Contractors/Laborers - Absolutely ABSURD!

[DrinkMore]

We have this wood porch on the side of house. This is the door that leads into the kitchen. It's the door we use. We don't use the front door. The porch is wood and is like an amusement park ride because it sways back and forth because it's not attached to the house anymore and all the planks are coming up. Really old and in dire need of replacement.

So, we got a number of a guy that was recommended for doing good work. He came out and did all the measuring and such. Several days later - today - he calls back and gives us the estimate. $4,500.00 dollars. I almost fell out of my seat. This porch is about 4 feet wide, and about 10 feet long. A straight porch. It has 3 steps, you step up, on the porch, walk 5 feet and your at the door. Hand rail and that's about it. A small, standard porch. I told the guy thanks and hung up. My brain got the better of me and I decided to call back and get some info.

I asked him how much the material cost was. He said roughly $1,500.00. Seems pretty high to me. So that leaves, $3,000.00 dollars. That's a lot of labor. So I asked him how much I would save if there was no porch there. I take it out myself and you start from blank. He said $500. I said ok. How much will I save if you nail the deck instead of screw. He said about $500. You all following that? Were now at $2,000.00 dollars in labor now. I asked him how many days and how many guys. He said 3 guys including himself and 4 days. Do the math. That's $166 dollars a day for 3 guys for 4 days. That's $33 dollars an hour for 5 hours, each guy.

I find this estimate to be BS. Please correct me if I am wrong. The guy didn't even have a list of costs. He just came up with a nice round number after he got an idea of materials cost. I could hear it when I was asking him all these questions. He also kept saying - get this - he had to level, cut, nail and make sure everything was secure. That's why the cost was there. I was thinking to myself - WTF? Seriously did he just say that?

Another excuse was we have a brick house and he has to drill into the brick to attach the 6x6's to the house. Ok. I got that and... ? Does it really take 3 guys - 4 days to build such a small porch? Do they really think I am that stupid? Granted 1 day would be needed for the poles to set up in the concrete, but after that - day 2 they should zip on through. I have seen it done and that was with 1 person!!! Imagine how fast it would be with 2!

Jesus. Am I really off in how much I think this is going to cost? Material costs alone that he quoted seems double what it should. Seems nobody out there is honest anymore. Jeesh.