Why do basic all-around handymen who know how to frame, wire up outlets, and install plumbing think they deserve to make 150 dollars an hour? I have a simple project that I need done for me, but I can't afford for some asshole to come in and do rushed, shoddy work for an ultra-premium price. Do they think they're slick when they quote me a job price? Do they think I don't understand their game and that it's going to end up with them making well over 100 dollars an hour?

>>2932216 (OP)
Then do it yourself :-)

>>2932217
I'm not very mechanical or handy. There's your honest answer. I'm willing to pay 50 dollars an hour (in cash) to someone who is skilled to do this work for me. That's probably the equivalent of working for 130 grand a year (based on a 40 hour work week). Is that not enough, am I being cheap?

because the house your fag ass lives in costs like a million dollars thanks to currency devaluation and those working stiffs would like a house of their own one day. or you were probably as annoying as you were making this thread and they gave you the 'leave me alone' price.

>>2932223
I live in a 200 square foot room (finished) in a building that used to be a goat barn. The rest of the building is concrete floors and studs. I'd like to turn the rest of the building (400 square feet) into living area, bathroom, and kitchen. So no, I don't live in a million dollar house, I live in a building that used to be a goat barn. I don't think I'm asking for too much.

>>2932216 (OP)
>why do they think they deserve that much money
Because (You) don't know how to do it, else you'd have done it.

>>2932220
>$50/hr is like 130k right
Math is hard when you're retarded.
50hr x 40hr weekly x 52 weeks = 104,000
104000 minus glownigger ransom = 74,000 which is more like $35 per hour actual.
This is also assuming literally all expenses are tax deductible (they aren't) and business LOICENSING and insurance are free (they are not) and nobody ever tries to jew them on a contract (they will) and nothing ever goes wrong and complicates a contract resulting in extra time investment over the original bid (it will).
>i'm not very mechanical or handy and i refuse to try
Then pay up, fuccboi.

>>2932228
I said I was paying in cash, which isn't taxable unless you report it. That's why I approximated it, I just guessed that you'd be paying 26 grand in taxes if you worked a regular job and made 130.

>>2932228
Also, I don't refuse to try, I've been helping the whole way along with what has been done so far, and I'm planning on doing the drywall and painting myself. I'm not going to look at a Youtube video on wiring and do it myself.

>>2932220
>I'm not very mechanical or handy.
Not with that attitude.

>>2932232
I'll just walk up to the building and give it a firm handshake and then start being an electrician. It just takes a little bit of effort and a can-do attitude!

>>2932231
>im willing to help
That's nice little Timmy but you are a liability.
>i'm willing to help (with the part of the job i didn't even mention hiring someone for)
In what universe is your /diy/ finish work relevant to the contractor you're hiring to do the initial build work?
>i expect a professional with a business and freedom to lose to risk prison time (and being jewed out of 100% of the payment because lmao off the record) for tax fraud because I'm an ignorant cheap nigger
No.
>i'm not going to read a book or watch a video
Then pay up, fuccboi. I'm starting to understand why even normally cheaper contractors might be inclined to give you a "Fuck Off price" Anon mentioned earlier.

>i want a good job
>but i also want to pay an unqualified felon in cash to do it

>>2932235
>That's nice little Timmy but you are a liability
No, I'm not, and I also don't expect any money off for me helping.
>In what universe is your /diy/ finish work relevant to the contractor you're hiring to do the initial build work?
It's relevant because I don't expect everything to be done for me, I'm capable of some simpler things.
>i expect a professional with a business and freedom to lose to risk prison time (and being jewed out of 100% of the payment because lmao off the record) for tax fraud because I'm an ignorant cheap nigger
I was never talking about professional handymen with businesses, because I knew from the start that they'd be too expensive. I'm talking about unlicensed rednecks, the problem is that even the unlicensed rednecks who aren't capable of doing good work want a ton of money to do anything.
>Then pay up, fuccboi. I'm starting to understand why even normally cheaper contractors might be inclined to give you a "Fuck Off price" Anon mentioned earlier.
I bet you think that the image of a scrawny redditor you've got cooked up in your brain to represent me is accurate.

