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

I just had a sewage pump replaced. Pump was 1200, labor was 2100, two hour job including pumping out the holding tank. Stung.

I'll do it next time, I really didnt know what was all involved. I understand the overhead, but 1050 an hour?

Tree guys who pull up with 500k in equipment only get 350-400 an hour depending on the crew the send around here.

I just had my house roof replaced and labor was $65 per hour, per man CASH.

People get paid what they get paid. People charge what they think they deserve and, in some cases, what they think their client can pay. The ones that get me are the guys who are pulling in a half million a year for producing nothing, who then complain about what another makes with his hands. GD

One of my coworkers was recently quoted 21k for a garage slab.

Was supposed to be a 5AM start today, but his friend called "Oyster boat sank, can you give me a hand?"

So here we are at noon... Oyster boat is on shore now... drying out and Charles is off to solve the deck job.

It is a 2.5 day job because of a Real Estate closing... Charles is running solo (he is a VERY CAPABLE guy). His dad is hauling lumber and supplies to him.

I did his takeoffs for materials.

I will also throw down tomorrow or Wednesday if he misses a beat on production.

I will post pics as the work progresses.

Our area, $40-$45/hr for labor, MEP trades higher.
$95/hr for a dump truck, $100/hr for a skid steer or mini-ex plus set up fee.
It’s going to go up exponentially from here though unless we see a collapse in housing which I don’t see happening in our area. There is no labor pool to draw from. I quit advertising and instead concentrate on keeping the guys I have through raises, bonuses and benefits and keeping a positive happy work atmosphere.
The guys relying on subs are getting killed not being able to complete projects in a reasonable amount of time.

Holeeee FUGG! McD’s starting at 22.$? That can’t be accurate. Even here in the Northeast, a dishwasher still gets hired at under 20.$ an hour. Dunkin’ Donuts I believe paying same or a dollar or two less to start. Then McD’s behind that at around 16. Maybe.

Office/Warehouse/lot space, insurance, income taxes, it can go on and on.

Had a 12x16 built last year. The builder charged a lot more than a fly-by-night was going to, but he took care of the permits, had workman’s comp and other insurance, and his guys were prompt, polite, careful, and did a great job. If I called about something, someone answered the phone. Don’t begrudge any of them what I paid.

I'm 65, my shoulders are shot, my back is shot. My boys have grown up and moved away. They helped me build my patio cover. It needs work but I don't think I can pull it off by myself. It sucks that contractors have the upper hand right now. Maybe I'll get after it like a hobby, a half hour at a time.

If you friend had developed some skills for himself he could have saved $8200.00

Just because . . .

"I keep late hours - you're a 9 to 5"

that is a little over 100 a hour ...for one guy thats good money if it takes three well that is about right around my parts

I used a contractor to build the pony wall for our steel building six years ago. He was pretty pricey, but the work was off and needed to be corrected, and he wasn’t willing to come back to fix.

So, I lost his phone number, and when we started building tanks, I just hired some hands, and we poured about 100 trucks of concrete, all told.

Ran into him last winter, and he was very pissed off at me, because I “had cost him a lot of money”.

That’s a new level of entitlement, right there.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

your not suggesting that flapping your lips and punching computer keys isnt highly skilled labor , are ya Dog?


people with opioid addictions get to work at a discount because they move slower?

It is whatever the market will bear. I charge anywhere from $0-$150/hr. for metal fabrication. A little weld on an old neighbor's plow will cost him nothing. Some fancy TIG welding on aluminum or stainless is going to be at the top of my scale. Actually, my CNC machinery brings in much more than that. It's not the $500k+ in tools I've bought but the knowledge to operate them efficiently. Good luck finding that with a college education. I've tried.

I forget exact dimension from my takeoff, but call it 18' x 18', 9' x 22' and 18' x 18'... so a ball park of 1,070 SF.

Plus railings, steps pickets et al..

Demo took about 3 hours today (Charles is very fast).







He broke off about 4:30 to deal with the diesel on the oyster boat...

Additional update tomorrow.

I’ve always poured all of my own slabs
I’ve done all of my own roofing
The wife does all of our plumbing. (She’s built two master baths from the ground up)
We’ve always done all our floor covering and tile. Almost the whole house is tile
Build our own cabinets,
Wife builds furniture, tables, book cases, etc
She installed all of our new windows
We’ve installed our own septic system

Our best friends from high school help us frame and do electrical.

We’ve dug our own footings with a pick and a shovel, laid thousands of 8” blocks


The *few* times I’ve hired some “Contractor” to come out and do something, like drywall. It looked like total shît

Until I’m in a wheelchair or worse, I will not have any pos jacklegs doing anything for us

Wife can do brakes too.

Anything major mechanical-wise…I’ll just buy another $1500 car

I’ve rebuilt 1/2 dozen engines but probably won’t do any more.

Skilled labor ain’t cheap, cheap labor ain’t skilled.

That was a hell of a lot, did you get other bids???

I apologize for not being more clear in the previous posts...

A friend was asked to bid on a resurfacing job (the wearing surface... i.e. the wood that you actually walk on on a deck) by a Realtor selling a house.

Buyer and seller agree a new deck wearing surface is appropriate for the sale of the house. It is a short 3 day turn around job accordingly.

The framing is good to go, but the wearing surface (5/4 board) is poor/failing.

He bid the job at $11,000... and the buyer/seller/Realtor accepted his bid of $11,000.

He will be using 2x6 lumber as an upgrade.

If he pulls the job off in 3 days he will make $2,733 a day after materials, but not including chainsaw gas, fuel, dump fees (if any), CCCP permits etc.

Basically $250 per hour plus/minus...

That was the nature of my question.

Is $250 per hour a reasonable rate for a blue collar laborer?

Again... my apologies for any confusion in not being more clear previously.