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We recently signed a contract for new house. I'm in the process of picking up design options. The builder is quoting $70 per blind (2" Faux wood) and around $400 for a Chain drive garage opener. I felt like he is charging more.
Can I get those done outside at a better price or should I stick with the builder? Any good companies around Raleigh that I should check into?
I would think you can get the blinds for under $20 if you look around. Then you have to consider if it is worth $50 a blind for someone to hang them. Even if you figure $30 cost, you are still talking $40 a blind to hang. Figuring you can do a blind in about 15 minutes, you are talking over $150 per hour for them to hang these up.
As far as the openers. You can get one of those for under $200. They are not hard to install, just time consuming. This is assuming it is prewired for your sensors and power. If not, then it might be worth it to have someone install it, unless you are good with the wiring aspects.
What it all comes down to is how much your time is worth and how much of a handyman are you?
I recently got 2" faux wood blinds for 2 living room windows (standard width-ish, 30" or so) and the back door (17" wide I think) and I know I paid around $80 total at Home Depot. I think the two regular ones were about $30 each and the one for the door was about $20. Of course my husband and I installed them ourselves, which was pretty easy except that our back door is metal and that took some doing. All told it probably took us 15min per blind.
So given that, $70 per blind installed seems rather high unless they're some uber special extra high quality faux wood blinds, which I'm not sure isn't an oxymoron...
You might also be able to upgrade the quality by not getting the "builder basics," especially the garage door opener.
Yes chain is cheaper and much louder. Put a belt on ours and happy with the noise and quality of that. Also have Wireless Keypads and such that you may not get with the builder basics.
Was just thinking too, if you buy from Home Depot or wherever you can probably have them install cheaper than going through the builder and probably get a better quality as well. This would be for both the blinds and the opener.
Agree with other posters, although I will say that blinds can be frustrating to install especially an entire housefull. It's worth looking at whether the blinds are wood vs. faux and wand closure vs. the pulls as these options make the store bought blinds range from about $20 to $100/ window.
The garage door opener as others said you can buy a great, quiet one for about $200 and Lowe's and Home Depot charge $100 to install. Spend your money elsewhere at the builder!
Overhead door company in Raleigh installed our garage door and opener -- they were fantastic. Not sure if they *just* will do the opener, but worth a call.
re blinds: you can look at home depot/lowes to price check the 2" wood blinds -- you might find that it is a whole lot cheaper doing it yourself. I would ask what brand is he using so you can do an appropriate check. The other place you can look for prices is the blind company on-line (I've used blinds.com with great success). The company I used on-line had helpful videos on installing blinds which was really very helpful. I would very much recommend using a cordless screwdriver and doing it with someone makes it easier. So you would need one or two stepstools. If you have to buy those, then add that cost in as well.
If you were to pay someone to measure/install blinds, then the price of $70 per blind is probably pretty close to target if not cheaper!
It just ends up as whether you want to do it yourself & whether you can foot the bill for the supplies versus rolling the costs into the mortgage.
Note: home depot/lowes also has 1" blinds for $5-14 each which might be an options for rooms where you need something up but aren't sure what you are ultimately going to do in that room. I just did that myself for a bedroom -- I couldn't believe how cheaply I could throw some blinds up!
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