Labor Cost for Trim Installation
Hey everyone. I’ve got an unlicensed/uninsured handyman whom I pay cash to do little things around my properties. He works hard and does great work, always happy to find something he can do.
I’m doing two heavy rehabs right now, and had to let the GC go, so I’m managing subs myself. My handyman has agreed to do some trim for me, and just said to pay him whatever I think is fair. He’ll be doing some baseboards, window casing, and probably quarter round after the flooring goes down. I pay for all materials, he only gets paid on labor.
What is a fair rate? I can’t find any guidance in J Scott’s book and I haven’t been able to find solid answers on the forums. The range of quotes I’ve gotten is nuts, with one guy wanting to charge $1 per square foot of living space and someone wanting $6.75 per linear foot. Someone else suggested 50-75 cents per linear foot of baseboard and the same rate for quarter round.
Oh, also apparently my first post after lurking for years
Most Popular Reply
You can pay like a piece rate or like a day laborer rate. so you could present it to him at $20 an hour......just an example....
You can pay like a piece rate or like a day laborer rate. so you could present it to him at $20 an hour......just an example....
I can't really say for your area, but I know I'd charge by the foot to install, and it would depend a lot on if any of this trim needs to be painted or stained, and somewhat the complication of the trim install. If it's just a butt-joint squared off end, that's easier than having to miter every corner. Crown would be different too. If you trust him, his pace of work, etc could you offer to pay him by the hour? Or would it make more sense to get your own idea of how many feet of install there is to do and pay him a flat rate based on that?
- Aaron Schrader
I generally like to stay away from hourly pay, even if I trust someone. I’d like to figure out a good linear foot rate, so that I can help knowing my numbers for future projects, too.
I’d likely have him paint it, and then do mitered 45 degree corners. No crown moulding, mainly baseboard and were talking about doing window casing too.
There’s about 600 linear feet of baseboard/quartet round needed. Not sure on window casing.
If he has been working for you then we can assume you have established a pay rate.($x.xx per. hr.) Why would this change? Do not pay by the foot for a beginner. Don't. It could cause him to rush to make his necessary $. Just pay as normal and evaluate. If it's not working then changing installers isn't messy. You just stop the clock on that scope of work. You may pay "too much" the first job or two but you also may develop a valuable skill for him AND you going forward. BTW If he does great then reward him. Invest in your people.
So we can figure its 300 linear feet of base and 300 linear feet of Quarter Round then. For base a good rule of thumb for an unlicensed/unisured guy is $1-2/foot. Obviously is the house is larger then you can bring it close to $1 but for a smaller house like this one probably closer to $2 should suffice. High end trim carpenters are going to charge over $4/foot for base alone. For the Quarter Round you can charge like $0.50-$1/ft. Honestly QuarterRound is pretty easy. It should only take 5-6 hours for that type of size even if there is tons of cuts. IF he does Quarter Round correctly he'll have a hand held miter cutter which makes that super fast. Taking Quarter Round to a miter saw is not the most efficient way.
None the less that's the pricing to make sure h's paid fairly for his time but not breaking your pockets. You can gauge it higher or lower based off your area. If he is going to paint you can add another $1-$1.50/foot. That isn't for both tho it's just total linear feet. So if we are looking at 300 feet. OR if it's a total of 600 each so 1200 you do the math. Like I said for the bigger house you can drop the price down slightly because hell move quicker. For a smaller house I up the price slightly.
Hope this helps
You should probably pay by the hour in this situation; I usually pay $30-$45/hour for someone with decent trim carpentry skills. Have you seen his trim work before? Finish carpentry is one of the more difficult skills to find in handymen, especially if the woodwork is to be stained not painted. You might want to be around when he starts to ensure quality. For someone new, I'd make sure to do painted trim and have it painted before install so we can just caulk and touch up after install. Paint & caulk hides a lot of sin for a mediocre install.
I think the going rate in our market is $3 per linear foot that's baseboard, caulk and paint. If for shoe moulding that would be $.75 extra if doing it before the caulk and paint.
Sometimes if you feel it's hard to quote by linear foot or area foot, just ask or estimate how long will take to do the job. In our market, a fully licensed skilled handyman who owns his own business charges around $65 an hour, someone with worker's comp charges $75 an hour. A skilled carpenter who can do custom woodwork charges $90-100 an hour. If I'm hiring a skilled labor who has no business overhead I'm willing to pay $40-50 an hour depend on their credibility and skill level.
If I have to negotiate labor cost with someone whom I have never worked before and that person couldn't give me a labor price up front, I would say: "To me, this seems to be a X day job (feel free to use half day), (in your mind, calculate the hour x hourly rate = Y dollar amount, make sure it's man-hour or man-day so if it's a two-person job then you need to multiply by two for the same time period) does $Y work for you?" Then they can accept or counter. If they counter, I would need to figure out why and see if the counter is reasonable to work with. For most skilled labor, half day of work is the minimum starting hour. For major work, I would use number of days.
Hope this helps with your job estimate.