Idle Doodle: The cost of water heaters by jurisdiction
I woke up one morning last week to my wife telling me that water was pouring out the bottom of the water heater.
Perfect. It would be a busy day working at home and this was not going to help.
I called a water heater repair company and they gave me a three hour window to show up. To my surprise, they texted me 10 minutes later that they were on the way and gave me a link to show where the driver was.
When the tech was running the numbers to give me a quote, he asked me what jurisdiction I was in. I have a Hayward address but we are unincorporated, so I'm under the county.
He said that's good. Hayward would add about $400 to the quote.
I wish I could say I was surprised, but I was not. That county often has less stringent permitting than the incorporated part of the city.
Looking at the demographics, the more well off people in Hayward tend to live in the unincorporated areas. Heading into the city limits, poverty and crime increase quite a bit.
A cheap 40 gallon gas water heater is about $400 at Home Depot. That means for a low income family, the permit cost difference between Alameda County and Hayward for someone to install it is as much as the water heater itself! Now, that includes the labor and liability involved in pulling permits, so the permit cost itself is less than $400 (I think it's around $250 which includes administrative fees), but that is still one hefty tax for low income residents to pay to get hot water flowing in your own house.
Perfect. It would be a busy day working at home and this was not going to help.
I called a water heater repair company and they gave me a three hour window to show up. To my surprise, they texted me 10 minutes later that they were on the way and gave me a link to show where the driver was.
When the tech was running the numbers to give me a quote, he asked me what jurisdiction I was in. I have a Hayward address but we are unincorporated, so I'm under the county.
He said that's good. Hayward would add about $400 to the quote.
I wish I could say I was surprised, but I was not. That county often has less stringent permitting than the incorporated part of the city.
Looking at the demographics, the more well off people in Hayward tend to live in the unincorporated areas. Heading into the city limits, poverty and crime increase quite a bit.
A cheap 40 gallon gas water heater is about $400 at Home Depot. That means for a low income family, the permit cost difference between Alameda County and Hayward for someone to install it is as much as the water heater itself! Now, that includes the labor and liability involved in pulling permits, so the permit cost itself is less than $400 (I think it's around $250 which includes administrative fees), but that is still one hefty tax for low income residents to pay to get hot water flowing in your own house.
