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My deck is falling apart and needs to be replaced.
I did my calling around and was able to get mid grade trex decking, railings and stairs for $2,500 from a lumber company. Now take in mind the lumber company is the middle man and already marks up the product between the manufacturer and the consumer.
Now contractors are doing another markup at double, or more, the cost from a lumber company?!
Shenanigans.
What I tell people who didn’t like my bid....do it yourself.
The only time I itemized the bid is if it was a time and material. And it’s however long it takes. Otherwise I simply wrote up the description of the scope of work and a total cost/price. If it took me a week or a month and I had 2 guys or 10 guys, you paid the same amount.
The reason I don’t do itemized bids like that is because people want to nickel and dime a bid....this guy can get the parts for this much but this guy can do the labor for this much. Can you do it for this price? Ok so get one guy to buy the material the other guy to install it and you got your dream price.
Whenever I take bids from contractors it’s a total cost. This is what I need done. Total price bid. I don’t care how they split labor and materials.
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.
I just had about 1400 sq ft of tile installed. Guy bid 6k. Supposed to be one week. Took him two weeks. And he worked all 14 days. About 14 hours a day.
What I tell people who didn’t like my bid....do it yourself.
The only time I itemized the bid is if it was a time and material. And it’s however long it takes. Otherwise I simply wrote up the description of the scope of work and a total cost/price. If it took me a week or a month and I had 2 guys or 10 guys, you paid the same amount.
The reason I don’t do itemized bids like that is because people want to nickel and dime a bid....this guy can get the parts for this much but this guy can do the labor for this much. Can you do it for this price? Ok so get one guy to buy the material the other guy to install it and you got your dream price.
Whenever I take bids from contractors it’s a total cost. This is what I need done. Total price bid. I don’t care how they split labor and materials.
Good on you.
I can see a small mark up on the material and charging $85-$100 per guy in labor.
I just today found a carpenter who charges $38 an hour and he said he can do it himself. Let’s see how many hours he thinks it will take
I just had about 1400 sq ft of tile installed. Guy bid 6k. Supposed to be one week. Took him two weeks. And he worked all 14 days. About 14 hours a day.
Ceramic tile? 1400 sq ft?! That’s ALOT of pieces and a tedious job. My 140 sq ft deck boards come in 14 foot pieces and I need 21 boards
20 hours only? Does it include s structure or just putting some boards up?
Here's mine which is 32ish by 16ish. Took me about 60 hours. Granted all boards are 16' so I didn't make any cuts - just running circular saw on the ends by fascia board
2 guys. One quote was $15,000 and the trex material was $6,000(more than double what I can get it for).
Even at 100 per hour each that’s 4000 in labor. Not $7000-$9000
Do it yourself then.
Go and accurately estimate all the material you'll need
Order it
Wait for it to be delivered
Rip out all of the old
get rid of all of it
install all of the new
get rid of the leftovers
And then hope your install was the same quality. If you can get 90% of the way there, you've saved money. If you can't get any of that, then you're just whining.
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