Vent: A customer's 'simple' duct reroute turned into a three day crawlspace nightmare.

They insisted on keeping the old flex line, which had a tear I couldn't see until I was under the house, and patching it properly with mastic took forever. Anyone else have a job where the client's choice of materials added a whole extra day?

4 comments

4 Comments

davidshah2mo ago

Always charge extra for patching old flex.

alex82015d agoTop Commenter

Oh man, didn't a patch on a 15 year old flex line last spring? Thought I'd be in and out in two hours. Ended up spending half the day because the surrounding pipe just disintegrated the second I touched it. Had to re-run 40 feet of new line just to make the patch hold. Now I always add a "who knows what's gonna happen" fee on those jobs.

julias442mo ago

Yeah davidshah is totally right, that old flex is a time sink. I add at least 30% to my quote just for the headache factor lol. Clients never get how much extra work it really is.

adam4142mo ago

Old flex is the worst. That stuff crumbles if you look at it wrong. Had a patch job turn into a full line replacement last month because it just fell apart. Clients never see the hidden damage.