What's a fair rate for a TIG welder?

awheelterd

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2007
Location
Kenly, NC
Had a crucial piece of equipment go down past week and needed some welding done. SS so I'm out. I can burn rods but I can't tig worth a darn. My regular guys whole crew is out with covid. I call a guy who used to work for him and he is available, cool. He comes the first day for a few hrs and leaves. Next day he shows up late, works a few hours and leaves. Same for Friday except he is way late and won't answer calls or texts, knowing we're down and in a bad way. Sat he ghosts me until 2pm. Finally shows up, but does help us until we finish at 10pm. He comes back today to get his welder and I ask him if he has a time sheet and a bill. He says nah I didn't really keep up with my time. Wtf? So I'm figuring up how long he worked and gave him some favorable spots when neither of us could remember exactly when he got there (bc he never showed up when he was said he would). We get to what rate we would pay off of and I suggested 45 or 50. He acted like I slapped him in the face. He said he normally gets 85 - 90 doing handrails and shit. Damn knocked me back a minute. I countered that his old boss who runs a whole welding company only charges me 50 for a welder. Keep in mind this is one dude who works out of a shop at his house, not a high overhead operation. He is no special welder either, just a dude that was taught on the job to tig. No schooling, no certs just a guy that was taught to melt metal together. He didn't provide any materials. All my metal and he even used my argon bc the little tank he brought was almost empty when he started the first day. Hell, he probably doesn't even know the science of metals. I told him that 65 was the most I would do and I was only paying that once. Im done with him. Am I a cheap ass or is he a uppity shit who thinks he's worth way more than he really is.
 
Not really enough details to answer honestly. I’d personally say Any where from $35/hr to $175/hr. Just depends on what all it is, and entails. Also after hours/weekend is higher $ unless it’s know up front that it’s not.
The more brain or braun that has to be used the more $$$.

If it took me ten years to learn the trick that saves me 9hrs to make it a 1 hr job..... typically get paid for the job not by the hr.

if someone brings me something clean, no prep, and it takes 5 mins to put a 2-10” of weld on, I’ll typically call it even at $20/$40 or more often trade it for a favor if I ever need one.
If I have to prep, clean, fab, or go to remote location, after hours, to fix some cobbled junk under duress and needs to be done yesterday...$$$$
 
Dude fuck that. $50 tops if he used all your stuff, not to mention going on his own time. When you’re working for someone else, time is money. He should’ve been more punctual on time and stuff. Pay what you said and go kick rocks. It’ll all come out in the wash.
Most pipeliners get ~$30/hr plus $15/hr truck and then per diem... you’re getting raped IMO
 
Mac5005 said:
Not really enough details to answer honestly. I’d personally say Any where from $35/hr to $175/hr. Just depends on what all it is, and entails. Also after hours/weekend is higher $ unless it’s know up front that it’s not.
The more brain or braun that has to be used the more $$$.

If it took me ten years to learn the trick that saves me 9hrs to make it a 1 hr job..... typically get paid for the job not by the hr.

if someone brings me something clean, no prep, and it takes 5 mins to put a 2-10” of weld on, I’ll typically call it even at $20/$40 or more often trade it for a favor if I ever need one.
If I have to prep, clean, fab, or go to remote location, after hours, to fix some cobbled junk under duress and needs to be done yesterday...$$$$
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I got the feeling it was a quick 4 hr job and dude just drug his feet. No cert/wasn’t a code weld. Could be wrong though.
 
I don't understand why you would be negotiating a rate after the work is done.
 
Over the course of 4 days it was 18.5hrs total. Not 18.5 hrs of good time though. The Saturday work would not have been so much.... if he had shown up on time the other 3 days. He would show up, weld some pieces then take off to take care of family business then come back a few hours later to finish. He did that twice. Like I said, none of this was code/cert work. He's nothing special, most of his work is handrails and excavator buckets. His old boss who I always use does the pharma stuff, hospital stuff and other food plants. They won't let this dude in the door because he doesn't have his old bosses name on his shirt anymore. I was in a bind and he tried to make a week's worth of pay off of me.
 
Ok, I'll be that guy.

For our guys, I wouldn't get out of bed to even dispatch one of my guys for $80/hr much less $45. I dont know how a man can stay in business billing $45/hr for mobile work. He also should be billing you travel time to your shop. My guys get paid travel both ways.

If he is licensed, insured, and actual business even working out of his house - anything less than $90/hr his work better suck.
 
awheelterd said:
Because I had no idea he thought he was worth double what he used to be. Ha
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Maybe I'm an asshole... but shouldn't you ask what his rate is BEFORE you hire him? Or tell him what it will be, etc.

Just seems like at this point you're both gonna be disappointed because neither did what they should have done before anything started...
 
