronic system, cost of installation

Contractors have many other expenses besides materials and labor; there is considerable overhead in the form of business premises, trucks, tools, stock, insurance, continuing education, undercompensated warranty work, etc. Usually much of the overhead is built into the markup on the wholesale cost of materials.

Just curious about the source of that attachment. Weil Mclain installation.... Those sounds like a bunch of made up numbers. Maybe by some guy with a keyboard. As mentioned above, your best bet is to get a few quotes

@dsc3507 , did you read the post that told you to remove the pricing info?

And that burger still only has about $2 worth of materials on it. what's your point?

Why experts get paid more….

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A good friend shared this story recently; a nice story about effort vs. skill – a good reminder that in many areas of work/life time and outcome aren’t always aligned; especially in the design & technology space…

A giant ship’s engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one ‘professional’ after another but none of them could figure out how to fix the broken engine.

Then they brought in a man who had been fixing ships since he was young.
He carried a large bag of tools with him and when he arrived immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship’s owners were there watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away and the engine was fixed!!!

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A week later, the owners received an invoice from the old man for $10,000.

What?! the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything..!!!”.

So they wrote to the man; “Please send us an itemised invoice.”

The man sent an invoice that read:

Tapping with a hammer………………….. $2.00

Knowing where to tap…………………….. $9,998.00

Effort is important but experience and knowing where to direct that effort makes all the difference.

I'll take 3 of those $751 units :)

@tonynap , you seem to be unaware of the distinction between a consumer product — which is available almost anywhere in the county and has a definite central supply — and a service. Service and skilled technician costs vary wildly — by at least 5 to 1 — even in short distances, never mind nationwide, and it would be grossly unfair to a tech. in, say New York City or the San Francisco Bay area to have his or her rates compared to the rates in, say. central Iowa. If we published costs on a site like this (and there are a number of similar ones with similar rules) we would always have people in a high cost area complaining that they were being overcharged.

We have, incidentally, a similar problem with energy costs — even those those are publicly available. People don't seem to understand that electricity or fuel may have rather different costs in different areas.