Total newbie question regarding welding costs 1

[Kyle123456]

Sorry for what is probably an absolute no brainer for most of you folk.

I am getting a galv steel balustrade welded, the top rail is about 2" wide, and the bottom about 1" wide, so each section will take about 8" total welding (top, bottom and sides). There's a good number of them (14 welds in all), so I'd think travel and setup time would be a smaller part of the total cost (which is estimated to be $7-800 for about 56" of total welding)

I am being told that to arc weld this, it'll be about $100 a section, or $12.50 and inch. This seems absolutely crazy to me, but then again, I don't know what I am doing.

Thoughts? Am I being ripped off blind because they think they can, or is this really what it costs to weld?

Thanks!

 

[racookpe1978]

The ornamental fence and gate ironworkers around charge $45.00/foot for 48 - 52 inch tall iron baluster custom fences and gates: Welded, fabricated, vertical solid balusters (1/2 x 1/2 steel bars or rods usually) with bent, twisted, or curved special pieces as desired. That's standard black or white enamal paint - costs more for powder coating each section, installed into concrete post bases or through concrete driveways and curbs.

Now, cheap hollow aluminum or bent sheet metal Home Depot or Lowes cut-off-by-the-foot-Chinese imports are cheaper than that. But they are also standard cheap bent sheet metal imports.

 

[Duwe6]

The welds are indeed fairly cheap to make; the time and $$$ is in the fitting of the pipes to each other, coping out each piece to mate seamlessly, the layout and fixturing of the panels to keep them straight and in-line with each other [handrails are really easy to make 'wavy' and esthetically unacceptable].

Get a competing bid from an Architectural and Decorative Iron fab shop, one that specializes in stairs and handrails.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Note that someone has to grind off the zinc before welding, to prevent 'metal fume fever' and to assure the integrity of the weld, and someone has to finish the completed weld with a zinc rich primer or something similar.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Kyle123456]

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough in my description. The galv steel balustrade is already made, and in place. The problem is that it was cut into sections due to weight, so the sections need to be welded together where they were cut. The only bits that need welding are the top and bottom rails, so about 8" of weld per section, a total of seven times, making 56" of welding. Nothing else needs welding together on this. Thanks tons!

 

[berkshire]

If you are not locked in to one contractor, you might shop around a little as Duwe6 says. The $7 to $800 figure quoted sounds a little on the high side, but that is only 7 or 8 hours work at most contractors shop rates these days.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[tbuelna]

Look at it from the standpoint of the welding contractor. This guy has to travel to the job site, bring his own equipment, supply his own consumables like weld rod and gas, supply his own electrical power, make sure all of the weld joints are prepped correctly, and then make the welds. Being a self-employed contractor, he also has to pay for business costs like liability and workers comp insurance, insurance for his vehicle and equipment, federal self-employment taxes, business license fees, etc.

If you pay him $700 for a day's work, he'll be lucky if he manages to keep half of that amount after paying taxes and business costs. Would you be willing to invest the huge amount of money to purchase the equipment he has, and then put in the effort to find enough work each week to keep your business from going broke, making $700 two or three days per week?

On the other hand, you can probably find a decent used arc welder on E-bay for less than $700, and you can do the welding work yourself.

 

[Metalfixer]

tbuelna wrote:
>>>>>>Look at it from the standpoint of the welding contractor. This guy has to travel to the job site, bring his own equipment, supply his own consumables like weld rod and gas, supply his own electrical power, make sure all of the weld joints are prepped correctly, and then make the welds. Being a self-employed contractor, he also has to pay for business costs like liability and workers comp insurance, insurance for his vehicle and equipment, federal self-employment taxes, business license fees, etc.<<<<<<
Thanks tbuelna,
I would also add weather and job site conditions to the list, I work in Michigan, and often have to work in cold and not so clean job sites where equipment needs welding.
Welding looks so easy to someone who has never welded before, until they try to weld for themselves. $7-800 depends on how the rails line up, I know the rails are in place, but
that doesn't always mean ready to weld, clamping might be needed, gaps, slight twisting, height differences . Call another contractor, and get another quote.

 

[BUGGAR]

Probably a day's work. Or at least it will likely be bid that way since the welder will not be able to do any other work that day. Welder only makes, say $30 per hour ($60,000 per year) times a multiplier of 3 (low for a portable welding setup plus shop) so yer payin' $90 per hour times 8 hours = $720.

Sometimes ya just gotta face reality!

 

[Guest102023]

Welding costs are never a no-brainer!

"If you don't have time to do the job right the first time, when are you going to find time to repair it?"