Overheard a roofer on the bus say he charges per square, not per hour, and it blew my mind

I was on the 44 bus in Seattle last Tuesday and this guy was on his phone talking to someone about a quote. He said 'nah I don't do hourly, I do $400 a square for architectural shingles.' I always assumed roofers just charged by the hour plus materials. Now I'm wondering if I've been getting ripped off by my handyman who bills hourly for everything. Has anyone else switched to flat rates for bigger projects and seen savings?

3 comments

3 Comments

cora81316d ago

Right, so the real secret is that trades have their own secret pricing language and we're just out here paying by the hour like suckers lmao. @troyc17 nailed it about that feeling of finding out there's a whole other system. It's like learning a cheat code but nobody hands you the manual. I asked my electrician for a flat rate once and he looked at me like I had three heads, then came back with a price that was actually lower than what I would have guessed from his hourly rate.

troyc1716d ago

Man that conversation must have been eye opening. I had a similar moment a few years back when I found out concrete guys charge by the yard, not the hour, and it made me rethink a lot of stuff. It honestly feels like a secret handshake kind of thing where tradespeople just know this and us regular folks get stuck paying hourly for everything. The flat rate approach makes so much more sense for big jobs because it pushes them to be efficient instead of dragging things out. Your handyman probably isn't ripping you off on purpose but it's worth asking for a flat quote next time you have a bigger project, just to see the difference. Bet it feels a lot better knowing the price upfront instead of watching the clock tick.

black.oliver16d ago

Oh man, that's a good point. I used to think hourly was just the standard way for all trades until I heard something similar. Now I always ask for a flat quote on anything bigger than a day's work. It forces them to give you their best price upfront and you know exactly what you're paying.