The immersion heater: ten minutes of work, £160
Replacing our immersion heater cost £160. The part was about £10 and fitting it took ten minutes. The rest of the bill was two and a half hours of the plumber's time, most of it spent waiting for the tank to drain and refill.
Last month one of us had an immersion heater fail. The plumber came when he said he would, was pleasant and competent, and was in the house for two and a half hours. The bill was £160. The part cost about £10. Fitting it took ten minutes.
The other two hours and twenty minutes were a tank draining and then refilling. He stood in the kitchen and waited, because there was nowhere else for him to be. We made him a cup of tea. Everyone in the room knew the arithmetic was silly, and nobody could do anything about it.
Why did ten minutes of work cost £160?
He had driven forty minutes each way for one job. He could not quote without seeing the cylinder, so this was already his second visit. If he had charged for ten minutes, the day would have paid him less than the fuel. So he charged for the time in the house, and the time in the house was mostly waiting.
That is why a small job costs what it does. It is not the work. It is everything wrapped around the work: the quoting visit, the drive, the broken day, and the waiting that nobody else can be billed for.
A ten-minute job cost £160 because a tank takes two hours to drain and the plumber had nowhere else to be.
What would a village day change?
Now put four jobs in one village on one day. The plumber starts the drain-down at number 4, walks to number 9 and fixes the dripping tap, then comes back and fits the heater. The waiting still happens. Nobody pays for it, because it is spent at the next house. The forty minutes each way is shared four ways. There is no quoting visit, because a photo of the cylinder told him what he needed before he accepted the day.
That is the whole idea. Not cheaper tradespeople. Better days for the same ones. If a day pays the plumber properly and costs each of us less than a solo visit, it holds. If it does not, we will find out in the first village, and we will write it up here either way.