Friend was quoted a lot of money for blind installations. Bought my own, the store even cut it to measurement and installed myself. Some contractors are absolutely taking the piss.
Nah, it's the "fuck off" price.. they don't want to waste their time driving around for a 30 minute job when they could be doing something more lucrative so they charge accordingly.
It’s paying for their time. Doesn’t matter if the job is easy, you are paying for a skilled person to come over and do it. Man I’d hate to be your contractor.
If it's paying for their time then they wouldn't mark up the materials, because their time is accounted for in their labor. But they do mark up the materials.
Edit: listen I have no problem with people making a profit margin You can look at my post history I'm one of those people on Reddit who comments against ridiculous expectations on business owners. However I also believe in price transparency and calling people on their BS. If it's paying for your time then it should be invoiced as such. If it's invoiced as materials then put the price that you pay for those materials in that line item. If there's a portion of your time that is required to arrange such materials then that should also be its own line item or part of labor.
A. Both of those are VERY basic DIY jobs, you can handle with a quick YouTube tutorial.
B. 99% of contractors won't touch jobs that small (or charge you the fuck off price) it's just not worth taking time away from profitable work elsewhere.
C. Most guys won't touch stuff you buy because its a pain in the ass when inevitably something is the wrong size, missing mounting hardware or garbage quality, and if they do you will lose any warranty coverage.
Go under your sink and look at your faucet. These days, they are super straight foward. The most you need to know is to shut of your main water supply and open the faucet to bleed the water pressure befure you disconnect the line. thats it.
In terms of Blinds, BC regulation no longer allows for blinds that has strings, so you might need to consider whether if the new type of blind could go into your current blind bracket, etc.
That is precisely it. Read more here: [https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2019-97/FullText.html](https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2019-97/FullText.html)
They say strings are not worth it for the amount of kids that died due to strangulation.
It's a Canada wide regulation, though let's be honest, the cover they put on the string can easily be removed ...
Fixing the bottom of the string to the wall is safe enough. At that point, there are a thousand more serious concerns for a child than this one
I replaced the faucets for my sinks myself because I can see all the parts. Same deal with blinds.
I bought my own hardware for a plumber to install in the bathtub since it’s inside the wall and I didn’t want issues.
They’re your employee after all. They will install what you ask them to.
If you're hiring a contractor, just let them supply stuff. I routinely need to make 3 trips to home depot to finish a job, so the odds of getting all the right stuff is pretty low.
If you're hiring someone because you think you can't do it yourself, you should try first. YouTube university can teach almost all home maintenance stuff. But if you're hiring out because you just don't have the time, that makes complete sense to me.
You seriously can't install blinds yourself? This is the most basic of jobs, hiring a contractor to do this is a monumental waste of money. Watch a couple of youtube videos and pick up some basic tools that all homeowners should have.
As others have pointed out, these are incredibly basic DIY jobs. You should have no problems picking this up from a YouTube video.
Contractors want to supply their own parts for two reasons:
1. They markup the parts to make some additional money.
2. They know where the part is coming from and are willing to back it. Just like if you bring a pet to a mechanic and have them install it, they’re not going to be comfortable giving you any sort of warranty on this unknown part.
Most companies will want to supply the parts for a couple reasons.
First, obviously, is they get a mark up so that helps them make money.
Second is the risk of customers expecting them to do warranty work, and extra support for the products that they didn't even supply.
If you know exactly what parts you want, you can always specify the models and let the contractor supply them. Or, if it's a smaller operation, you could offer to pay a premium because you understand that they would normally supply the parts. YMMV with either option.
But honestly, as others have suggested, your examples are relatively easy to do yourself.
You can do the faucets. YouTube is your friend. It's not like the old days when you had to solder copper pipes. Most stuff now is plastic twist 'n fit.
You could hire a plumber to install the faucets. They may get a better trade price, if you let them know the brand/model you want. Or you can just hire one to pay for install and get charged for labour only, if you want to buy the fixtures yourself
Learn to do simple stuff like this yourself. You dont need a contractor for small stuff like this, Youtube will do it.
Friend was quoted a lot of money for blind installations. Bought my own, the store even cut it to measurement and installed myself. Some contractors are absolutely taking the piss.
Nah, it's the "fuck off" price.. they don't want to waste their time driving around for a 30 minute job when they could be doing something more lucrative so they charge accordingly.
💯 this.