>>2932216 (OP)
Why do doctors charge me so much to get testing done? Its not like they are doing anything, draw blood and put it into a machine. The machine spits the results out, why do I need a doctor?

>>2932234
Whatever you're trying to do there's probably 10 different tutorials on youtube, 100 how to redditor replies, and some ai bot to hold your hand through it.
Stop getting excuses and fix the damn toilet.

>>2932245

>>2932216 (OP)
10 years of carpentry and I can't get over 17/hr right now.

If I do a 50-100 one hour job for a client they'll have 3 other things pre-broken they'll try to blame on me.

>>2932248
Press the FAFO button. People think they're big stuff diy after they see some reddit posts "First time doing this." Go drink the instagram koolaid, morons.

>>2932248
>Doesn't actually want the job done
Whatever op.

>>2932220
exit's over there, please shut the door behind you

>>2932248
if ur using 10k $ worth of material
sometimes it helps to hire a guy who has used it before
(note: no guarantee your contractor actually has)

>>2932249
don't work for people who complain about prior contractors

OP pls greencard! Greencard pls! I have studied electrical engineering and have worked all kinds of handy jobs all my life:
I can bricklay, I can pour concrete, can drywall, even frame, can sparky, can engine and transmission rebuild and everything car related really, I can tile, woodwork, insulation, plumbing... I have no idea about roofing. HVAC (THE AC part at least) doesn't exist here because people here arent at least half negro. Also I don't wish to install large windows obama self. I'll build your shit if you get me out of europe.
>Inb4 fuckoff jeet
Not a jeet. Definately whiter than a US american.

Contractor here. Labor is worth whatever the market will pay. Know why? Because if someone will pay you $100/hr to be at their house why the hell would you work elsewhere for $50. That's just bad math.

Think it through in terms of your own job. Would you remain behind the dumpster at Pizza Hut to suck dicks for $50 if you could get paid $100 at Burger King? If you answered yes you're a gay AND retarded, not just gay.

>>2932216 (OP)
You really are an idiot. You come to a DIY forum to complain about a, by your own admission, basic handyman to do something you can not DIY. If you're so smart to be on to their game why can't you do the basic job you want dome yourself?

>>2932216 (OP)
The job spec wandering and endless incidental complications to your "simple job" get priced in. This is all really rather obvious if you thought about it for three seconds, additionally, people will set prices so they're predominantly dealing with the middle classes and up, because as trying as they can be, they don't consider $50 something to debate about on the phone for half an hour.

>You're dumb, broke, annoying to deal with.

That's why.

>>2932216 (OP)
The Market decides. You have no Right to Their Time.

I'm down to do it.

Wow I cant beleive you guys let this guy troll you

>>2932269
>note: no guarantee your contractor actually has
when i had cut out on my own i got a job to rebuild the transmission in a d7h for some gyppo logger. he came by my shop to bring me the parts kit and i had all the gears clutches shafts and shit laid out on a 12ft steel table
he looks at me a says
>gee thats the 1st time ive ever seen one of those all completely taken apart
without missing a beat i replied
>me too!
he was a big stout swede i could have knocked him over with a feather
needless to mention the trans came out fine and they promptly shithoused both final drives because it no longer slipped in the 2nd gear clutches

>>2932760
That is the way it is with basically everything I touch. Never had one apart, but I'm gonna learn today...

If OK wasn't such a faggot he could do the same.

>>2932216 (OP)
I never complain. I just do it myself if I don't like the quote.
Also insurance is expensive and a llc ain't free. I shut mine down 2024 because I was working for 80$ an hour and the only way I was eating was because I raise chickens.

Shits expensive bro. Only time your ever getting scammed is when you hire a big company and they send 2 18 yr Olds in costumes for 10k.

