Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Blue collar labor rate

A friend of mine bid a deck rebuild job at $11,000.

He will remove and replace the wearing surface (deck that you walk on) and handrails and pickets (1,016 SF).

Materials will cost about $2,800. This leaves $8,200 for his labor. He will do the job in three days. This comes out to $2,733 per day.

Do you consider $2,733 a day to be a fair wage for skilled blue collar worker?

Your opinion please... Thanks

yes, I get paid by the job whether it takes one day or more.

It only seems expensive if you think you can get it done cheaper.

He probably had to pay help out of that also.

Ol boy is knocking it down, especially considering the skill set needed to replace a deck. I’m sure many of us on here have helped friends do this type of work for free. Not three full days worth, but you get the point.

Good to see you back, Leonard!

What about his tools? Truck and gas to/from the site? Disposal of old deck?

You’re figuring labor rate wrong.

Fair has got nothing to do with it.

Make your money where you can, when you can. If you're out of the stratosphere the market will let you know.

People that can't or wont do their own work get to pay, seek other estimates, or go without.

For a 1000 sf deck, yes.

You are quoting skilled labor what are the skills

I used to give people a price they Could refuse.

Usually cause I didn’t want it. Too far, a potential Karen, too much BS in the yard to work around, fancy landscaping Junk cars, motor home from hell, fleas, pit bulls.

The deal was no one else would even show up for an estimate.
I could just about hit em for 2,3X wait it was worth.

Three hard days of work. Transport costs. Insurance both medical and unemployment. Incidental costs like tools that have-to-be depreciated over time, truck insurance, disposal fees.

Also, labor is expensive these days ... especially skilled labor.

But that materials cost you posted. My wife and I literally just did 1000 sf deck off the back of our home this past April and materials were well above $2,800.00. Our materials (joists, 4x4s and 4x6s, pickets, handrails, decking, deck paint and rail paint, deck screws, nails for the substructure assembly, concrete, skid tape on the steps, ) ran us $5,200.00+.

Also, I'll add this fwiw. Demolition of the 30 year old deck we replaced was the hard part imho.

Also, did he price natural planking for the deck, or composite?

At any rate the price reads reasonable to me given what we went through building ours.

Are you going to go with the existing substructure or all new posts and joists and faceboards and everything from the ground-up? Is the deck a long rectangular layout or a square? It makes a difference in costs and skill level. Is it attached to your home or an island unto itself?

It’s a really crazy time. Local BEGINNING wages at McDonald’s START at $22/hr.

With that said the amount you quote for 2 or 3 guys for 3 days seems really steep! It looks like he simply used a rough 3x materials for his “labor” costs. He’s refinishing a deck not building cabinets or wiring a panel. It’s not what I would consider “artisan level” type craftsmanship involved in the job above. Not at all belittling the work or him as I’ve been paid to work on many decks through the years, if I was making $2700 a day you can be damn sure I’d be working 7 days a week for as long as that insanity was viable.

When every place I've ever worked figured their TOTAL cost of labor per employee, along with actual earned wage they include their cost for employee benefits plus the employer's 1/2 of employee's F.I.C.A., whatever % they contributed to employee's 401K, AND Workman's Comp / A&S costs. (Self employed have to pay 100% of their F.I.C.A. as well as all their own benefits and extras)

Several years back a local business man told me it cost him over $1k in required fees just to hire his own sister to work for him at his business. This was all before she even could clock in and go on the payroll.

Removing and hauling off the old deck is time on the clock.

Heck yea and make ''em stain or paint it themselves or pay another 2 racks

Agreed! Not a whole lotta "skilled labor" involved in simply redecking an existing deck. If one can read a tape and use a saw, they got that job licked! The "hardest" physical part of the job is going to be the demo and a monkey could do that. However it was not stated if it was a ground level or raised deck. Also how far/difficult to remove the debris.Also the cost of materials seems a bit low with todays wood prices.

Sounds exactly like my deck project three years ago, and it ran $8K.

What you didn't tell us was whether you got multiple bids. Betcha they all come in between $8K (trunk slammers who'll do a $cheitt job never to be reachable again) and $15K (I'm too busy with other projects but if you wanna pay stupid money...). Incidentally, that's where my five estimates ranged (one didn't even bother coming out; he asked for square footage and address and used google earth to capture satellite image for his estimating). Most of the contractors also quoted 3-4 days, but with a crew of 2-3 people. They guy who got the job was a loner, took a week (7 days, not 5), and did it better than any of the other guys could/would have. Croatian with outstanding carpentry & design skills, added a number of architectural elements which my wife loves.

Everyone who has a chop saw and a tape measure thinks they could do it themselves & are getting ripped off. Go for it!

For comparison I recently got $2.5k to completely remove a 20x16 ground level main deck and 8x8 side deck, railings and 2-2 stair steps. Was going to take a skid loader with grapple bucket to do it but on further inspection it was so rotted most of the boards actually easily pulled up from the joists with a pry bar. Able to back a dump trailer within 15 feet of the decks. Using hand tools, a Stihl 025 chainsaw, cordless circular and reciprocating saws, myself and a helper had it demo'd, loaded and site cleaned up in around 4 hours. Paid the helper $25/hr, $75 to dump the debris, around 20 miles total on the truck.

Good info Mark. $2500 just for demo. Nothing comes cheap nowadays.

What's it going to cost him to dispose of the old deck material? Landfill or transfer station fees around here are nuts.

Old deck screwed down or nailed down?

How many other guys is he paying?

Did you already agree to let him do it?

Seems high to me but I don't know what something like this would run in your area and am not one to price another man's time.