About "Small Jobs"
With Carpentry, as long as you have generally the right raw materials and some fasteners, the Carpenter do amazing amount of "ad lib" or "unplanned work" that can then be "sured up" or "finished" with more proper fasteners or brackets or other devices later if need.
With Electrical work, Plumbing work and few other trades, often times the work is not as flexible. The Electrician or Plumber can modify lengths of wire and piping, but they can't take a 2" pipe and make it a 1" pipe in a pinch. Also, they can't turn a 90 degree elbow into a 45. And they can't turn a white GFI or chrome fixture beige or black as needed.
If a Plumber or Electrician is working within a mile or two of well stocked supply houses and hardware stores, small jobs can be profitable enough to take on and they can be a mutual benefit to both the trades person and the customer.
If a Job is 15 to 45 minutes from the local hardware store and supply houses, even a missing screw from original packaging can mean there is a 45 minute to 2.5 hour trip to complete the job and that assumes that trip can be completed with a success.
Imagine this. A Customer indicates they have a GFI that is not working, they indicate it's white, and they live 25 minutes from the mouth of Carmel Valley. Anyone whishing to service them who has a white GFI that they believe matches has to allocate a minimum of 1.5 to 2 hours for such a call. They could either bill $50 or $60 for all time allocated to the job or they might bill them $125 or 195 for a minimum service call.
What if they get there and in fact the GFI is bad, but the replacement on their truck turned out to be packaged wrong or damaged. Or what if it's not the exact same white model the customer expected.
An appointment the customer expected to be a 30 minute inconvenience now may stretch out for hours or multiple days. Something the contractor expected to have wrapped up so he/she could move on to other scheduled appointments later in the day now takes a half day or more, or it intrudes into tomorrows work as another quarter of a day of work as a minimum due to drive time and installation time.
With Electrical work, Plumbing work and few other trades, often times the work is not as flexible. The Electrician or Plumber can modify lengths of wire and piping, but they can't take a 2" pipe and make it a 1" pipe in a pinch. Also, they can't turn a 90 degree elbow into a 45. And they can't turn a white GFI or chrome fixture beige or black as needed.
If a Plumber or Electrician is working within a mile or two of well stocked supply houses and hardware stores, small jobs can be profitable enough to take on and they can be a mutual benefit to both the trades person and the customer.
If a Job is 15 to 45 minutes from the local hardware store and supply houses, even a missing screw from original packaging can mean there is a 45 minute to 2.5 hour trip to complete the job and that assumes that trip can be completed with a success.
Imagine this. A Customer indicates they have a GFI that is not working, they indicate it's white, and they live 25 minutes from the mouth of Carmel Valley. Anyone whishing to service them who has a white GFI that they believe matches has to allocate a minimum of 1.5 to 2 hours for such a call. They could either bill $50 or $60 for all time allocated to the job or they might bill them $125 or 195 for a minimum service call.
What if they get there and in fact the GFI is bad, but the replacement on their truck turned out to be packaged wrong or damaged. Or what if it's not the exact same white model the customer expected.
An appointment the customer expected to be a 30 minute inconvenience now may stretch out for hours or multiple days. Something the contractor expected to have wrapped up so he/she could move on to other scheduled appointments later in the day now takes a half day or more, or it intrudes into tomorrows work as another quarter of a day of work as a minimum due to drive time and installation time.
The examples with Electrical and Plumbing for small jobs can go on and on and on like this.
For more complex small jobs, often times the exact type size and orientation of fittings can not be known until 15 to 30 minutes into the job, and there were simply too many possibilities to bring all possible options. The contractor may budget in a 2 hour trip to the store, but what if the supply houses are out of that product or it takes multiple stops to get all items. Then, what happens when the consumer realizes they had to pay for a half day of driving around for what was actually about an hours worth of "electrical work".
For more complex small jobs, often times the exact type size and orientation of fittings can not be known until 15 to 30 minutes into the job, and there were simply too many possibilities to bring all possible options. The contractor may budget in a 2 hour trip to the store, but what if the supply houses are out of that product or it takes multiple stops to get all items. Then, what happens when the consumer realizes they had to pay for a half day of driving around for what was actually about an hours worth of "electrical work".
Many Homeowners and Contractors don't think about this before engaging with each other. I have had enough experience with this now to understand the risks and for this reason, I have chosen to generally pass on small jobs because I find it very difficult to find the balance between their pleasure and my profitability no matter how hard to try to plan for them.
To get small jobs done, often times it's best to try to find a Handyman who you feel can do the work and/or it's best to try to manage those until you have more work that can be added to a situation to help mitigate the risk of losted time for both parties.
To get small jobs done, often times it's best to try to find a Handyman who you feel can do the work and/or it's best to try to manage those until you have more work that can be added to a situation to help mitigate the risk of losted time for both parties.