Is this contractor on crack?

TLDR - $26k estimate for a 500 square foot deck, stairs, and railings.

So, over the past 7/8 years, I've been helping a buddy that owns a canal home on Galveston with rebuild work both inside and out. Over this time, it's been nearly a 100% overhaul, with us doing most of the work ourselves.

The top deck has been put off until last, and it is now well beyond its last leg. We're getting a bit older, and PROBABLY don't want to do this one last project. He texted me this am and asked about material cost to replace the decking, stairs, and railings - the dimensions are approximately 25' wide and 20' deep, extending over the canal and boat lift; all approx 10' above the slab / lower deck.

I did some quick calculations, and I came up with ~2k for material only (pine all around). He went the contractor route, got an estimate for 26k and was shocked. Hell, we built his entire same sqft lower deck where there was none before, and then rebuilt the boat dock and extended the surrounds (new joists / headers for all) for a total of $1500 in the past couple years.

Does anyone do this professionally? Is this contractor on crack? I can see 10k for a basic deck/stairs/rails by a pro... but 26k?? For a weekend's worth of work and 2k of materials?

Screw learning to code - I need to build decks.