Economical way to install a gas stove?

[niqqar2002]

Been getting quotes from companies in minneapolis for around $7.5k to run gas, drill a hole in the wall to vent it out (gas fireplace would be next to outside wall) and to hook it up for a unit that costs $3400. Why does it cost $4000 for all the work, is there a more economical way to get a free standing gas fireplace installed?

thank you

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Have any of them gives you an itemized quote? It sounds like multiple places are giving you similar quotes so it might be a very fair quote.

Without walking through your home and figuring out how the contractor is going to safely run the electrical, gas, exhaust, any framing that needs to be done, any special tools needed, permits needed, etc it’d all be guesswork on an internet board from halfway across the country. It may be a very difficult job.

Or…

It could be as simple as they have more than enough work scheduled for the foreseeable future and anybody else that wants to hire them is going to have overtime rates as they can only work so many hours a day.

If you have the skills, tools, time and any needed licensing you can always install it yourself. All of that costs money to keep up.

 

[niqqar2002]

So here's the itemized offer:

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Ok, that takes away some of the guess work. Which part of that do you have an issue with?

 

[niqqar2002]

dust protection - $500? they're just making a hole in the wall, right?
appliance install is just hooking up the appliance to the vent; why $750
rough in gas/stove seem like they're the same action as master gas fitter? $800 for a guy to come in and hook up the gas to fireplace? can't he just hook it up when he runs the gas for that $1100?

it makes more sense to:

rough in the vent, connect stove to it
bring gas guy, run the gas line, connect it to the stove
run the stove
viola

what am i missing

 

[EatenByLimestone]

dust protection - $500? they're just making a hole in the wall, right?

Probably. Since I'm on the internet I don't know what they are going through. Is it only drywall? What's behind the drywall? I know I have 1 wall in my house that has vermiculite insulation. If that was ever used in your area, the contractor knows the issues that could hold. Imagine a wall full of a dusty insulation that could pour out that hole onto your floor. A mine in Montana that produced vermiculite until 1990 was contaminated by asbestos. Now, if there is asbestos in that wall, would you want the contractor to spend a little time putting up dust protection that would keep that dust off your nice furniture and out of your house. Asbestos remediation is not cheap. I wouldn't want to sit on a couch I knew had asbestos dust on it. Would you? But if your house is newish, it may be only a hole in drywall and fiberglass insulation. On the internet, we don’t know your house, area building practices, etc.

I can tell you that over time, homeowners can do some really crazy renovations involving running water lines and electrical wires in some pretty weird spots. I know of a job where we were hired to install some baseboard trim. We asked what was behind the wall and the homeowner said chimney. We verified a brick chimney. We installed the baseboard and a nail punctured a water line. We had no idea there was a water line there and the homeowner didn’t either. Sometimes unfun things happen and contractors have to charge a bit more to cover them.


appliance install is just hooking up the appliance to the vent; why $750
rough in gas/stove seem like they're the same action as master gas fitter?

I'm sure this covers bringing the appliance in the home and positioning it without damaging the flooring, walls, hearth, etc. Stoves aren't light and you don't want your home damaged by careless behavior. If your home is damaged, would you expect them to repair it? I'm sure you would. I would. The last (wood) stove I installed involved me getting the stove that weighed over 400lbs onto a trailer, off the trailer, partial disassembly to lighten it, up a flight of stairs, door removal to get it inside, reinstall the door, positioned on the hearth, reassembly, and then hooked up to the venting. I also had to run electrical for a blower. Luckily I didn't have to swerve around much furniture or corners. The floor would have been easy to repair if id needed to.


$800 for a guy to come in and hook up the gas to fireplace? can't he just hook it up when he runs the gas for that $1100?

Is it the same guy? It might be, but they might have a worker run the gas line. Is it CSST or black pipe? Is it an easy run? How far from the manifold to the spot where the stove will be installed? These can and probably add up to that $1100 charge. By the look of it, some communities in your area require a "Master Gas Fitter" to make the connection. I had a local HVAC company overtighten a crush ring inside a CSST line creating a small gas leak. I couldn’t find it. I called the utility and they had trouble finding it. They red flagged my boiler on the coldest day of the year. I had to run black pipe that day in order to fix the issue. That wasn’t fun.



it makes more sense to:

rough in the vent, connect stove to it
bring gas guy, run the gas line, connect it to the stove
run the stove
viola

what am i missing

Maybe you aren’t missing a thing. You have a parts list, it might only take you a couple hours!

What were the other quotes you got?

 

[Lennox65]

dust protection - $500? they're just making a hole in the wall, right?
appliance install is just hooking up the appliance to the vent; why $750
rough in gas/stove seem like they're the same action as master gas fitter? $800 for a guy to come in and hook up the gas to fireplace? can't he just hook it up when he runs the gas for that $1100?

it makes more sense to:

rough in the vent, connect stove to it
bring gas guy, run the gas line, connect it to the stove
run the stove
viola

what am i missing

The material looks to be priced for a 50% profit margin which is standard.
The additional charge for dust protection is ridiculous but if I were pricing this job I would estimate two men for 6 hours and the amount would be around $950.00
The extra charge for a "Master Gas Fitter" is redundant. In my state we have a Business Entity Gas License, (for which there is a Master Gas Fitter of record) and all of the installers have individual gas fitter licenses.