I am always asked why a contractor is so expensive especially when doing small jobs. Well, the contractor has only a few things they can sell, their time, their skills and their experience.
Their time must cover not only the time they are on your job, but the time it takes to get the materials and tools together; the drive time to and from the job; and the time to actually do the project. And a job well-done requires the right tools, and we all know how expensive it can be to purchase tools, but when you make a living with those tools you will use upper-end tools because they will last longer and perform better. And those tools all must be maintained, just like a car you can’t buy it and forget it.
Skill levels are different for everyone, one person may have natural skills working with their hands, the next may have had to learn it all over time. Remember the skill level of a contractor really does make the difference of how that project will look when finished. And rarely is it only one person working on the project. If you are dealing with a company, on an addition for instance, you will have supervisors as well as laborers on the project and all their individual skill levels will come into play on the job.
Which leads us to experience and that only comes with time. Think back to when you first started your job, were you as good then as you are now? Experience alone does not make for a good job though, if the contractor does not have skills to go along with that experience the results will be unacceptable. That is why it takes all three to make a great job.
I am not a writer by any means of the imagination, and I saw this on a Facebook post and it really says all this better than I ever could. Next time you are hiring a contractor think back on this and maybe the price will not seem so high.
