Home > Pricing/Estimates

Merritt Construction has two different pricing methods depending on the size of the job.

Pricing method 1: Free estimate and quote
Like most traditional contractors under this method we will show up at your home and look over the project with you. We will then provide a written quote for the total price it will take to complete the job. If you accept the quote we will return another day to begin work. This type of pricing style works well for all medium and large jobs. Most of our jobs utilizing this billing method are $1200 and up jobs.

Pricing method 2: hourly labor + materials (a.k.a. time & materials)
Sometimes jobs are so small that it just isn't realistic to drive out one day to provide an estimate and then return on a separate day to complete the work. For example let us assume you just want someone to caulk around your tub. We would have to drive out to your home one day and look the job over and provide an estimate. Depending on how far away you live, this could take up to an hour and a half in round trip travel time. Then we would return another day to complete the work taking another hour and a half in round trip travel time, plus an hour to complete the job. Since the job would only be a $50 job, we would end up making $50 on a job that we spent 4 hours on. So for this reason small service/repair/handyman jobs are billed by the hour with no prior estimate. If you wanted someone to caulk around your tub, we would show up and complete the work, and then present you a bill for the work based on how many hours it took to complete plus the cost of materials. Our standard rate is $50 for the first hour, and $35 each additional hour. We do have a one hour minimum to help take care of travel time and fuel expenses, so a job that only takes 30 seconds to complete would still be charged $50 plus materials. These rates are very competitive to what any other experienced contractor would charge for this type of work, and despite the fact they sound expensive our average jobs only end up costing $100-$200.

How do we choose which pricing method to use?
When you contact Merritt Construction we will make an estimated guess over the phone about how long we think the job will take. For jobs that we feel will take more than 8 hours to complete or cost more than $500, we will send someone out to provide a free estimate (Pricing Method 1). For jobs that we feel will take less than 8 hours to complete or cost less than $500, you will be billed by the hour and no free estimate will be provided ahead of time (Pricing method 2). While we know everyone would like to receive an estimate before work proceeds so they know exactly what they are getting in to, we hope you can understand how we can't possibly come to your home to provide a free estimate on a $50 job.