Guess the Estimate

[Willa]

I called a contractor who advertises in the local free paper. His ads say that he fixes wood windows, and does exterior work. My second floor bathroom has a cracked pane in the upper, and I am nervous about dealing with accessing the sloped roof to replace the glass myself. I figured while he was here, I would get him to quote on several issues. When we spoke on the phone he said that he had a minimum charge, which is fair enough.

I want everyone's best guesses about what they estimate the time and material costs to be for the issues I have pictured. Dude would not give me an itemized list with the costs per repair, but rather gave a bulk fee for all this work.

Ready ?

Bathroom window. Has an old storm window in so-so shape. Glass to be replaced is approximately 24 x 28". Price does not include painting or repairing the storm window.

_DSC0003.JPG (877.33 KiB) Viewed 649 times

The back porch is poorly built. The soffits and fascia boards are pretty rotten, with some bad DIY attempts at fixing. Price would be just to replace these boards, and reattach the eavestrough, on the back porch only. No mention of painting all sides of the boards before installing:

_DSC0001.JPG (1.29 MiB) Viewed 649 times

_DSC0002.JPG (1.43 MiB) Viewed 649 times

The sill on the kitchen window has some serious deterioration and should be replaced. There had been some bad plywood cap over the sill which has rotted away(Toys were dug up from the garden):

_DSC0006.JPG (1.44 MiB) Viewed 649 times

The sill on the dining room appears to have a board placed on top. There had been another thick board which I recently removed, which I think was there to support a window air conditioner. The surface board is pretty rotten but the sill below seems sound:

_DSC0007.JPG (1.5 MiB) Viewed 649 times

Context: I am in a smaller city in Ontario, modest house, modest area. The man quoting this was born in 1929 (!), has younger family members working for him. He told me a heartwarming story about how he closed his business rather than letting his workers unionize. At no time did this man even ascend a ladder to get a good look at what he was quoting on.

Now, make up a quote for all this work. Let me have it.

[raine]

$1,000 canadian

[Willa]

Nope. That quote elevator is going up.

[TexasRed]

I'll take a stab at this... $6000. Canadian ?

We need some similar jobs done at our house - the quotes are much higher than I expected for this little one horse town. For example; $1500. each to rehab a double hung 1/1 window (some wood repair, but excludes glass, pulleys etc.) Gee, I can get new "old style" custom windows made for $2K each.

I hope I'm way too high on my guess Willa

[Gothichome]

Willa, my guess would be $3500.00 (hst in) based on a G note a day for three days (maybe four) work. The extra $500 for overages, materials and negotiation room. Would be interesting to here what his cash price would be.

[GibsonGM]

$3,000 to $5000 US. Hard to say what you'll get into when you dig into an old home. Sills can pop out, back in, 1/2 day and done. OR something else is rotted inside, and you're into it for 2, 3 days.

You probably have more options where you're at - more people to come look for you and compete.

I'm rural - ex. there are like 5 house painters in my county, and I'm the youngest, almost 46. While I don't 'rape' anyone with high pricing, I DO like to be well-paid for taking on the stress of having to fit everyone in, and having to figure out things like you're showing when I do repair as well as paint.

DO NOT be shy about saying "Hey, I can pay cash if that makes a difference on price, you know". Just get a paper receipt, no problem. He might knock $500 off!

[Gothichome]

Gibson, I have only been in Ontario for 10 months now, was shocked at the scale of Ontario's underground economy.

[Jeepnstein]

I'm going with $8,000 US. The big problem is the rotted soffit and fascia. When you mention poorly built and DIY repairs in the same sentence, it costs money. The window you called about first is no big deal unless of course the guy doesn't know how to do windows, which is entirely possible.

[GibsonGM]

Gibson, I have only been in Ontario for 10 months now, was shocked at the scale of Ontario's underground economy.

I can only imagine. I watch "Holmes on Holmes", and note the heavy regulatory and tax burden up there...wouldn't even bother be in the trades in that environment. That would be far too frustrating for me.

I'm in Maine...it's not so bad here, altho like I said, not many to choose from and you may have to wait. Our pricing here reflects that everyone is going to know if you rob people blind word of mouth. So you keep it reasonable but can get pretty well paid.

Staying on topic, Yeah, there's a lot of work on this home, more than meets the eye. But you might want to get more than 1 price!

[Willa]

I'm going to button my lip until late on Sunday.

More context - dude has some shady thing with his son or grandson, where 50% gets shifted over there for taxes on the books. My quote was with the expectation of 50% cash, minimum, and at least 35% upfront.

Remember - this quote is for the soffits and fascia on the back porch ONLY, which is approximately 10 x 17 feet, three sides, no siding - just the most basic replacement.

The sill replacement on the kitchen looks pretty straightforward. A friend in Toronto had some work done on her old house six years ago, and the tradesman there had to get a sill custom milled for a wider window. The sill cost him $ 250.00 - but the removal and installation only took a few hours. The dining room sill is the biggest question mark as what is going on there once the storms are off, and the extra piece of wood is removed is unknown

As with all projects, there is the unknown factor with regards to what is revealed when a bad fix is removed.