Ron said:
Ok, I'll be that guy.

For our guys, I wouldn't get out of bed to even dispatch one of my guys for $80/hr much less $45. I dont know how a man can stay in business billing $45/hr for mobile work. He also should be billing you travel time to your shop. My guys get paid travel both ways.

If he is licensed, insured, and actual business even working out of his house - anything less than $90/hr his work better suck.
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And the key difference here is, you and your guys are operating like a real business. Actually accounting for costs . Considering overhead, supplies etc... bc that's all part of the service.
And I bet you're clear with the customer on what that cost is gonna be, too...
 
RatLabGuy said:
Maybe I'm an asshole... but shouldn't you ask what his rate is BEFORE you hire him? Or tell him what it will be, etc.

Just seems like at this point you're both gonna be disappointed because neither did what they should have done before anything started...
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nah - wheelturd is over a barrel.
Dude's work is done - mechanic's/contractors lien is easy to get in NC...and this threads existence could be exhibit A....
Lets say he wants $250/hr...at 18 hours. Wheelturd aint going to let his business go for $4k.
 
I understand what you are all saying. I left myself open to this and I realize it now. I have known this guy a while and honestly never would have thought he would come at me with 85-90. My ammonia refrigeration techs are 90 and I feel like what they do is very specialized.
 
For comparison our PG guys are $135 regular time - double nights and Saturdays and 2.5X on Sunday or Holidays.
If its MV that jumps to $225.
 
awheelterd said:
My ammonia refrigeration techs are 90 and I feel like what they do is very specialized.
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And is that what you pay them (their take home) - or what you as a company would charge somebody else for their time?
There's a huge difference. If a guy is your employee (or, yeah, 1099 etc) then the only cost to you is their time.
If the guy is a contractor/contracted labor, then you're going to be paying his hourly, plus the cost of his benefits, plus the cost of his company's overhead for managing him and providing his supplies etc. And that overhead really adds up.
In this case if this guy walked in off the street operating as self employed / contracted rate, AND was calculating his rates and costs right you'd be paying the latter.

I know for me what I actually get in salary and benefits is less than half of what is charged for my time.
 
RatLabGuy said:
And is that what you pay them (their take home) - or what you as a company would charge somebody else for their time?
There's a huge difference. If a guy is your employee (or, yeah, 1099 etc) then the only cost to you is their time.
If the guy is a contractor/contracted labor, then you're going to be paying his hourly, plus the cost of his benefits, plus the cost of his company's overhead for managing him and providing his supplies etc. And that overhead really adds up.
In this case if this guy walked in off the street operating as self employed / contracted rate, AND was calculating his rates and costs right you'd be paying the latter.

I know for me what I actually get in salary and benefits is less than half of what is charged for my time.
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What their company bills me for their time.

I completely understand how benefits, insurance, overhead etc add up. I would have expected the higher price from the big company, not the one man show is all.
 
Drunktaco said:
I got the feeling it was a quick 4 hr job and dude just drug his feet. No cert/wasn’t a code weld. Could be wrong though.
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I get the same feeling. But to a degree it doesn't matter. I have stopped doing work for folks who use the "it's nothing speacial" jargon. All I here is a I need it cheap and fast. This doesn't fit me anymore. I'm not expensive by choice but my overall quality will always be the best I can muster. Sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's not so quick of a turn around.
Mobile anything is more expensive. Mobile GTAW is more so just by nature. Quality back purged SS is another world of cost and time. The three are highly different in cost and billing rates.
Bottom line for me is if he was using your equipment an hourly rate like a hired laborer would fit. If the equipment was brought to the party minimum double the rate of an hourly guy.
Ratlab hit it on the head, the discussion was way late and non professional. The work attendance reflected the nature of the arrangement.

Edit: I have a unique situation of work and personal business. One pays well, the other pays "better", in that order. Having been self employed in the past and been around for a good bit has its perspectives. Folks doing work that is not cash direct billing to companies in the sub 50 dollar an hour category are one or two categories. One, a side gig hobby. Two, a never to be independent successful standalone business identity.
 
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@awheelterd do you have pics of what he did? Or better description of what he had to fab/weld/fix? Just trying to get a better idea of specifically it was he had to do for context?

what I’m asking, is/was there a lot of required wait and cool time between welds or sections of a weld required?
Are we talking 1/2” .010” ss tubes in a heat exchanger, 1/16” plate, 1/4” plate, 2/4/6” ss pipe, etc?
 
