Maybe I'm in the wrong area, but I am not aware of these 80%
discounts anywhere in the construction process. As a matter of
fact, homeowners and DIY can get a cheaper price at Home Depot
than builders tend to get at real lumber yards. Beware of quality
issues.

A typical builder's discount is 1 1/2% if he pays his bill before
the tenth. I guess I'll have to ask my suppliers why I'm not
getting this discount you perceive.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DanG
A live Singing Valentine quartet,
a sophisticated and elegant way to say I LOVE YOU!
(local)
http://www.singingvalentines.com/ (national)


"Nathan" wrote in message
...
HAHAHA DAMN Right!!!

gees people, did you actually read the whole message. I said
they deserve to make a profit, but not any insane profit on a
single job. One of my friend's dad had a job in the
construction business. He only worked 6 months of the year and
took the rest of the year off. I wish I could only work 6
months of the year and get a full year's pay!

Get a decent profit and have steady work throughout the
year...that seems fair enough.


"marson" wrote in message
ups.com...


Why are so many of the contractors upset that DIY customers
*MIGHT* get
their precious contractor discount? From what I have looked
up, that
could be as much as 50% or more.

I have heard that some stores will give the contractor a
receipt with full
price, say $80 for gardening supplies, while only charging
$20. My nephew
witnesses this.

Why do the contractors need to use scumbag methods to make
money? In my
area, they just pick up cheap labor off the street for $5 an
hour and
charge the customer $70+ an hour for labor. I got an
estimate from a
contractor to replace my bathtub a few years ago. I wanted
an itemized
list. One of the items was the permit...at $500! I got the
permit for
less then $50. I was quoted $5k and 4k to replace the
bathtub with a
3-piece unit. I could have bought the parts at Home Depot
for less then
$500. The quote also said that it would take a week for
demo...I did it
in a few hours of my spare time, and thats without using the
proper tools.
I ended up doing the job myself. I put in a jacuzzi tub,
tile bath
surround, tile floor, new light fixtures and plumbing
fixtures for the
tub/shower and sink. I also added a 100amp sub-panel in the
garage, ran
3-20amp lines, 2 to the tub, one to the office. (the second
20 amp for the
tub is for a possible expansion in the future if I ever
decide to buy a
heating unit) The 20 amp circuits are overkill, but they
are slightly
more efficient then using 15 amp circuits. I even added a
ceiling fan in
my office. The building permits for everything cost me less
to $100. The
total cost of the entire project was around $2k. The
building inspector
even asked who did the work...he said it was BETTER then
most contractors
work.

So I can waste a month of weekends, get a huge upgrade and
pay half the
cost of a contractor, and I know that the work is done
better then most
contractors! I have seen several areas of my house that
don't even meet
building codes, and that is how it came from the building
contractor that
built the place. So why do I keep seeing messages that the
contractors do
such a good job, when in my experience it is utterly false.

I always see the message that time is money. I even had one
contractor
tell me that on the phone. Why is it that maybe 3 in 10
contractors even
show up to make estimates even when they say they will be
there. I have
to take time off work to sit around and wait for a guy that
likely won't
even show up...HAH and they have the nerve to tell me that
time is money!
I will hire the guy that tells me that he is busy and can't
make an
appointment for a few months. I WON'T hire the guy that
makes an
appointment and never shows up. MY time IS MONEY too buddy.

Why is it so hard for the contractors to use fair and honest
quotes? If
someone lies to me in a quote, I won't hire him because I
believe he will
lie in other areas.

I know that many contractors buy a little extra and charge
the customer,
then they can use the extra supplies in the next job to make
a bit more
profit.

So whats with the attitude of some of the contractors on
this board. I
saw a message that most contractors have 3 prices, one
normal price, one
if the guy wants to watch, one for someone that seems to be
shopping
around. I can understand charging a little more if the guy
wants to
watch...maybe an extra hundred bucks or so for a bit of
wasted time in
answering some questions. Does it really matter if someone
watches or
checks in on you, at least the CUSTOMER can see if you are
doing a good
job. Or is it that the contractors don't want their
customers to see
their hack job and get scared away? See, I am an engineer,
I am used to
having people cooperate and double check eachothers work. I
will probably
never hire a contractor to do work that I know anything
about. I know
that they will hate me for being too anal. I EXPECT the
work to be done
AT LEAST as well as I can do it.

The home builders use the cheapest garbage components they
can find and
build for the cheapest cost and most profit...they don't
plan much for
future expansion, it doesn't cost much more to make things
easily
upgradable or easy to replace in the future. 3 bedrooms in
my house are
on one 15 amp circuit! Thats utter crap. It should be an
individual
circuit in each room...BAH enough of this rant.

How many contractors out there are actually honest? It is a
business,
they should be making money, but it seems like they lie and
cheat far too
much. To be fair, in my experience, most businesses lie and
cheat, from
auto mechanics to PC repair shops. It shouldn't be so and
if I could find
reasonably priced honest businesses, I would use them. I
think lots of
people will stick with a fair and honest business.

Totally agree with Nathan. Why on earth should contractors
actually
be allowed to make a profit? Some of them even can afford
vacations.
A few even send their kids to college, if you can believe that.
And
why should they be allowed to save for retirement? And then
there's
grocery stores. Did you know that when you buy a jug of milk
for say
3 bucks, that the store didn't pay that much for it and is
actually
making a profit? That really burns me.