The list is: a running toilet, a door that needs rehanging, three shelves put up, one light switch swapped, a window reseal and two plaster holes patched. He has quoted a single day plus materials and reckons it is all doable between eight and four. I have no other quotes yet and no feel at all for what a day of someone's time should cost. What would you check before saying yes?
I split my list in the end. Paid a plumber for the toilet, an electrician for the switch, and did the shelves and patching myself over two weekends. It cost less and took three weeks instead of one day, which is exactly the trade you are choosing between.
Get the quote in writing with the list of jobs written out, and agree what happens if something turns out to be worse than it looks. That toilet is the likely candidate.
Three quotes, discard the outlier in each direction, and pay the middle. The absolute number varies so wildly by region that anyone here quoting you their own is giving you noise. What is worth more than the price is whether he turns up when he says he will and whether he has insurance, and you can ask for evidence of the second one without any awkwardness at all.
Slightly against the grain: a day rate for a punch list of six small jobs is usually good value, and better than hourly. Small jobs have a lot of setup and pack-down each, so hourly billing punishes you for the very thing you are trying to bundle. Where a day rate goes wrong is when the list is too short to fill the day — if two of your six jobs turn out to be twenty minutes each, you have paid for a day and got five hours. Add two more jobs to the list now so the day is genuinely full.
This is correct and I would encourage it. I would much rather fill the day than stand around, and most of us will happily add small items on the day if the materials are there.
One caution on your list: the light switch is the item that changes the conversation depending on where you live. In some places that work is regulated and needs someone certified, with paperwork, and a general handyman doing it may leave you with a problem when you sell. Worth one phone call to check what applies locally before it becomes a footnote on a survey.
@shallow_well_shea · last mo. · 3 replies
I price this kind of day for a living, so here is what is inside that number: my time, the van and its fuel and insurance, public liability insurance, the tools, the trip to the merchants that always happens, the waste I take away, and the half day of quoting and admin that nobody pays for directly. A day rate is not an hourly rate times eight; it is a whole day I cannot sell to anyone else, including the parts where I am driving. Whether the number is fair is a local question, but the way to test it is to get two more quotes for the identical list and expect the middle one to be about right.
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@porosity_nerd · last mo.
The trip to the merchants is the honest bit most homeowners never account for. If you buy the materials yourself in advance and have them in the hall, that alone can take a chunk out of the day.
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@threeleggedcat · last mo.
Buying the materials myself had not occurred to me. Presumably I need to check with him what exactly to get so I do not buy the wrong shelf brackets.
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