re: OT contractors...How much are you guys scumming off the top?

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Pics of her to see if she’s Randi.

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SIR! As if I would EVER have spelled sweet Candy's name with an i.

sub panel and a tesla charger installation for 2200 cash

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Why cant you guys be honest professionals and not used car salesmen with a hammer?

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you pay tradesmen for WHAT they know, not what they do. some jobs take years to be good at so if i come there and its fixed in 5 minutes, you are paying me for the time spent to learn the stuff i know, so that i can do it in 5 minutes and it will be fixed for good

Commercial here

Plumber and apprentice is $650-700 for 8 hours for the cost of labor/benefits/burden. Add materials/truck and then OH&P.

I just installed a blink system for my neighbor. Charged her a flat rate $70/hr (+ the tip ) She bought the wireless system from Costco.

If my material and labor costs me $500 - I’m quoting you $1500 minimum

Material/labor costs times 3

I had a blowout on a truck Monday- it was scheduled Tuesday to get tires anyhow. But, I had to send an office person with one of new tires 2 hours away to save his coworker.

Tuesday new tires, plus cost of rescue-
$4000

Someone dropped a 4x4 on Hwy 90 and another one of my trucks hit it and bent a wheel to avoid an accident. The wheel is $1200 and the tire that was destroyed was $550.

So, in two days- I have a $6000 tire bill.

You guys do not own tools like this. If you did, you could do it yourself. That’s why people like me get hired.

It beats the customer having to own millions of dollars in assets to do something that only needs to be done periodically.

It costs money.

Put it in perspective further-

Friend calls me. All pissed off because someone quoted him $3500 bucks to come mulch an acre of trees he has.

I told him it sounded like a good deal- the contractor had to buy at least $200,000 worth of equipment to do it. He has to pay fuel, workmans comp, taxes, his and his employees wages and at the end of the day he hopes he doesn’t throw a track or have a hydraulic component fail.

All of this stuff adds up- running a legitimate professional outfit in the US is very expensive.

If you want somone to do it for you- it’s gonna cost.

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Tell ya what... Why don't YOU do the take-off, purchase and deliver the materials, perform the work yourself, then sit down and tally up everything with pen, paper, and calculator, then you tell US how much you think we've skimmed off the top. You know there's office staff and other overhead that has to be paid by these projects too, right? Or have you never run your own business before? Don't forget to figure in the cost of paying taxes to Uncle Sam. Add that into your figures as well. And there's also insurance and workmans' comp, and maybe a 3% bond on top of that. Count your blessings that a blink only costs $1,000.00 right now. It's fixin' to go up like everything else.

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Tell ya what, it’s supply and demand right now, and is what it is. Like everything, it’s cyclical.

There WILL come a day when work slows and people are begging for work. I can’t wait to see some of that pain.

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You think this dry fit polo, 38 waistline and wranglers pays for itself?

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Dip is expensive too.