Contractor Pricing - How much should I be paying per Hour?

Question

Hey BP!

I’m looking to get a list of contractor labor prices in NY. Looking for general ranges because each area is different. Here is what I got so far:

Labor Rates:

Electrician - $70-90/hr

Plumber -  $75-$150/hr

Carpenter - $35-$50/hr

HVAC - I need a range

Roofer - $50/hr? (Haven’t checked but this is what my last guy charged me)

Concrete/Masonry - $250-$350/hr

If I’m missing anything, feel free to add it in. Thanks for helping out!

Matt M. · Answer

I agree with @George W.

I need a tree trimmed at one of my properties, my tree guy quoted me $400. Fair price, I don’t care if it takes him 10 mins or 10 hours.

FYI- when I do work hourly, I will charge drive time from my shop to the job and back. A 3 hour job with 1.5 hours driving doesn’t make sense to charge for 3 hours only.

And if you try and figure how long it takes to do things, you’ll always be wrong. Could be a simple job of changing out outlets, 5 mins each... come to find out (old houses), a lot of times they would wire the outlets and pull excess into the basement or into first floor. So now you’ve got an outlet with zero extra wire. PITA to get old outlets out, now you’ve got to run pigtails to wire new outlet. 5 mins can turn into 15+quickly.

When I quote a job, unless I run into something major, my clients pay what I quoted, no matter how many hours. You are better off knowing up front what you’re looking at rather than trying to guesstimate how many hours.

Jermell Shavers · Answer

@Nick Rutkowski. Wrong wrong wrong.... don’t ever let anything be hourly !!! Listen hourly jobs take longer 🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️. They will drag ass at all costs mainly a cost to you and your bottom line. A BID IS ALWAYS REQUIRED. It keeps things easy to manage and keeps money in your pocket and keep them accountable whenever they finish is when they finish and they still make the same so they typically finish quicker

Gary Siver · Answer

Not sure why you are looking for hourly rates.  Are you hiring all guys per hour or trying to ballpark what jobs will cost to get done?  If you hire all your trades by the hour you will over pay for everything. Plus the rates you have down have such a big variation from high to low I don’t know how you would ever get an accurate price.

Nick Rutkowski · Answer

@George W.

Oh okay, that makes sense. I should have worded this post. I’m just looking to compare prices to others.

George W. · Answer

What someone will charge you is all relevant to what you are willing to pay for. If you're okay with having poor workmanship & quality of materials you can get people to do things real cheap but will be plagued by issues longterm. if you want things done correctly and with excellent workmanship, it will not be cheap.

Contractors expenses are to localized to guess their expenses and hourly rates in other states.

Contractor Pricing - How much should I be paying per Hour?

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