I am about to finish a job (in my home town if it matters) and originally agreed with the home owner to bill by the hour i feel im getting wripped off on this job.
the job included furring out 3 walls away from a block wall and insulating sheetrock framing out windows a drop ceiling taping and painting etc. not to mention the demo work
these are all pretty pricy jobs for a straight out estimate but as far as by the hour am i getting the short end of the stick?
Thanks in advance for taking the time to reply to me
Also the job is in NY if it matters
Replies
Irealize I mis spelled "hour" no body needs to point that out thanks
a little late to change it now it seems,you made a deal live with it
Edited 1/24/2004 7:08:22 PM ET by bud
and ripped..
Only you can determine if by-the-hour is a good deal for you. Depends on how much you charge. I assume materials are extra. FWIW many times I have wished I had agreed to an hourly rate rather than lump sum.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
What am I missing here? If you're charging by the hour, the more complex the job, the more you get paid. What, exactly, is your complaint?
Al Mollitor, Sharon MA
TAKE ONE JOB FOR EXAMPLE THE DROP CEILING.... AROUND HERE $2. A SQ FT IS REASONABLE, THE QUOTE I GAVE , I WILL NEVER MAKE THAT
So, say 10.00 an hr. 2.00 a sq.ft means you put up 5 sq. ft in an hour,,there's your rate..
Seems to me, since you're getting paid by the hour, you can't get hurt too bad. As Elcid said, I always get into trouble when I give a fixed price and I'm not honest with myself about how long things really take. I suggest you do a good job, make your customer happy, honor your word and learn from the experience. Anything you think you may gain by violating your agreement now will be lost many times over in damage to your reputation later.
Al Mollitor, Sharon MA
I WILL NOT GO BACK ON MY WORD MY ORIGINAL QUESTION WAS WHICH IS BETTER WAY TO CHARGE I GUESS IM PRETTY SAFE THANKS FOR YOUR INPUT
watch out yer gonna picture of the caps lock key..OoooH Rez?
almost all my work is on a fixed price. most of the time i can make a good guess at how long something will take.
even then when i add it all up and see the cost i think " it surely can't cost that much" so i do it again and sure enough it costs that much.
never the less i have jobs that i get the costs wrong on. i've never lost money just sometimes i didn't earn very much. normally these are jobs i've never done before so its all a big learning curve.
the other thing is that when you do everything you never get to do it in a long enough stretch to get really quick at it so its like relearning the knack everytime which can take a short while.
as for the thread: if you're getting paid by the hour fair play to you, in my limited experience customers tend to do that because most people forget to include all the other expenses in running the business when they say their hourly rate. what you charge is nowhere near what you actually earn. i'm still learning that one.
How does $2 a sq. ft. feed a family, pay the bills, and cover the overhead for a legitimate business. Bump those prices up, the housing market is at its pinnacle right now, might as well take your fair share?
I didnt expect this question to get this much attention. I was curious on the particular job im working on right now. I'm refinishing a basement which consists of many jobs, I'm sure i dont need to list them. I do have a full time job working four days a week (ten hour days) the reason i posted this question was because i usually take on jobs i can finish in one weekend. Jobs which are big enough for a good amount of money but small enough where I can still enjoy the weekend. I'm not worried that much about the overhead, paying my taxes (I do have a dba so I do claim these jobs), or how much certain jobs get by the hour. I'm not complaining about any response anybody has sent, I appreciate them, I'm just curious about small jobs, is it more common to go by the hour or by the job
Thanks again for the feedback " Looks good from my house!!"
Why do you ask, do you think you are getting ripped off ?
I wouldn't really say ripped off . i just think the estimating can backfire on you sometimes ... just looking for feedback thats all" Looks good from my house!!"
But you did say wripped off in the first post here.
What is the better way?
That depends on your viewpoint.
Take roofing for example.
If I can lay two squares an hour but a handyman can lay a half square in the same tiome, which is better - and for whom? the handyman or the HO.
You agreed to take on a job by the hour and that is how you ared getting paid.
Only way to get ripped off or wripped off is to not get paid what you earn.
Thing to do is to com,pile a database of your costs by job costing so that next time, you know how fast or slow you are and you can bid it instead of charging hourly..
Excellence is its own reward!
The thing about charging hourly is you better cover your running around time, and whatever else you are doing to put the job together. Just as Piffin stated above, make sure you know the "Actual" costs of the job. You just may have short changed yourself on this job Because I feel you never would have inquired about it here if you felt otherwise.
Did you have a written agreement with your customer? or just verbal? A "pay by the hour" agreement needs to be very explicit about what gets paid, how it gets paid and when. Not to mention markup along with everything else on those lines.
I only use "Fixed" "Lump Sum" contracts and feel they are the only way to go for my situation. "One measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions"
"i just think the estimating can backfire on you sometimes ... just looking for feedback thats all"
It sounds like you already know the answer. Just so we are clear. You gave the folks an estimate and then agreed to work by the hour.
From your point of view the estimate was something of a guess and the actual cost might be more. From their point of view the estimate was something of a guess and the actual cost might be less. Who is going to think that they are getting ripped off?
My advice is to suck it up. Talk to the owners at the earliest possible moment and explain the up to date costs. Be willing to take the entire hit but accept any additional money they are willing to pay gratefully. Most people are happy to pay for what they get if they feel the contractor is doing his best and is honest about his shortcomings.
In the future estimate high. I don't know of a single customer who doesn't like paying less than the estimate, even if it is just a few dollars or one who is not just a little irked at being asked to kick in extra at the end of the job.
I sometimes work hourly for good customers who know me and trust my work. That can be a good situation, because I can relax about not having estimated high enough. Most customers, especially new ones, want to know how much a job will cost up front. I usually try to avoid questions about "How much do you charge per hour?" and offer a price for the job. That way, I don't have to explain why I might be charging $40 per hour to cover all my expenses. Most people don't understand what it costs to run a business (Not that I do either!), so if I say "$40 per hour" they think about the $4 per hour wage they made working as a kid and think I'm ripping them off.
The last time I told a guy I would charge $40 per hour (to work on his $700,000 home) he said " 'So and So' was going to charge me $25." I suggested he call 'So and So.' "Well, he hasn't returned my calls." I told him I just wasn't interested in competing on price with someone who wasn't actually prepared to show up. I still shake my head about this guy. He's the most demanding know-it-all I've worked for and he still wants to bottom-fish. I have resolved never to work for him on his terms.
Please pardon the ruminating. I've done this in other posts recently, but as I pull together year-end numbers for tax time, this seems a good time to reflect on the business end of things.
Al Mollitor, Sharon MA
You may wish to not answer, but is your client paying you above or below the table, tax-reporting wise?
There is a lot of remodeling going on out there by folks who bill by the hour, take cash only, checks OK also but paid weekly, no 1099s please, and the homeowner buys all the materials.
or mabe you could have figured the material and went times 2 demo work is hard to figure because you have to handle it more than once --more like 3-4 times (sometimes) as long as your gonna get what money you got comming to you there's no problem.there have been many jobs where i could have made more but it seems to balance out. some jobs go smoother than others