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This is the flip side of the acerbic and contentious debate about wage-stagnation and supposed decline of the middle class. If wages for landscaping, carpentry, roofing etc. were lower, the persons employed in those fields would have a lower standard of living. But homeowners and building-owners would enjoy lower expenses.
I’ve always been baffled, as to why the wages for swinging a hammer on a job-site, are so much higher than the wages for stacking boxes in a warehouse, or stamping checks in a bank-lobby.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jonesg
DIY and find out.!
I am not competent to do every job (and perhaps comprehensively incompetent), but from what I have done, there's stark distinction between building something from scratch, repairing something that's extant but broken. For instance, to figure out how to add a water heater - selecting the site, running the piping and wiring - takes considerable time. To replace a broken water heater with a bolt-in identical model from Lowes, takes very little time. I've therefore gleaned quite an appreciation for the engineering-work required in new construction, and see why rates are high. On the other hand, I am totally befuddled by why rates for repair-jobs are so high.
Following this reasoning, installing a new roof on a new building strikes me as being remarkably cheap. Repairing the roof of an existing building, on the other hand, strikes me as being oddly expensive.
laborers are on every roofing job. Those bundles of shingles don't get up there by themselves and tearing off the old shingles don't require skill just brawn.
The last one I did not and it cost 22k for a 1725 home and 600 square foot home.
Original roof was shake and no longer permitted... so I had to also add OSB sheathing over the skip-sheathing and I wanted and went with lifetime premium dimensional shingles...
Expensive yes... but done exactly the way I wanted it with double coverage 30 pound felt, ridge vent and all new flashing... licensed, insured, permit, city business license, 35 years in the business... etc.
The irony is the re-roof cost almost what the home cost new in 1958!
I do agree that a smaller conventional home has the opportunity for savings... there for awhile I was doing at least one or two rental homes a year... stripping off the old and putting down the new... and rewarded for my labor...
SF Bay Area.
A counter point voiced from my contractor friends is they are all super busy... quoting higher prices is one way to allocate their limited time... and they are still busy even quoting 30% higher than just 3 years ago...
New England - 2100 Sq Ft house - single floor. Roof is not steep, but has some hips.
tear off and archeitechual shingles.
4 estimates from 15K to 22K. Ended up costing 17K. Probably about 34 square all told. I am told it is $400 for a tear off and installation of top grade shingles.
I watched my neighbor get a new roof put on his 1800 sq foot house, and it took them 2 days to do a full tear off and re roof. Roof shingles are about $30 a bundle. So why are they charging people $7000-30,000 for this?
Quote:
Originally Posted by tar21
More like $10,000+ of pure profit. Most roofers are convicted felons and are very dishonest.
How can you get 10,000+ of pure profit on a $7000 job........
$30,000 is at the high end but I have hear it being done. My point is even $7000 is a very high price for 2 days of work.
how many man hours? two days for how many people, are they bonded and insured?
We did the material costs on this few times, and each time is was good tight pricing considering the labor involved.
You need to bid it out on tight specs , compare apples to apples and you can drive the price down a lot. we bid these types of jobs out ensuring everyone is using the same standard materials and meeting our standards for venting and flashing etc.
Roofing is a competitive business, but you got to get good bids.
worth adding your site access can influence pricing more than some might think. cleanup and getting materials on to the roof is a big part of the job.
This is the flip side of the acerbic and contentious debate about wage-stagnation and supposed decline of the middle class. If wages for landscaping, carpentry, roofing etc. were lower, the persons employed in those fields would have a lower standard of living. But homeowners and building-owners would enjoy lower expenses.
I’ve always been baffled, as to why the wages for swinging a hammer on a job-site, are so much higher than the wages for stacking boxes in a warehouse, or stamping checks in a bank-lobby.
I am not competent to do every job (and perhaps comprehensively incompetent), but from what I have done, there's stark distinction between building something from scratch, repairing something that's extant but broken. For instance, to figure out how to add a water heater - selecting the site, running the piping and wiring - takes considerable time. To replace a broken water heater with a bolt-in identical model from Lowes, takes very little time. I've therefore gleaned quite an appreciation for the engineering-work required in new construction, and see why rates are high. On the other hand, I am totally befuddled by why rates for repair-jobs are so high.
Following this reasoning, installing a new roof on a new building strikes me as being remarkably cheap. Repairing the roof of an existing building, on the other hand, strikes me as being oddly expensive.
Probably because the two examples you provided are working in climate controlled environments and there actually IS skill involved in "swinging a hammer". I've worked in a bank. Fridays made me very thankful for my lower paying, air conditioned (or in the winter, heated) job. The summers in NC are brutal on construction workers, carpenters, roofers, etc.
We just got a quote for 1200 sq feet of roof. Metal roof for $7800.
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