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Mac5005 said:
@awheelterd do you have pics of what he did? Or better description of what he had to fab/weld/fix? Just trying to get a better idea of specifically it was he had to do for context?
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Sure, after reading yours and @WARRIORWELDING posts I felt like some additional info would be helpful. I'll take some pics in a few minutes when I get out of the office. All the welding work was plating over conveyor track. Bottom track was 24 pieces, ~20" long, all taken out of the machine by me and my people and he bench welded them in my shop. The plating was just 1"x 1/8" SS flatbar that we provided. 4 - 1" welds on each side of flatbar and 1" weld on either end. We cleaned them up and smoothed down welds when he was done. The top track was one continuous piece of flatbar on each side that we pulled out and he welded another piece of 1" x 1/8" flat on top of. The only other welding was tack welding (fusion, no filler) bolt heads to the frame so they wouldn't back out during the heat and cool cycle of the equipment. The tack welding maybe took 45mins. He stayed after the welding was done to help us pull the new conveyor chain onto the repaired track.

After reading you and @WARRIORWELDING posts, I'm going to pay him what he wants because honestly, the money isn't worth bad blood with him.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
I get the same feeling. But to a degree it doesn't matter. I have stopped doing work for folks who use the "it's nothing speacial" jargon. All I here is a I need it cheap and fast. This doesn't fit me anymore. I'm not expensive by choice but my overall quality will always be the best I can muster. Sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's not so quick of a turn around.
Mobile anything is more expensive. Mobile GTAW is more so just by nature. Quality back purged SS is another world of cost and time. The three are highly different in cost and billing rates.
Bottom line for me is if he was using your equipment an hourly rate like a hired laborer would fit. If the equipment was brought to the party minimum double the rate of an hourly guy.
Ratlab hit it on the head, the discussion was way late and non professional. The work attendance reflected the nature of the arrangement.

Edit: I have a unique situation of work and personal business. One pays well, the other pays "better", in that order. Having been self employed in the past and been around for a good bit has its perspectives. Folks doing work that is not cash direct billing to companies in the sub 50 dollar an hour category are one or two categories. One, a side gig hobby. Two, a never to be independent successful standalone business identity.
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I didn't mean to use the "nothing special" comment flippantly. I meant that as that it wasnt pressure vessel work or anything that needed a certification to do, just laying some beads.
 
awheelterd said:
Sure, after reading yours and @WARRIORWELDING posts I felt like some additional info would be helpful. I'll take some pics in a few minutes when I get out of the office. All the welding work was plating over conveyor track. Bottom track was 24 pieces, ~20" long, all taken out of the machine by me and my people and he bench welded them in my shop. The plating was just 1"x 1/8" SS flatbar that we provided. 4 - 1" welds on each side of flatbar and 1" weld on either end. We cleaned them up and smoothed down welds when he was done. The top track was one continuous piece of flatbar on each side that we pulled out and he welded another piece of 1" x 1/8" flat on top of. The only other welding was tack welding (fusion, no filler) bolt heads to the frame so they wouldn't back out during the heat and cool cycle of the equipment. The tack welding maybe took 45mins. He stayed after the welding was done to help us pull the new conveyor chain onto the repaired track.

After reading you and @WARRIORWELDING posts, I'm going to pay him what he wants because honestly, the money isn't worth bad blood with him.
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So he is doing this off the books, using your shop and your bench and even some of your gas, and you had to grind the welds down afterwards?
 
awheelterd said:
Sure, after reading yours and @WARRIORWELDING posts I felt like some additional info would be helpful. I'll take some pics in a few minutes when I get out of the office. All the welding work was plating over conveyor track. Bottom track was 24 pieces, ~20" long, all taken out of the machine by me and my people and he bench welded them in my shop. The plating was just 1"x 1/8" SS flatbar that we provided. 4 - 1" welds on each side of flatbar and 1" weld on either end. We cleaned them up and smoothed down welds when he was done. The top track was one continuous piece of flatbar on each side that we pulled out and he welded another piece of 1" x 1/8" flat on top of. The only other welding was tack welding (fusion, no filler) bolt heads to the frame so they wouldn't back out during the heat and cool cycle of the equipment. The tack welding maybe took 45mins. He stayed after the welding was done to help us pull the new conveyor chain onto the repaired track.

After reading you and @WARRIORWELDING posts, I'm going to pay him what he wants because honestly, the money isn't worth bad blood with him.
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gotcha. Makes more sense now and thanks for the response. That sounds a lot more like $50/hr and below type
Work. Especially considering y’all did the prep, fit up, and post work. He shouldn’t be trying to charge for the hours he “helped” outside of welding and part of what y’all were capable of doing during the reinstall/reassembly unless you needed that assistance.

General labor is one rate, shield time is different.

Fwiw, I wouldn’t hesitate to swap to stainless wire in the mig, and squirt gun that stuff. Especially if it’s going to be ground afterwards. Not for everything but if you are ever in that predicament again, saves 10x the time and potentially cost.
 
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