>>2932220
Your forgetting overhead.
Aside from your itemized list we have.
Insurance
Vehicle repair
Vehicle insurance
Advertising
Tool wear and tear/replacement
Bits (go to home depot and price a demo saw cut off blade)
Gas
Food
Labor
Fucking thick demo trash bags are like 40$ a case anymore.
The endless times I had to get a new tool on the job that is specialy designed for your circumstance.
Unforseen problems because you didn't tell us you tried to do it yourself first. Now I gotta shell out another 50$ in parts I didn't add to the quote.
Plus I'm on your time frame half the time.

Not saying every contractor is like this. But 50$ becomes free labor really fucking fast.

I'm the guy who closed shop end of 2024. I was a general contractor.

I made 22k last year on a 80k income after everyone got their cut and said fuck if and went full time assorted poultry farmer.

Owning a business is only based when you got slaves that just generate income while you get drunk and post on Facebook about how much you hate minorities. Pic related.

I wanted to just do work and get paid and that's not how it is. You gotta do tax fraud, immigration scams, and hurt people for that fat 180-250k contractor income people always seem to claim exists when they never worked contractoring.

Just go make Ai porn. It's more honorable work.

>>2932216 (OP)

I can do just about any home renovation and my rate is $60 an hour for labor. Anyone who wants to pay less than that is out of their mind.

>>2932216 (OP)
>I can't afford things, and am too stupid to diy
>waaahhhh! not fair. stomp stomp whimper.

>>2932216 (OP)
>150 dollars an hour

I do work on the side to help people I like out.
they always want me to put a fair but reasonable hourly price on it.
its always weird, because even at $35 an hour its usually a donation of time and tools. the level of work people want for this type of thing is rarely what can be accomplished in one day without cutting a corner or two.

you've got to have some awareness that you offering to 'help' for nothing is in reality you wanting to take a class for free and micromanage someone who knows far more than you while also using them as a teacher while you question half of the steps they do or anything that doesnt seem like 150$/hour shit
i.e. be awful to work for

>>2932776
>Only time your ever getting scammed is when you hire a big company and they send 2 18 yr Olds in costumes for 10k.
This happens every time I cave to demands to hire 'professionals' and it fills me with fury. Have a hard time finding actual decent contractors, I'll pay em proper, but one that actually knows their shit is hard to find.

>>2932216 (OP)
get, lol

>>2932216 (OP)
Is this thread going how you hoped it would OP?

>>2932216 (OP)
>know how to frame, wire up outlets, and install plumbing
If they know how to do all these things to local building codes, equal to what a journeyman in each of those trades would do, and they're getting inspections for each job done, then yeah $150 an hour is actually super good value for you. If they're just using hose clamps to tie PEX lines or low voltage wiring to a stud, that's a different story.

>>2932778
Labor and bits are not overhead.

>>2932778
if ur not making money on your quotes then thats you quoting too low or taking work you have no business doing

>>2932285
Brown skin detected

>>2932695
>because as trying as they can be, they don't consider $50 something to debate about on the phone for half an hour.
You've never worked for a jew have you

>>2933094
>its always weird, because even at $35 an hour its usually a donation of time and tools.
As someone who spent most of his working life so far wrestling crackheads to the ground for minimum wage, I can't understand this view. I guess we must be defining the innate value of a work hour at different rates.

>>2933423
Do enough side work and keep better records of your time and expenses.

Clients paying an hourly do not see your time bidding and calculating, fetching materials, tool organizing or maintenance, all the time you have to spend baby talking clients every step of the process should be billable but usually isn't. Add insurance, license cost, workman's comp, commute, call backs or mistakes, change orders if they even go through. There's probably 12 more things I'm not remembering to include.

>>2932216 (OP)
because they know your mom's boyfriends never stuck around long enough to teach you DIY and home improvement skills.

>>2933423

sorry bro, but if you lay it out like that i might agree with you, and get the feeling that yeah, you dont get it and I probably cant explain it to you.

take the deck, unless Im gonna bill for hours planning, going to their house to look, buying wood etc, which Im not, it's pretty easy to spend enough time on things that it doesnt really make sense.

theres more to it than wrestling crackheads