[masraum]

Originally Posted by rwest

I suspect this could be the same story just replaced with any other maintenance item on houses, appliances, etc that people who are uneducated in repair work.

I’ve heard similar outrageous quotes and cost for window and furnace replacements.

We can’t forget that there are many honest people doing work for others, but how would the uneducated consumers know? I’m so glad that my path in life gave me so many learning and skill gathering opportunities.

I have a great muffler place a few miles away who have done great by me several times, offerings to weld in new sections rather than selling me a whole factory piece.

Yep, I've had quotes for all sorts of stuff that were silly. I'm glad that my dad was mechanical. His main thing was cars, but he was willing to tackle other stuff too, electrical, plumbing, etc... We didn't have the opportunity to do much of that together as I was growing up because being in the military, we didn't own the house that we were in, but he still fixed a lot of little, simple stuff.

So I'm usually happier trying to fix many/most things myself. Most of the stuff that you hire someone to do around a house isn't rocket surgery or brain science.