Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Rotten Porch - In More Ways Than One
One of my favorite parts of our house is our front porch. I love sitting out there and people watching, reading the paper or supervising C while he occasionally mows the lawn.
Our railings and posts are rotting away. The builder used failed to put plates between the posts and the poured concrete cement so the pine posts simply suck up all the moisture. I am a big fan of anything low maintenance so we are looking at replacing the wood with one of the aluminum or PVC options available. We got our first quote yesterday and I am slightly shocked by the amount. One of the other mothers at our playgroup paid x for her porch of similar length. Her house closer to the ground and therefore does not have the stair railings that would add another 8 feet of work to the thirty feet, but we were quoted just under 250% more for the entire project. For the same number of posts to be removed and replaced. Not exactly what we had budgeted for the project. I am skeptical. The guy assured me that he has kept his prices the same for all houses in the area but I was reluctant to call him on this one because it had been a while since I read the woman's email and thought maybe I had read the numbers differently. I have done the math for the difference between the houses: amount for columns, removal and disposal of old rotting stuff. The railings just don't add up. Do I assume "know it all Mommy" was exaggerating what deal she got or assume contractor guy fingers may have made a small mistake imputing numbers into his calculator?
Hopefully the contractor #2 will get me a quote soonish so we can decide what we will be doing. I realize I have some bargaining to do, I just want to know what I am working with.
Let play contractor people. I know what I want and what I want it for. I just need to get it at the right price.
Our railings and posts are rotting away. The builder used failed to put plates between the posts and the poured concrete cement so the pine posts simply suck up all the moisture. I am a big fan of anything low maintenance so we are looking at replacing the wood with one of the aluminum or PVC options available. We got our first quote yesterday and I am slightly shocked by the amount. One of the other mothers at our playgroup paid x for her porch of similar length. Her house closer to the ground and therefore does not have the stair railings that would add another 8 feet of work to the thirty feet, but we were quoted just under 250% more for the entire project. For the same number of posts to be removed and replaced. Not exactly what we had budgeted for the project. I am skeptical. The guy assured me that he has kept his prices the same for all houses in the area but I was reluctant to call him on this one because it had been a while since I read the woman's email and thought maybe I had read the numbers differently. I have done the math for the difference between the houses: amount for columns, removal and disposal of old rotting stuff. The railings just don't add up. Do I assume "know it all Mommy" was exaggerating what deal she got or assume contractor guy fingers may have made a small mistake imputing numbers into his calculator?
Hopefully the contractor #2 will get me a quote soonish so we can decide what we will be doing. I realize I have some bargaining to do, I just want to know what I am working with.
Let play contractor people. I know what I want and what I want it for. I just need to get it at the right price.
// posted by Jenn @ 9:33 a.m. 
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