Need help with giving an estimate.

My girlfriends neighbor gave me a call the other day asking me to paint his chimney for him. I got on the roof and noticed it had holes in the stucco and he also said it leaked. So far I have patched the stucco, sealed the whole thing, Jomaxed it, and I paint it tomorrow. What would yall charge for something like this. Ive got a little over 2 hours into it so far. He wants me to give him my final price, but this is the first time ive ever done something like this. Let me add the roof is extremely steep haha. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

$50/hour + materials. That's a hell of a lot cheaper than he could get ANY contractor to do it for. There's no set formula for it though. I changed out my neighbor's sink and faucet for him for a box of cookies (and they gave me a Home Depot gift card)

 

He has supplied the materials. So say I have 2 hours in painting tomorrow for a total of 4 hours, you would think $200-250 would be fair? I dont wanna hit the guy too hard just incase he decides he wants to call me again haha.

 

Worked on side jobs all my life ALWAYS set price before you start...Say I think this is a 300$ job I go a lil over. The rich (for the most part) are the worst to work for. You will catch it quick after you lose some $ on a few jobs, Just do small stuff till you catch on.

 

If supplied the materials, then it's kind of a discretionary thing. I'm not sure about the area you live in but around here, I'd very gladly pay $200-250 to do the work you're describing to my chimney. $200 for 4 hours worth of labor isn't a lot in my opinion, especially considering the risk. Keep in mind that pricing varies greatly by region.

 

200 is fare for up on the roof.. PS Hi Mike

 

50 a hr. if he whent with someone else,like a roofer he would be paying 75-80hr. dont chet your self,like you said the roof is steep.

 

Since it is your girlfriends neighbor ask him what he feels is a fair price for you labor on this very hard dangerous job and let him set the price.
You may end up with a low price but if he feels you overcharged him then you will have a neighbor of your girlfriend that feels you took advantage of him.
I would prefer to make a bit less or nothing than ailenate someone I have to have my sweetie live near and around for a long time.

 

I thought about this again and $50 an hour is the absolute lowest I'd go. You may have only had 4 hours on the job but this is a side job for you, you lost the time for yourself, it has to cover your travel costs (not sure how far away he lives), it's dangerous being up on the roof and it's still a lot cheaper than he could get a contractor to do the work for. My opinion, $50/hr is a very fair and reasonable price.

I also agree with Jim, for future work, try to get the pricing agreed to up front. Now that he sees how you work, I'd try to get him to agree to an hourly rate up front to help protect yourself against anything unforeseen.

 

$200

 

I appreciate it fellas. He told me if I couldnt do it, he would call a professional. When I decided Id do it, I had no idea what to charge. Ill remember what yall said for future reference. Once again, thanks.

 

Next time you can help out some one on TW jump in..PS is this you

 

This should have been his 1st move.

Hiring an unlicensed contractor is not a smart move.