Most insane contractor estimate

What is the most insane contract estimate you’ve received? It took them 3 weeks to give me a quote of $71,000 to:

  1. Remove the plywood on the garage roof which is a deck
  2. Replace the plywood with 3/4" with 1/2" all weather over it
  3. Water proof coating on the whole deck
  4. Build a railing around the deck

The deck is 844 sq ft, so it’s about $800/sq ft. I’m doing the demo of the existing railing myself. They will charge extra time and material for any beams or garage wall that needs replaced due to rot. They said it was 2.5 months of carpenter work to replace the plywood and frame the railing around the deck.

Home construction runs about $300/sq ft here. That includes plumbing, electrical, etc. This has none of that. $800/sq ft is INSANE.

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Uh, see my “Teach Johnny To Pick Up A Hammer” thread??? Contractors know they are in demand and thus in charge. Good thing you are handy so that you can cut the cost some…

I’m getting some other estimates. I’ll burn 2 weeks of vacation and fly my dad out before I’ll pay that much.

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Sounds like an $8k job

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Just got a $23k quote for a short driveway with pavers. Feels high to me but not sure.

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Contractor is trying to gouge you. This sounds like a between 7k to 10k job to me. You need a good handyman and his brother. Lol - reference being thats who I used to reframe my garage roof and fix it up well on the inside and for less than 7k.

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Since we are on the subject of hiring contractors, do you guys do the “Asian” thing and offer cash to get a better discount? Yes, there are tax return implications but if the discount is good enough I figure I can’t complain too much…

Would love a recommendation if anyone has a good driveway person

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Don’t know enough about driveway costs. Sometimes the guys who install synthetic turf will also do pavers/driveways. They could be cheaper.

Always get at least 3 contractor quotes to compare.

So quotes are:

$84k
$71k
$20k
$14k

They all looked at the exact same deck, took the same measurements, and are quoting the same work. Obviously #1 and #2 are booked and would need to pull people off jobs and/or pay OT to take on the project. They’ll do that hassle if they get paid a ton. The other two are pretty similar.

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Huh, is that the variance in contractor quotes you got for the same job? How can one be $70K off? Ripe-off!!!

Yup, that’s the variance for the same job. The first one was the $71k, and I knew it was BS. This just confirms it.

Same/similar quality of materials&work?

Yup. After the first one, I knew what the quote needed to include. The main variable is the siding, and they’re all matching the existing house siding. They all quoted the same brand.

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:+1:

I had similar experience when I got my flooring installed. Compared across 4 vendors+contractors.

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I tore open more drywall on the garage wall. The wall is structurally fine, so that’s a relief. The rot is limited to the roof. This will be $2-3k in materials to:

  1. Replace rotted joists
  2. Replace plywood on roof
  3. Add gutters and down spouts
  4. Apply rubber membrane and flashing to the roof (last 20+ years vs. 5 years with a coating)
  5. Replace some of the ceiling drywall and the wall I opened to check for rot

That’ll actually allow for way more deck design options in spring. It’s pretty easy to build a “floating” deck on the rubber membrane. Now I just need to find out how soon I can get a dumpster delivered to start demolition work.

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Impressive. And what is the weather forecast up there? (Even we got rain today…)

I’ll be buying a tarp to keep it covered. Once the current railing is removed then I can safely cover it which will be better than the current leaking situation. I will definitely need a couple of dry days to get the hard parts done.

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