2 new seacoks 600EUR a piece, is this right?

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benlui

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Does this seem correct to you?

Labour only.....
Remove damaged & seized seacocks, remove through hull fittings, fit new seacoks hose inserts and through hull fittings, connect up all hoses and tighten all hoses
35EUR p/h total 30hrs Total 1050EUR

I'm not disputing the cost p/h, but I cannot see how it would take a professional 30hrs to change 2 seacocks? Isn't this a straight forward task for someone in the know/how?

The total including materials and vat is 1270EUR.

I had asked for a quotation before hand however, as usual the response was, "we wont quote for the work because we don't know what will be involved until we start, its like opening can of worms"

I haven't disputed this invoice yet and would be interested to hear if this is about right or not. Perhaps it is, I just need to be sure I'm not being ripped off.

Some friends in the know seem to think this is over the top, as Ive never carried out this work myself I really don't know.
 
I think you are missing some (expensive) materials in your calculations.
If it took 30 hours, then the cost for labour alone would be 1260Eur at 20% VAT, leaving 10Eur for materials.
How much did the new fittings cost?
 
Replacing seacocks and through-hulls can be a pig of a job, and often takes longer than anticipated. And 2 guys are sometimes needed when fitting through-hulls. Having said that, your bill sounds a lot for only 2 seacocks.
 
30 hours sounds ludicrous to me, too. Yes, it can be a pain of a job, but it should take no more than an hour ot so apiece to plug the old ones and cut out with a holesaw. Once the head's off, the rest can be drifted inside. Is the access especially poor inside? Or are the existing skin fittings of unusual design or size?

Incidentally, who would be sourcing the hardware and what's it made from? I've never seen DZR in Greece.
 
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Not in Greece, this is in IRL at a known boatyard in. I'm not missing any materials, total labour 1050,and total lot including materials 1270. no glass work whatsoever. simple replacing 2 seacoks.
Thanks guys.
PS nice to be back on here again. Will have to find more time to zone in every now and then.
 
Nothing to add, but interesting, currently looking at replacing my two seacocks and have the same response "we won't quote for the work because we don't know what will be involved", so concerned about it being an open book.
 
benlui said:
Does this seem correct to you?

Labour only.....
Remove damaged & seized seacocks, remove through hull fittings, fit new seacoks hose inserts and through hull fittings, connect up all hoses and tighten all hoses
35EUR p/h total 30hrs Total 1050EUR

I'm not disputing the cost p/h, but I cannot see how it would take a professional 30hrs to change 2 seacocks? Isn't this a straight forward task for someone in the know/how?

The total including materials and vat is 1270EUR.

I had asked for a quotation before hand however, as usual the response was, "we wont quote for the work because we don't know what will be involved until we start, its like opening can of worms"

I haven't disputed this invoice yet and would be interested to hear if this is about right or not. Perhaps it is, I just need to be sure I'm not being ripped off.

Some friends in the know seem to think this is over the top, as Ive never carried out this work myself I really don't know.
Click to expand...

If the boat is ashore that is probably way OTT, unless you have to do massive dismantling to get at them. That can happen, particularly with cockpit drain seacocks. On a modern AWB I changed 4 including through-hulls and piping in about 8 hours, most time taken fighting pipe runs rather than just cutting out old ones and installing new. And that was with moderately awkward access: I'm convinced the originals were fitted before any of the internal furniture.
 
If one of the methods often described on these pages was used to remove the old seacocks it would take no more than an hour each, allowing for walking to the boat, setting up, etc. Either grind out the inside bore of the flange or use a hole cutter to cut it off. Then the valve is easily handled inside the boat to remove the hose, even where access is restricted. Fitting two new skin fittings, valves and hose tails is surely no more than an hour each again?
 
benlui said:
Does this seem correct to you?

Labour only.....
Remove damaged & seized seacocks, remove through hull fittings, fit new seacoks hose inserts and through hull fittings, connect up all hoses and tighten all hoses
35EUR p/h total 30hrs Total 1050EUR

I'm not disputing the cost p/h, but I cannot see how it would take a professional 30hrs to change 2 seacocks? Isn't this a straight forward task for someone in the know/how?

The total including materials and vat is 1270EUR.
Click to expand...

When I first read this, I thought it said 3 hours which I though reasonable. Are you sure that THEY haven't made a typo?
 
I had all 14 through hulls removed from my boat, the holes for eight of them glassed up, and six new through hulls fitted. The whole job took about 15 man hours. Getting the old ones out was just a matter of using an angle grinder to slot the heads outside then break the flanges off in pieces and drift the whole thing including the seacock through from the outside. No more than 15 minutes each except for the engine seacock which was the strainer type, removed by drilling and splitting the nut inside. I fitted Tru Design though hulls and seacocks, and the total job cost including labour (I did part of the work including removing old hoses and fitting new ones) was under half of what you are being quoted for two.
 
Scubadoo said:
Nothing to add, but interesting, currently looking at replacing my two seacocks and have the same response "we won't quote for the work because we don't know what will be involved", so concerned about it being an open book.
Click to expand...

Its a simple enough job so DIY.
 
That's Ireland for you. I'm afraid there's not enough competition.

You need to learn to do jobs yourself, both so that you have enough knowledge to do them and that you have enough knowledge not to be hoodwinked.

I suspect it is rip off, as I changed two myself in less time - and I'd've done it far quicker with the right tools. I had to do a lot of dismantling to get reasonable access and that is the key thing. The seacocks themselves should be simple. Look at the boat and examine what you think they had to dismantle and re-assemble to do the job properly, then assess how long you think it would take professionals.
 
A well known East Coast yard, tried for £750 plus vat to do one.

Admittedly they cut the old one out and put a proper flush one in and did the surrounding fibreglass work, fairing it in etc.

They made a lovely job of it but knocking on a grand.....next time I'll get a quote first and not just say 'fine just do it,'!
 
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