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A grease trap in Des Plaines taught me to check the basement before I promise anything
Three years ago I picked up a small job at a diner in Des Plaines, just a routine pump out on a 500 gallon trap. The owner swore up and down that the access lid was in the back hallway, no problem, real easy. I get there on a Tuesday morning, and the hallway has a chest freezer parked right on top of the lid, plus about forty boxes of napkins stacked against the wall. We spend an hour and a half moving his frozen fries and paper goods so I can even get to the thing. Turned out the trap was plumbed backward too, so the outlet was feeding straight into the inlet, which explained the smell he had been blaming on the dishwasher for six months. I quoted him two hours and it turned into most of the day, and I ate the difference because I never went down and looked at the basement first. Now I walk the whole route before I put a number on paper. Anybody got a good rule for what you charge when the access point is buried under a guy's whole inventory?
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blake_murray1d ago
Buried access gets a flat "dig out" fee tacked on before I even start, usually an hour of labor per 15 minutes of actual moving, because it always takes longer than it looks. The freezer on top of the lid is where I draw the line and tell them it moves before I show up or I reschedule and charge a trip fee. Walking the route first is the only real fix, but for the price, quote high and put "access not visible" right on the invoice so there are no surprises when the number goes up.
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