Most of the times it's the ole, "All materials required to complete the work as described above are included in this estimate". But as was said, even though I do mark up the prices a bit to cover the travel time and money, etc. the customer still pays less than they would if they purchased all the materials themselves.
The job i'm starting tomorrow illustrates how customers who insist on buying there own materials can end up paying more. Pardon me while I vent...
I had done some work for them(My Sister-in-law and her husband
in the past, and gave them an estimate for doing additonal work. Evidently the price was more than they wanted to spend, and they decided to do the work themselves. Then came the message on my answering machine...she had obviously been in tears, saying, "we realize now all the hard work you did, we tried to do the rest ourselves, but the popcorn ceilings are presenting a huge challenge. Please give us a call". So, I called them and arranged to meet with them within a half hour(I was going out of town the following morning and they would be leaving town prior to me returning from my trip). Anyway, i'll try to jump to the chase. They had a five gallon bucket of (crappy) ceiling paint on premises, and wall and trim paint. So I told them to go to home depot to get some Kilz "Odorless Oil Primer" before they left town. Instead of getting the primer, they gave away the ceiling paint(which I had told them was inferior paint), and did not go get any primer. Upon my return they called and told me I could get started when my schedule permitted. And, "Oh, we gave away the ceiling paint. So just get some paint and primer and save the receipt for us....my husband is a real stickler for numbers." I was thinking, jeese, here we go again"...these people have been pains in the ass to deal with. So i'm supposed to finance their paint job, and then they will reimburse me at cost? Of course, I usually just include the paint in my estimate and collect a deposit, but they already had most of what I would need there on premises, all I needed was oil primer. Not only that, but I had told them to pick up four gallons of oil primer, although I needed roughly four and a half gallons. But I had 3/4 of a gallon in stock and was willing to just contribute that to the project...no sweat. I finally tell them to call Duron and order the materials(ceiling paint and primer) and I will pick it up.
Primer cost per my initial suggestion(Home Depot: 4 Gal. of Kilz Odorless Oil @ $20 per gallon = $80
Cost of Zinser Odorless from Duron: 5 Gal. Zinser @ $35 per gallon = $175
Potential savings for the customer = $95
Duron gave them my price for the ceiling paint. I wish they had charged them retail.
Perhaps I should not have done so, but I couldn' resist, I pointed out that it is not uncommon for a contractor to mark-up the cost of materials, but the advantage of the contractors discount, knowledge, and willingness to shop around often/ultimately results in savings for the customer.
Some people are just hard headed.
Side note: Given that "Odorless Oil Primers" are a relatively new breed, I would not feel comfortable mixing the ($20) Kilz product with the ($35) Zinser product. I'm not sure if I was just trying to teach them a lesson or whether I would have under different circumstances been quite as umcomfortable mixing the two different manufacturer's products....perhaps it was a bit of both.
Opinions on mixing Kilz odorless with Zinser Odorless?
I'm not sure if I feel better after venting, but I appreciate that there is a place where I can do so.
BTW, the job also includes wallpaper removal...over drywall. They tried to start that work too...by scoring with a paper tiger...should be interesting. I told them when I met with them, before I realized what they had done, that using a paper tiger could damage the drywall, and would perforate the paper such that it would be virtually impossible to tear off the top layer of wallpaper in pieces more than match book size. Then I run my hand across the wall..."Oh, you already scored the paper."