I live in the Redwood Shores area (about 20 miles south of San Francisco) and we recently had a plumber come by to check on a leak. He claimed it was being caused by old caulking around our master bedroom tub and gave us a quote of $265 to remove the old caulking and replace with new.
Is this a fair cost? Should I get another estimate or is this something I can easily do by myself?
This is a reasonable price. I would not waste my time or anyone else’s to get another estimate. I recently removed the caulking around my Jacuzzi tub in our master bath. It took me three hours to do it properly. My husband recaulked it, but I do not know how long it took him.
Get another estimate! It is a small job but you shouldn’t pay more than $100 for an easy job like that!
That is a little steep. I would charge about $150.00. But it depends on where you live. The costs for labor & materials are higher in California and other places. Cleaning out the old caulk & recaulking around tub would take about an hour. It would be an easy do-it-yourself job.
I would defintely get another estimate…as already stated it shouldn’tcost no more than $100
Honestly, I’d either get another estimate OR attempt it yourself. You will have a minimal amount of time and expense and it’ll be money easily saved. Someone is just out to make some fast and easy money from you.
I would charge $100 to $150.
A Fair Price Would Be Around 65.00
I would charge you a hourly rate. First I’d take the tub drain apart and over flow and pull the tub out. Then I’d get out old caulk with a plastic putty knife and look for mold and then caulk around the opening. Next, I’d lay the tub back down and use a wet sponge to get excess caulk out. $125 to put it back together; so yes that is a lot to charge.
I honestly would charge no more that $75 it’s a quick one two job takes no more than 1/2 hr and one tube of calking
this job is a definite easy job for a homeowner. Just take your time, scrapr off the old caulking, make sure there is no water damage on sheetrock, use an interior water resistant caulking then walla, done
My charge for recaulking a tub is $150. This price includes materials.
It would fall under a one hour minimum charge, $75.00 for us, we could possibly have time to do other things if there were time left over.
we remove all old caulking first… that is an important part of re-caulking…
D Watkins
Mister Handyman and Remodeling
Since you live in a such area, you will be over charged on every service call you will need. Watch Ytube and get used to doing the simple things such as this caulking problem. Plumber will tell you he is charging you 1 hour to get to you @ $100 and the rest of the charge is labor and materials. Be ready or put your hands to work.
If you want a job that lasts - this is not a simple matter of cutting the old silicone out with a razor and squeezing in new. Silicone does not stick to itself so must be thoroughly removed, then mold treated. Clean with methyl-hydrate and dry.
Fill the tub with water and then neatly apply a new bead of quality 100% silicone.
Typically 3 hours work plus supplies. $175 including materials in most places is reasonable.
I can’t believe no one has talked about the point that it depends on how much caulking there is to do. I have caulked many many tubs. Sometimes you just need two sides - one end and along the wall, and the third side is open. Sometimes you need to do that plus down to the floor in two places and all around the tub at the base and then up the wall 4-5 ft. So scraping all that caulk off from the larger job is a much different prospect than just doing two lines.
Also a good way to get nice clean lines is to put tape above and below each caulk line - that takes time. And then you have to take the tape off immediately and smooth it a second time to get a nice clean bead. I typically charge $100 to $175 for a job like this, depending on how many linear feet need to be redone.
between 100 and 200 maybe more since you are in the bay area
The price of this job depends on many factors.
How many beads? Where your beading and does it include the wall? How much cleanup? How labor intensive the job is? Transportation to the location and back?
The type of caulk your using? How bad or large the leak is?What’s your overhead and if your a one company, Etc.
I started caulking as a hobby on the side. I Have three price options: $100 small jobs
Average jobs $150-$175 and large jobs $200+
You can never apply the cookie cutter principle" meaning one-size-fits-all.
Always offer yourself and your customers more than one option.
I just did one and charged a flat rate of $200. Im glad I did cause it took me 90 minutes to remove the old caulk, which looked like it was 3 different layers of caulk with a superglue finish. When im done caulking the tub, I always touch up around the toilet and sink if need be, clean the bathroom so it looks better than when i got there and take all my trash with me and wipe everything down one last time. I do it like that everytime, with a good attitude and a smile. Ive never once been questioned about my price, not once.
Good price $75 - $125
