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I can understand your frustration but don’t agree that’s it a scam! Contractors providing estimates can price a job as they see fit and are not obligated to separate labor and material costs as well their total labor hours. You could always price and purchase the lumber yourself and just request a labor price, however some contractors might not be interested in just suppling the labor.
You are getting high prices due to supply and demand. Contractors are busy, work is plentiful so their estimates reflect that and unless you get lucky and catch a good one who’s looking for some work, you will be left paying top dollar to refurbish your deck.
Your best option might be to hire or obtain a price from a working carpenter who does side work on his own. You could purchase the material while he gives you an hourly rate or a lump sum estimate for all of the labor needed to complete the work.
This might be your most economical option at this point in time.
This is the best idea, to buy the material independently and then get a self-employed carpenter to do it as a side job. Even better, would be to do the work yourself. There are some large building supply companies that conduct free evening classes/workshops, where they will teach you how to do specific home repairs. You might sign up for one on installing or replacing a deck.
Do you or a friend have a pickup truck? If the old planks are natural wood, you could cut them into pieces to fit the truck bed and haul it to a shredder, which would be a lot cheaper than paying for a dumpster to be brought to your house.
this is why we do most home repairs ourselves minus the fact where we live you can barely afford a contractor much less get them to your house and then bam that's when you find out that you are feeding their family for a year or better off your job .
Contractors in many areas do not want customers like the OP. Sure, if times were hard they would grin and bear it, but they have plenty of work so no need to work for people who don't want to spend the money.
I get the same treatment from some contractors...looking for a new roof and I don't mind the price(s), but if you ask the contractor one intelligent question (I know contracting!) they just stop communicating with you.
I went to google reviews for some of the roofers and others mentioned the same thing "I asked one question and they hung up on me and told me they had plenty of work"......
Such is life. I will eventually have someone do it (15K) - but it will be the person who at least communicated with me. I could buy the materials for 5K....and the roof is only 9 feet about the ground and flat.
Come on, the OP wasn't asking for a breakdown of all line items -- simply asking for a breakdown of 2 things, the parts and the labor. That should NOT be too much to ask for. (Really?!!)
This is why I ONLY use contractors who charge me by the hour. If they waste my time (e.g. seem to be slacking off or whatever), I can simply choose to not use them again, but it hasn't happened.
Example: I got estimates on taking a load-bearing wall down as the first step in a major kitchen remodel ... and yes, that's an incredibly important job but not particularly difficult. The first contractor's estimate was something like $6,000 just for taking down the wall (and no breakdown of time/materials). I was flabbergasted and went with another company, which simply charged me by the hour for the labor they provided. They did the job for less than $2,000 AND of course they made a profit. (AND they did the job perfectly, according to my town's code officer!) Their "profit" came in the hourly wages that I paid -- they didn't have to make 100%-200%-300% profit on the materials (which was mostly just a beam, which wasn't actually expensive -- a few hundred dollars IIRC), since I simply had the materials delivered to my house.
I HATE it when contractors charge by the "job" -- I have simply stopped using them. The consumer usually VASTLY overpays that way compared to, say, buying the materials and having them delivered, then paying for labor. (Of course, if something weird is found, then the labor charge will go up because more hours will be required -- but my experience has been that that is very rare. And honestly, even if it happened, I would not begrudge the company the extra labor hours.)
Perhaps I have just been lucky to find both GOOD and HONEST and REASONABLY PRICED contractors, but my handyman company charges by the hour and they are fine with using materials that I have ordered and had delivered. They will even pick them up on the way to my house and simply charge me for their time to pick them up, which is totally fine. AND they make a good profit doing this. It really is a reasonable business plan.
(Oh, and my plumber and electrician charge the same way. That's why I choose to USE them!)
Why?
Why should a contractor be punished for efficiency? Let's say most people build the deck in 20 hours or whatever, and they charge 10,000 dollars.
And let's say this contractor has a production system or whatever, than enables him to finish the deck in 10 hours only and charges 9500 dollars. It's of no importance to you, if he does it in 20 hours or 10 hours. He is being punished for being more productive/efficient.
In the corporate world, if I give you a solution quick and fast, especially in an environment that entering into market, speed is key, isn't that worth something? So if I deliver to you the job in half the time or whatever, that someone else why should I get punished for that just because I worked "less hours".
As for the pricing, yes I think 10,000 dollars is expensive for a 10x14 deck. I just built my own deck at 34x17 for $2300 dollars. But then again, I don't have overhead and did it over the course of about 40-50 hours. But that's me that I like to research and build things and I know for sure my deck is built better than 98% of contractors (well not 98% but close )
No way you will rebuild a composite deck in 20 hours like that. That's barely a full day for 2 people. Railings and other stuff take a long time. I'd think closer to 3 people for 3 days. And figure quite a markup on materials. Personally if you think it's a simple job just do it yourself. Your paying a higher labor rate but it's not 20 hours. Maybe 70-80.
When you get that many bids in the same rough range, that's the market price. You don't have to like the market price. But that's still the market price.
I can walk into every Audi dealership and decree their cars are too expensive based on a formula I decide. Nobody cares. They will sell their cars to someone else.
Be that sucker and pay 2 guys $9000 for a 20 hr job. No sweat off my back
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