Thursday, May 19, 2016

Estimates

What a difference an estimate makes! Our son called a friend who owes him a favor and between them they figured they could do the job for $1000. However, that included Brooks driving up with his friend and spending the night here as it would be an 8 - 10 hour job. Brooks would not charge us labor but he would be giving up two days work at his own company. A costly sacrifice for him. Plus, we would have to pay his expenses driving up plus feed them and supplying the beer.

We called the three local companies that do gutters and soffits for estimates. One came yesterday and gave us an estimate for the soffits only. That came in at $1950, more than I expected and I still needed gutters. I did not feel great about this guy either, he just seemed "wired" or something.

The second guy came today and gave a much more reasonable estimate of $1650 for everything, gutters and soffits. This guy was much easier to talk to and sounded like he knew what he was talking about. He explained why we did not need new soffits on the ends (peak) of the roof as they were installed against the trusses and offered no venting. Plus, it was the most labor intensive part of the job because of all the ladder work. In his opinion, it was unnecessary at this point in time.

The third guy (actually from Courtenay) was supposed to be here yesterday but did not show up or call.

We have decided to go with the $1650 guy and he will do it next week as it is a small (one day) job for his crew. We are happy with this and he says it will greatly increase the ventilation in the attic, maybe stopping some of the small ceiling stains that seem to form every winter.

5 comments:

  1. Always get at least two estimates! :) It reminds me of when I was shopping around for someone to put in my power. If I'd gone with the first guy, I would have paid almost three times as much...

    Next project, level the house? ;)

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  2. The older I get, the less un-level the house feels!

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  3. Feel sorry for the "wired" guy.

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    Replies
    1. He may have been on some pharmaceuticals. That and the full coverage tattoos made me back off him.

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  4. It does pay to shop around hopefully these guys do good work.

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