your_good_sons
Member
Two years ago, I went to do an estimate for this person in Greenwood Lake, NY. Where you have many very poor and a handful of very rich. You also have a good chunk that are cash poor, but sort of property rich. They are 65+ they bought the house for $25,000 in the 1960's. It was a nice middle class house, but more likely than not, they let it get run down. When I go here, I routinely clean Gen 3-4 nylon that was installed when Johnson or Nixon was president. Today, those houses are worth $200,000-250,000 even in a run down state. 5 miles away, in good condition, another village in the same town the values are $750,000-$1,500,000. Back to Greenwood Lake. This was a lodge made of logs, about 3,000 sf of floor space, about 1,500 feet 40+ year old carpet. It was very dirty. I estimated $450. The old lady looked me right in the eye and said "I'll give you $75".I didn't even respond, I just walked out. This sort of thing is to be expected in Greenwood Lake. I'll let you draw your own conclusions why. Until 40 years ago, it was a popular summer home retreat just an hour or so out of NYC. There are several colonies like this in the suburbs. I actually reduce my Adwords bid by 20% for the area, I can't be bothered with most of them.
So today, I get a call asking if I give free estimates in Greenwood Lake. She knows screen an recoat is $1.50 per sq ft. She might be confused with a $4.50-5.00 complete refinishing. Some are, no matter if you tell them it is not drum sanding, restaining and refinishing. I call it wishful thinking.
Today's caller has commercial carpet glued down over hardwood in a house from about 1950. At least a 95% chance it is Vermont Maple about 3/16" thick over pine planks. So she asks me if I could peal up the carpet, scrape the glue and refinish the floor. I tell her it would probably be cheaper to replace it, but I am not a floor mechanic. She offers $2 per sq ft before I can say goodbye, like this is a large sum of money. That's when I tell her that the floor refinishers I know charge $4.50-5 and to scrap the mastic up would probably be another $5.00 per sq ft. She is dumbfounded. She wants to pay prices of when Truman was in office, because she sees the world as a starving 3rd world crap hole to exploit.
A guy I know who installs vinyl sheet, carpet and laminate gets about $1.50 per sq ft to install laminate. She's his type of customer, they buy crap laminate from Lumber Liquidators for about $1 per sq ft and they will install it of ruined hardwood.
This is why I am reluctant to give free estimates. I give you a simple per sq ft price and you might be able to estimate the room sizes. Gas costs too much and time is too valuable to give away free estimates. The closest I come is $25 which will be applied to the bill if you get work done, but "free estimates" is definitely a red flag for me.
So today, I get a call asking if I give free estimates in Greenwood Lake. She knows screen an recoat is $1.50 per sq ft. She might be confused with a $4.50-5.00 complete refinishing. Some are, no matter if you tell them it is not drum sanding, restaining and refinishing. I call it wishful thinking.
Today's caller has commercial carpet glued down over hardwood in a house from about 1950. At least a 95% chance it is Vermont Maple about 3/16" thick over pine planks. So she asks me if I could peal up the carpet, scrape the glue and refinish the floor. I tell her it would probably be cheaper to replace it, but I am not a floor mechanic. She offers $2 per sq ft before I can say goodbye, like this is a large sum of money. That's when I tell her that the floor refinishers I know charge $4.50-5 and to scrap the mastic up would probably be another $5.00 per sq ft. She is dumbfounded. She wants to pay prices of when Truman was in office, because she sees the world as a starving 3rd world crap hole to exploit.
A guy I know who installs vinyl sheet, carpet and laminate gets about $1.50 per sq ft to install laminate. She's his type of customer, they buy crap laminate from Lumber Liquidators for about $1 per sq ft and they will install it of ruined hardwood.
This is why I am reluctant to give free estimates. I give you a simple per sq ft price and you might be able to estimate the room sizes. Gas costs too much and time is too valuable to give away free estimates. The closest I come is $25 which will be applied to the bill if you get work done, but "free estimates" is definitely a red flag for me.
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