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What should we pay?

Discussion in 'Other Discussions' started by annsni, Mar 5, 2012.

  1. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    A friend is over helping us do some work on the house and he's going to not charge us but he'll accept whatever we feel OK to pay but we have NO idea what we should pay. What do you think is appropriate?

    He will be spackling our kitchen (it's a kitchen that's about 11' x 18', spackling only about 1/2 of it because the rest is cabinets). The walls were wallpaper and we removed the paper but the walls have some tears in the sheetrock and it just needs a skim coat across the walls to smooth them out so we can paint. Then he'll be removing a lighting fixture and replacing it with 4 recessed lighting fixtures (having to go into the attic) and doing the appropriate electric for it). It should take two or three days to do the work.

    So, any ideas?? He won't give us a quote!!
     
  2. plain_n_simple

    plain_n_simple Active Member

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    For your area $250
     
  3. DiamondLady

    DiamondLady New Member

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    I would pay $10 an hour and then take the man and his wife out to dinner when the job is completed as a nice thank you.
     
  4. menageriekeeper

    menageriekeeper Active Member

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    I'd pay him about whatever the average daily pay for your area is. Around here I'm guessing we'd pay about $300 if we hired someone, but that would include a coat of primer on the newly repaired walls. ($100 a day isn't bad pay for this area)
     
  5. padredurand

    padredurand Well-Known Member
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    A bucket of fried chicken and a twelve pack. :thumbsup:
     
  6. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    Thats a 12 pack of Mt Dew. (better yet - make it a bakers dozen)

    Seriously, call another company, and see if they could give you a ball park figure.

    Salty

    PS - for this advice - my usual fee of $50 should suffice
     
  7. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    OK - He got here about 8:30 this morning and stayed until 5pm. That's a LONG day!! Tomorrow he'll be here at 7:30 (WAY too early for me but I know he's an early bird so I'll get up).

    I'm definitely thinking in the $300 range.....
     
  8. padredurand

    padredurand Well-Known Member
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    I woulda done it for the bucket of chicken....
     
  9. Earth Wind and Fire

    Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
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    Dwayne, your a cheap date......:laugh:, but a very good guy! :thumbs:
     
  10. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    That wouldn't have paid for the gas and tolls to get to Long Island!!
     
  11. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    I just had my entire kitchen renovated. Rerouted drain pipes, tore out soffits, removed a small wall, had the entire ceiling textured/painted, new patio door, new window, new cabinets, sink, new floors, new lighting, etc. So I have a good handle on how long it takes to do this sort of work.

    Please don't take this wrongly, but how in the heck is this guy taking two to three days to do this work? Is this the sort of work he normally does? I would say a pro would take about 7-8 hours to do this job. I dunno, if the guy's going to be there for over 2 days, I guess I'd pay around $200.
     
  12. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Yep, he's done this stuff LOTS.

    Day one was removing all the trim, talking things over with hubby, getting stuff set-up, going through the materials hubby bought then skim coating the whole kitchen and caulking a LOT of areas that needed it. He also removed two speakers from the ceiling and patched/spackled those areas.

    Today he came back and worked about 6 hours. 2 coats of skim coat with sanding in between (well, he sanded, skim coated, sanded then skim coated again). It's a kitchen with a lot of nooks that are tougher to get and it's a kitchen with old walls so it's not new construction but patching lots of old stuff so that's why we're needing skim coats. He's having to go over some areas a number of times to get the walls to look good so we can paint.

    Tomorrow he will come back and install 4 high hats after removing the old fluorescent lighting fixture that we have up there and there are a couple of spots that need some touch up with the spackle. Hubby will prime the kitchen tomorrow night so then he can come back on Thursday and check the walls to see how they look and if there are any other places that need touching up. If it's all good, we're done.

    So now we're at 4 days of him working. I'm going to bump up the price at this point. The kitchen is looking AMAZING although all the cabinet doors are off right now so he can get as close as he can to the top of the cabinets. Oh - and he's going to help trim out the top of the cabinets as well when that time comes. :) It's SOOOO nice to see this getting done. Now to figure out a color for the kitchen!
     
  13. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    OK, he's doing more than you originally posted. Old walls are harder to work with as well. Sounds like you're happy with the work!

    We're going to want pics!
     
  14. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Speaking of pics...

    BEFORE

    [​IMG]



    AFTER

    [​IMG]
     
  15. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Yep - skim coating the WHOLE wall!! LOL It's a big job.
     
  16. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Gorgeous!!!!
     
  17. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Here are pics of the kitchen with the wallpaper up. This was from about 6 years ago and the paper had started peeling so we took it all off. The walls were a mess under there so that's what we had to work with. You can see at the top of the cabinets, they don't meet the ceiling so we will be putting moulding up there to finish it and we'll put hardware on the cabinets as well.

    http://www.seekone.com/ann/house/IMG_4467.JPG

    http://www.seekone.com/ann/house/IMG_4468.JPG

    http://www.seekone.com/ann/house/IMG_4469.JPG
    (the little one in this picture is my now 9 year old! LOL)

    http://www.seekone.com/ann/house/IMG_4470.JPG
    (the things on the wall have long since changed but it still gives the general idea....)
     
  18. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    There's a lot more wall than I first envisioned. I bet you had 'fun' taking down all that paper. Whew!

    Putting molding on the top of those cabinets is not going to be easy.

    Replacing that flourescent light will make your kitchen look bigger and the recessed lighting will be more stylish.

    For a minimal investment the new cabinet hardware will make a big change. I went with oversized 3 1/2" handles rather than the standard 3" handles. Since you have larger cabinet fronts you might look into that as well. A decision that we mulled over more than need be was which cabinet doors should have handles and which should have knobs? Eventually we went with all handles except we put knobs on the two drawers on the bathroom vanity.

    It's easy to talk about now that it's over!
     
  19. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Taking it down was easy - remember that it was already peeling. It was getting all the backing down that took some time but DIF really helped. It took us all a day to do it.

    I know. It's just an inch and the cabinet doors go right up there too. Tom will help us figure out a solution. We couldn't go all the way to the ceiling because the ceiling was too uneven so we figured we'd make it even from the floor. But that left this dilemma.

    Exactly. I'll be happy to see the end of that light. We called in this friend because he's a commercial electrician so figured he'd do the lighting but he said he'd do the whole job. :) I like a man like that! LOL

    Tell me about it. I need to figure out the color and the hardware. I'm working on the color now and will figure out hardware after our vacation. We MAY be able to pain this weekend but I'm not sure. I don't want to rush it but if the cabinet doors are all off, it may be best to get to the painting now.....
     
  20. preacher4truth

    preacher4truth Active Member

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    I've remodeled for years and I know first hand good help is hard to come by. $20.00 per hour is a reasonable price to pay for a quality worker. That's about 40K per year on the 40 hour per week average.

    I still remodel to help take care of bills &c.

    If it were me, and I can see a good 2 days skimming out walls, I'd pay him $20.00 an hour.

    We had a wallpaper hanger come in to bid repairing our wallpaper seams. It doesn't take much material other than some seam glue which isn't that much money. This guy wanted 450.00 to repair the seams in our basement, which he said would take him a day to do. $50.00 + an hour? Not happening. He hasn't heard from me since. :laugh: :laugh:
     
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