Wuzzat?

In a good way?

One book recommended you tell them you are getting multiple bids. I'm on the fence as to telling them. For sure, they don't like having to bid against others, but this is business.

bud16415

On the topic of getting bids and most trade contractors will come and do some research and compute some number. The price they come up with may reflect also how bad they want the job at that time.

I had called 5 roofing companies to come price a roof on my old house. They all came within 15 minutes of the time they set up and the first 4 showed up in a car and dressed like they were going to play golf. They took a few pictures measured the base of the house at ground level and gave me a bid on a special bid form with terms. They were all within 10%. The last guy never showed up on time and pulled in an hour and a half late after dark in a pickup truck with ladder racks and full of junk he was about 65 and covered in dirt and apologized for being late. He drug a 30’ wooden ladder off the truck and declined help to set it up. He was on the roof for 30 minutes and came down and said let me guess you are getting prices around X dollars and he was right on the mark. He then said you have plank roofing with spaces in it and ventilation is poor, you have 3 bad boards over in this corner and the whole roof needs to be taken down to bare sheathing replaced where bad with rough sawed 1 x like what’s up there and then sheathed over with OSB. papered and ice guard new vents and soffits opened to let air in. He said gutters are shot and if it was his house he would build out the rafter tails to make the overhang correct and give the gutters something to hold to and redo soffits and fascia. He also commented on failing flashing and asked how bad the damage looked inside. He was right. How he knew that in the dark without a light I still don’t know. He said what do you think and I said I want ½ four-ply instead of the OSB and he said man that’s going to cost ya. And he told me an exact number, and then told me plywood was going up in a week so he had to order it in the morning if that’s what I wanted. I told him he had the job and he said don’t you want to know the price? I said yes tell me the wife will want to know. His crew did a beautiful job and I have got him a dozen jobs over the years.

The point is the bid process is about way more than finding the low bid. It’s an opportunity to feel out who you are getting also and learn as you go. When I told him he was the only one to actually get on the roof he just laughed and asked me if I had any paper he could write my bid on.

Speedbump

That's a good story. It kind of goes along with the statement: Never hire the guy with the full page ad in the Phone Book.

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FAQ's

Wuzzat?

I'm assuming you got good value for your money, but where did his bid fall relative to the others?

BTW, most contracts say "furnish & install". I don't know that I've ever seen one that said "We will solve your problem."

jwest

1300 square feet on the bottom (it's a 2 story). Figures about $5.00 a square ft.

Wuzzat?

Thanks, that makes 9 hopefully representative samples. Above 30 is considered to be a 'large sample'.

sq ft cost ratio, $/sq. ft.
1400 $1,400 1.00
700 $1,200 1.71
1100 $2,250 2.05
1100 $2,500 2.27
1000 $4,000 4.00
2600 $13,000 5.00
1300 $6,500 5.00
1300 $7,440 5.72
1100 $7,500 6.82

9 =number of samples
$3.73 =avg.
$4.00 =median
0.80 =correlation coefficient between cost and size: not bad

for houses between
700 and
2600 sq. ft.

Half cost between
$2.05 and
$5.00 per sq. ft.

almost all cost between
$1.00 and
$6.82 per sq. ft.

$5 is kinda high so I'd guess the median income for your ZIPcode is above the $50K US avg.

If you graph cost vs. size, the $1.00/sq. ft. is visually an outlier at least in this group of few samples and if it's removed the correlation goes to 0.89.

jwest

I got a third person today, old friend who was in the business for years. After going over everything with him I am thinking of just putting new post and pillars next to the ones there, adding a few more and leaving well enough alone. The floor will still be bowed but better than messing something else up to fix it. As long as it is solid and stable, that is the main thing. It's an old house and there will be imperfections. Have heard some horror stories about people doing it wrong.

bud16415

It’s good to hear you found a friend with experience to look it over. You have to think what a 116 years of sitting in one place and all the mass of a house and heating and cooling cycles working on the building will do. Most of these old gals were made from material cut and hauled within a few miles from where they now sit. Lots of it was semi dried before use and some was shaped with a broad ax right on the site. Basements were dug by hand or with the help of a horse.

As you go thru remodeling and repairing the house you will find many things that are far different than today’s way of doing it. One thing that always amazes me is when I drill or cut the century old yellow pine the sap and pitch in it warms up and becomes sticky again and smells just like a fresh cut Christmas tree.

You will be doing a lot of shimming and trimming as you do things in the house. I built a kitchen island and when I installed it made me feel like the ship was rolling over. I ended up raising one end a 1/2 inch at the base and another half below the counter top. Making the adjustment at two points made it look and feel like it had been there for a century.

The main thing is that you feel the house is stable and not actively changing.