When hiring someone to work on your house, do you tip them? for instance, you hire someone to do some yard work and repair a fence and the charge is $500.00. Do you give them a percentage above that?
I never heard of doing that. You don’t tip plumbers or electricians for sure.
Guys that deliver appliances and especially if they’re taking an old one, I tip.
We have a crew that comes out and helps with yard work a few times a year. We hire the owner, who brings 2 or 3 guys. We tip the guys.
thanks, i wasn’t sure of the protocol.
My understanding is that you don’t tip the business owner. So if the plumber who fixes your clog is a sole proprietor, you don’t tip, but if they’re the employee, you do.
No, not a contracted job like that. If you felt someone has gone above and beyond what they agreed to do it’s the decent thing to do to pay them more. And once I felt I was cheating a guy by negotiating too low of a price so when he was done I tossed in a couple hundred more. You don’t want the irony of karma catching up with you on stuff like that. But basic contracted jobs don’t need tipping.
I never tipped a contractor, but I treated them well. The guy who did our roof and later siding/windows preferred cash over checks so we always went along with that. We had beer/juice/bottled water in our refrigerator, showed him it, and told him we stocked it specifically for him and his crew.
When our roofer missed something that needed done, adding an extra day’s labor, we insisted on paying for it. Actually had to argue a bit to get him to take the money.
I also have referred contractors to friends looking for reliable workers. We actually got a thank you card in the mail over a referral or two.
+1
But I do offer them a drink.
And you let them use the toilet.
(If you’re too poor to have a servant’s bathroom you’re too poor to have airs about others use your toilet. If you are really germaphobic and too snobby to scrub you specify a porta-potty and you pay for it)
We tipped the interior painter, he did the whole interior and did minor repairs. The packers and movers that moved us cross country, we bought them food and soft drinks.
We always offer soft drinks to any worker who comes over for a bit.
I’ve tipped a service person when they went above and beyond – my water heater went out and I called a specific guy and he came right over and replaced it that afternoon - but in the form of “here’s $$, let me buy you and your helper a nice lunch to say thanks”. That sort of thing.
And yes, workers outside my home on a hot day, I put out sodas and let them use the john etc. Share beers with the movers after hauling my entire contents inside (after checking with the moving boss first).
I think the last time I tipped in a home repair/installation situation was when we first moved here, and I arranged for satellite internet installation.
The technician informed me that there was an apparently usable hookup for a phone company’s internet service and that I could probably do better with them. I gave him a nice tip for saving me some grief (and money).
We had a young man over to dig a hole for us. He did a great job and we gave him extra money and a pre-rolled joint. He wasn’t a contractor or anything, he was just a young person who wanted to make 40 bucks.
I normally don’t tip trades people (and I used to be one). They make a good wage and are doing the job they’re paid to do. That said, I did tip the guys who refinished our floors recently. He did more than was contracted for and took extra measures to insure a good job.
Never tipped any workers or delivery guys, but we’ve never had anything weird or particularly difficult involved. If our new mattress had to be hauled up 2 flights of stairs, maybe, but we live in a ranch house, so there were all of 3 steps up from the driveway into the front door.