"Charlie Morgan" wrote in message
...
On 16 Jan 2007 10:30:26 -0800, wrote:

I'm really wondering why any contractor should make money on the
supplies they use to do a job. If you charge a proper hourly amount
(or fixed amount by job - whatever), IMO, you should not need to charge
any markup on supplies.

I am happy to pay a contractor for their work (including time it may
take to obtain/determine necessary supplies). I'm not willing to pay
him/her for someone else's work (the supplies themselves). This is
part of the reason I've started to do most repair/remodel work myself.
Finding an honest and reliable contractor these days is difficult at
best.

Doug


Okay, try this: Go to your favorite restaurant. When the waiter comes
to take your order, hand him a bag containing some eggs, bread, toast,
juice, and butter. Ask him to make your breakfast.

CWM

Actually, I have done just that -- some of my favorite restaurants are at
Lei Yue Mun, a fishing village on the edge of Hong Kong. You reserve a
table at your choice of several restaurants, then go to the fish markets
nearby and select the individual fish, lobster, etc., that you want for
dinner. You pay the shopkeeper for the seafood and tell him which
restaurant you'll be using. The seafood is sent to the restaurant, and you
go back to your table, have a beer or mao tai, and in a few minutes your
personally selected absolutely fresh seafood dinner is delivered to your
table. When you go with a bunch of friends it makes for a great evening.

I've also eaten at restaurants in Ottawa and around Ontario where you
brought in your fresh fish and they then prepared it for your dinner.

Similarly, I don't see anything wrong with a customer specifying the
specific type of materials that he wants used for a job, even if it means
the customer has to buy the material first. The customer may have a
specific concept for the space and have seen something special that the
tradesman is either unfamiliar with or doesn't have access to. For example,
we found some antique carved teakwood walls, 3 pieces, each 8' wide x 9'
tall, that became part of the side walls of our bedroom. Similarly, in a
junkyard (excuse me, second-hand shop) we found a pallet of high-quality
cobalt-blue ceramic roof tiles that became the top course of a wall around
part of our house. No local roofer would have found that material. OTOH,
for conventional supplies I'll rely on the contractor or subcontractor, but
I'll also know if there's something special that I want to add to
individualize my property. Regards --