Home / How we price
How we price
What it costs, and why.
Home repair has a reputation for vague numbers. Here is exactly how we charge, with a few real-world examples, so you can ballpark your own job before you call.
The basics
Hourly for small jobs. A fixed price for big ones.
If a job takes under a day, we charge for the hours it actually takes, rounded to the nearest quarter hour. If it takes longer, we visit, measure and give you a fixed price in writing. The price doesn't change unless the job does.
- The clock starts when we arrive at your door, not when we leave the shop.
- Supply runs during a job are on us, not on your bill.
- If we finish early, you pay for the time it took, not the estimate.
The rate card
- Estimate visitFor jobs over two hoursFree
- LabourPer tradesperson, per hour$95
- Small-job minimumCovers the first two hours of labour$190
- MaterialsAt our cost, receipts attachedAt cost
- Travel, core areaGuelph and nearby, see areasIncluded
- Travel, outer townsOnce per visit$40
- DisposalOld doors, boards, a fixture or twoIncluded
All prices before 13% HST. Paint matching and special-order parts are billed at cost.
Worked examples
What a few common jobs come to.
Typical times on an ordinary house. Your walls, your access and your materials can move these up or down, which is what the estimate is for.
A sticking door and two loose towel bars
Adjust hinges and the strike plate, re-fix both towel bars into proper anchors.
About 1.5 hours$190 minimum
Patch three doorknob holes and repaint the wall
Patch and first coat on day one. Sand, second coat, prime and paint on day two.
About 3 hours + paint≈ $305
Mount a 65-inch TV over a brick fireplace
Masonry anchors, a tilting mount, cables tidied into a paintable raceway.
About 2.5 hours + raceway≈ $260
New baseboard in a living and dining room
Remove the old, cut and fit about 18 metres of new, fill, caulk and paint.
Fixed price after a visit≈ $1,750
Replace eight deck boards and reset a gate
Pull the soft boards, match the width, new screws, re-hang the gate with new hinges.
About 5 hours + lumber≈ $640
A fall maintenance visit
The full fall checklist plus a short list of your own, done in one morning.
About 3.5 hours≈ $335
Examples are before HST and before materials where noted. They're a guide, not a quote.
The fine print, in plain words
Payment, changes and our guarantee.
Paying
We email the invoice when the job is done and you've walked through it with us. Pay by e-Transfer, credit card or cheque within 14 days.
Deposits
Only for fixed-price jobs over $2,500 or with special-order materials: 25% to book the date and order the parts. Never for small jobs.
If the job changes
If we open a wall and find something nobody could have seen, we stop, show you, and price the change before going further. No surprise lines on the invoice.
Our guarantee
If something we built or fixed fails because of our workmanship within a year, we come back and make it right at no charge.
Rescheduling
Life happens. Move your booking with 24 hours' notice and there's no charge. Same-day cancellations may be charged the minimum.
Your own materials
Happy to install what you've bought. We'll check it at the estimate so there are no missing-hardware surprises on the day.
Questions we hear
Pricing questions.
Why is there a two-hour minimum?
Getting a stocked truck and a tradesperson to your door takes most of an hour before any work starts. The minimum covers that and keeps the hourly rate lower for everyone. It's also why we encourage a list: two hours goes a long way.
Do you charge for the estimate?
No. For anything bigger than a couple of hours, the estimate visit is free and takes about 20 minutes. For very small jobs we can usually price from your photos, so no visit is needed.
Can you give me a price over the phone?
For the small, common jobs, a range, yes. For anything else, a phone price would just be a guess, and guesses are how people end up with surprise invoices. Photos by email get us most of the way.
Is it cheaper if I buy the materials?
Usually not by much, since we pass materials on at our cost. Where it helps is when you want a particular tap, handle or shelf; then buying it yourself means you get exactly what you picked.
Do you mark up materials?
No. You see the receipt. The only exception is paint we mix and keep for touch-ups, which we bill by the litre at our cost.
Get your number
Get a written quote for your list.
Tell us what needs doing. Small jobs can often be priced from photos; bigger ones get a free visit.
Request a free estimate