Estimating contract labor costs is simple if you understand the labor involved.
If your home needs maintenance, repairs or voluntary upgrades, you may choose to hire help for any of several reasons. Whether it's because you're busy or simply uncomfortable completing the necessary tasks, the amount you budget for labor is an important consideration to make. While it's never possible to predict the exact amount you'll spend before your home improvement project is finished, making a good estimation of your contract labor costs is easier than you might think. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Make a list of all the repairs that need to be made and the parts needed to make them, if you plan to assign your contractor the task of obtaining them. For example, if you need a bedroom painted, consider any trips to the hardware store, time that the contractor will need to spend taping up and preparing the room for painting, whether or not he will need to prime the walls and how many coats of paint the job will ultimately take.
2. Estimate the amount of time each stage of the project will take. For a painting project, you may figure at least an hour at the hardware store (including the time to and from), an hour spent preparing the room and two hours spent priming and on each coat of paint. If the color you have chosen is dark, it will likely require three coats. Compute a total number of hours; in this case, ten--one hour at the store, one hour preparing the room, two hours for priming and two hours for each of three coats (in total, six hours) of painting.
3. Agree to an hourly rate with your contractor and multiply this hourly rate by your estimated number of labor hours to estimate contract labor. Then multiply by the number of contractors. For example, if you estimated ten hours, have agreed on an hourly rate of $22.50 and will need two laborers to complete the project, a good approximation of your cost is as follows: 10 x 22.50 x 2 = $450.00.
Tags: contract labor, hourly rate, preparing room, will need, contract labor costs, hardware store, labor costs