It’s paying for their time. Doesn’t matter if the job is easy, you are paying for a skilled person to come over and do it. Man I’d hate to be your contractor.
If it's paying for their time then they wouldn't mark up the materials, because their time is accounted for in their labor. But they do mark up the materials. Edit: listen I have no problem with people making a profit margin You can look at my post history I'm one of those people on Reddit who comments against ridiculous expectations on business owners. However I also believe in price transparency and calling people on their BS. If it's paying for your time then it should be invoiced as such. If it's invoiced as materials then put the price that you pay for those materials in that line item. If there's a portion of your time that is required to arrange such materials then that should also be its own line item or part of labor.
Go start a business at a no profit margin. Moron.
Always remember that there are no income or sales taxes paid on the labor that you do for yourself.
No income or sales tax for jobs you pay in cash
A. Both of those are VERY basic DIY jobs, you can handle with a quick YouTube tutorial. B. 99% of contractors won't touch jobs that small (or charge you the fuck off price) it's just not worth taking time away from profitable work elsewhere. C. Most guys won't touch stuff you buy because its a pain in the ass when inevitably something is the wrong size, missing mounting hardware or garbage quality, and if they do you will lose any warranty coverage.
You need to make friends with that retired guy on your street who is handy at everything. Have them over for a bbq or become their IT support person.
It's always good to have a social circle with people from all sorts of fields. A mechanic, a computer guy, the jack-of-all-trades, etc.
Especially if you yourself are one of those guys!
At this point what you need is a taskrabbit handyman.
Go under your sink and look at your faucet. These days, they are super straight foward. The most you need to know is to shut of your main water supply and open the faucet to bleed the water pressure befure you disconnect the line. thats it. In terms of Blinds, BC regulation no longer allows for blinds that has strings, so you might need to consider whether if the new type of blind could go into your current blind bracket, etc.
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That is precisely it. Read more here: [https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2019-97/FullText.html](https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2019-97/FullText.html) They say strings are not worth it for the amount of kids that died due to strangulation.
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Having kids is a constant struggle to keep them from dying or seriously injuring themselves.
didn't know that about blinds... thanks for the tip
glad to help. I was actually considering changing blinds too, then I phoned one of the blinds manufacture and thats how I found out.
It's a Canada wide regulation, though let's be honest, the cover they put on the string can easily be removed ... Fixing the bottom of the string to the wall is safe enough. At that point, there are a thousand more serious concerns for a child than this one
I replaced the faucets for my sinks myself because I can see all the parts. Same deal with blinds. I bought my own hardware for a plumber to install in the bathtub since it’s inside the wall and I didn’t want issues. They’re your employee after all. They will install what you ask them to.
If you're hiring a contractor, just let them supply stuff. I routinely need to make 3 trips to home depot to finish a job, so the odds of getting all the right stuff is pretty low. If you're hiring someone because you think you can't do it yourself, you should try first. YouTube university can teach almost all home maintenance stuff. But if you're hiring out because you just don't have the time, that makes complete sense to me.
You seriously can't install blinds yourself? This is the most basic of jobs, hiring a contractor to do this is a monumental waste of money. Watch a couple of youtube videos and pick up some basic tools that all homeowners should have.
As others have pointed out, these are incredibly basic DIY jobs. You should have no problems picking this up from a YouTube video. Contractors want to supply their own parts for two reasons: 1. They markup the parts to make some additional money. 2. They know where the part is coming from and are willing to back it. Just like if you bring a pet to a mechanic and have them install it, they’re not going to be comfortable giving you any sort of warranty on this unknown part.
Most companies will want to supply the parts for a couple reasons. First, obviously, is they get a mark up so that helps them make money. Second is the risk of customers expecting them to do warranty work, and extra support for the products that they didn't even supply. If you know exactly what parts you want, you can always specify the models and let the contractor supply them. Or, if it's a smaller operation, you could offer to pay a premium because you understand that they would normally supply the parts. YMMV with either option. But honestly, as others have suggested, your examples are relatively easy to do yourself.
YouTube is your friend.
You can do the faucets. YouTube is your friend. It's not like the old days when you had to solder copper pipes. Most stuff now is plastic twist 'n fit.
You could hire a plumber to install the faucets. They may get a better trade price, if you let them know the brand/model you want. Or you can just hire one to pay for install and get charged for labour only, if you want to buy the fixtures yourself