August 31, 2022 – Shop Siding, Before and After

It is a good thing that I am done because summer is almost over. I ended up finding more rot in the facias and I debated leaving it. Ultimately, I decided that I had everything setup and I was in the mode, so I ended up spending a full day taking care of the unexpected damage. But, it is done.

As I like to do, I thought that I would provide some project accounting. What did this project really cost?

I did spend more than this, but they were unrelated costs to the project. They were expenses for my home and apartment that I picked up because I was already at the store. It is possible to argue that I may not spent the money if I wasn’t already purchasing project supplies.

I wish that I had kept better track of my actual hours. I should know that I am going to write about it by now. I am just going to have to make an guess at this point.

My biggest labor expense was in painting. I did paint everything by hand and every exposed surface got a primer coat and two topcoats before installation with touch-up afterward. Had I installed everything then shot it with a sprayer, I am sure that I would have driven that cost down to 8 hours. I also feel like some of my trips for materials were wasteful. I had to replace the Hardi boards that broke as I was unloading and I made one trip to purchase a 15 degree finish nailer plus caulk (more on that some other day).

I am giving myself a raise on this project because of inflation. If I estimate my rate at $35/hour then my labor is $3500 and my overall cost is $4246. A smart contractor is going to add some contingency to the job, like 20%. I would estimate the overall value of the project to be $5000.

End Your Programming Routine: The project actually totaled more time than I expected. It was the painting phase that seemed to really drag on. Of course, most weekends I spent some time but not really sun up to sun down or even a straight eight hour day. The truth is, I didn’t really feel like I needed to work that way. But now, I need to move onto other things while the weather is still good. It feels good to finish however.