Zemedelec wrote:

I have an extremely short section of cement driveway (from the street, upwards
at a slight angle to cross the sidewalk, to my gate--after which it changes
into a two parallel cement tracks for wheels, which are OK. It's about 12 feet
long, 6-7 wide. ) Since I have a low-slung car (and to prevent myself and
others from falling while crossing this area) I want it replaced. When I bought
the house some of this section had already separated into separate, very thick
chunks, a couple of which were even heaved to the side so the dirt beneath
could be seen.

I've had two bids from independent workers. One said the roots of a nearby oak
were pushing up the cement and would have to be ground down before he could
pour, and wanted "maybe $800." The other mentioned wire netting, rebar, etc.
as well as root grinding and cement and wanted $1,100.

This seems like a lot of money for a rather small job, and it's in an area (New
Orleans) where prices can vary widely for the same work--not necessarily in
reference to the quality of the work or materials but sometimes simply because
the worker thinks you don't know what the median price is. Feedback, please!
zemedelec
just keep shooting for a bid for a lower price.. they will come
around...
but dont expect someone to go so low that you know they gonna rip you
off.. a friend who was in the grass cutting business years ago got a
call one sunday morning to go out and give a price on some grass
cutting... the customer shows him a back yard with about 18 in. high st.
augustine grass there and has a pretty big back yard... the friend tells
him $60.00 for the job... the customer goes crazy and starts telling my
friend that he used to get a guy to come out and cut the grass for two
dollars.... my friend then says: and you called me to out bid him.....
the friend told me that the guy agreed to the $60.00 price and that he
had to use his riding tractor to go over the back yard about three times
to get the grass down so he could use a walk behind mower... he told me
that if he knew it was that hard he would have never done the yard for
any price......