Just two of may possible reasons.
You don't have the skill to DIY You can earn $100 an hour at your skill/trade while paying someone $50 to use theirs.
Not everyone has, or wants, the skills needed to hang a door. While you are evidently fully capable, others are not. Just as you don't have the skills to do some other jobs.
Even if you are a skilled DIY'er, it is good to hire a professional the first time you do something complex. My pride can allow me to admit not knowing all of the fine details and techniques of every possible task in my home improvement projects on the first time that I do them.
Bernardo
Amen! Part of our kitchen renovation on house 2.0 involved removing a large window, and filling in the hole. Redwood clapboard siding on the outside (which I am perfectly competent to repair), and plaster walls on the inside (which I was not). Patching small holes in plaster walls, sure -- but filling in a 42x60 inch cavity? Naaah. Especially since the lower 2/3 of the kitchen walls had a faux-brick pattern tooled into the whitecoat. I hired a pro for that. And told him, when he came out to quote the job, that one of the conditions of getting the job was letting me watch, and ask questions, while he worked.
He agreed. And what I learned from watching and listening was easily worth the price of the repair.
$300 / 8 hours = $37.50/hour. If the guy is self-employed (and thus paying both sides of the FICA tax), then taxes alone eat about 1/3 of that. Down to $25 an hour already. Now subtract whatever he has to pay for insurance (liability, health, disability). Just a guess here, but that probably leaves him below $20 an hour.
Still think it's unreasonable?
Who laughs in the end may depend on how good a job you did...
Absolutely learning from watching pros is very helpful. Reading "pro" reference books also helps a lot as can lurking in some of the non-dysfunctional "pro" forums.
I am something of a "certified jack of all trades" and I generally find the couple days of research it typically takes me to learn about something I haven't done before is still cheaper than hiring a pro.
While your time has value, if you are salary, your "free" time really is since you can't be working your regular job for overtime pay. Even if you aren't salary, if you don't actually have regular work available to potentially do during your "free" time, your "free" time is still free, even if your regular work time is $500/hr.
wrote: ...
Or, if he does work 2000 hrs/year on average, that's only 75K gross -- certainly not an extravagant standard of living. Wonder what the OP takes home and if that's too much (or maybe his work isn't "very simple")... :)
--
What do you do for a living and how much do you get paid?
Drywall? Your original list only mentioned these procedures:
Hang six interior doors Install baseboard in a 1,000 sf addition Install door knobs and locks Install door trim
Is this a different project you're talking about now, with the drywall?
Maybe you'd better dig out that calculator that you supposedly know how to use, then, cause you sure can't do math in your head. $300 a day doesn't equal $50 an hour.
As long as you did as good a job as the pro would have done, yes.
But I wonder...
He didn't say how long it would take him. Probably because he knew I could use a calculator.
Steve
I'm retired. Life is structured. Living trusts, family trusts, LLCs. If I need or want something, I just go put it on a credit card. The accountant takes care of it. I'm conservative on spending, so the principal keeps working. I avoid things that are wastes of money. As long as I don't get stupid, the principal keeps snowballing.
Stupid like paying people $50 an hour to do monkey work. I saved about a thousand on this job by my calculations. I saved $1400 on the drywall by running off the stupid Mexicans someone had doing the work at an inflated price and hiring an experienced rocker who is a retired friend of mine. Paid him his asking price, and it was $1400 less than a contractor. All together, saved a good bit on the project. Enough to do some substantial upgrades, buy a new Nikon, and probably spend two weeks at Pueblo Bonito in Mazatlan.
When I do choose to work at what I do, I earn between $50 and $200 an hour. Notice I said earn and not charge? (I paid myself the $50 an hour the grunt wanted to hang wallboard.) If it's real grunt work, I hire real grunts.
Steve
This is why I love my plumber: he always says, "You're welcome to watch!" and I end up learning things, even when I hadn't expected to. One of several important lessons I have learned is that there are times when hiring a pro who has all the tools and especially the experience is just the only way to go, given time and $$ constraints.
No, you're a jerk because you never had the intention of hiring the guy in the first place.
For future reference, life is too short to work with crappy materials. As another, more perspicacious poster mentioned, it's a good idea to use your 'cost' savings to upgrade the materials. Otherwise you're just a hack hacking on your own house.
R
There are two versions of "too high":
1) More than you wanted to pay 2) More than you think he should make.The first is reasonable. It's an opinion. The second is vapor and can safely be ignored. I'm not saying you claimed #2. I'm just pointing out that there are multiple variables.
Thank you for your erroneous assessment of the situation. I would have hired him had he not been so high. And FYI, we did multiple upgrades. And still came in quite a bit under budget.
Steve
Why do you hang on my every post? Don't the up or down arrows work on your computer? Are you drug or alcohol impaired, and possess no reading comprehension?
First, you prattle on in the newsgroup to drag out the discussion where you need not. Then, you get the sequence and facts screwed up. And what's this with the e mail inviting me to the Interstate rest area men's room? If you want to kick my ass, just meet at the west parking lot of the truck stop.
Sheesh. You and marson should get a room.
Steve
Agreed. And I've seen many built by contractors that were none of the above. Surely there are DIY screwups as well, but the incentive is there when it's your own wall.
I just sit on a street corner all day with a 40oz bottle of malt liquor.
No matter what industry, it is nearly impossible to get anything done right. Ever.
Nope. Couldn't and wouldn't want to.
And still, with settling, warpage, and other factors even the best can make a wall that is neither straight, plumb, or square.
Steve
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.