Commissioned a garden memorial in granite, quoted $2,400, spent 11 weeks on it, netted less than the delivery driver who hauled it

Woman wanted a granite memorial bench for her husband's garden. Paid a $600 deposit up front, balance on delivery. I quoted $2,400, thinking that was about right for the material and shape.

Then the granite I wanted had a two-month lead time. Then the supplier raised their price between order and delivery. Then the carving took longer than I told myself it would because the piece had a fault line I had to work around, and I'm not about to hand someone a bench that cracks in its first winter.

Eleven weeks from deposit to install. Two trips to the quarry, one scrapped attempt at a joint, resharpening chisels halfway through because I was too stubborn to stop and do it.

Netted out somewhere around $11 an hour if I count every hour. The guy who delivered it made more, and he didn't have to look at it every day for three months.

I keep telling myself the next one gets priced with the lead time built in. Then I meet a widow who just lost her husband and I quote what the material costs plus a little, because charging her what the job is actually worth feels like taking money off a grave.

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Elin Holm·1w

The delivery driver comparison is the wrong one, I think. The driver did a job in a day and went home. You sat with someone's grief for eleven weeks, worked around a fault line so the bench wouldn't crack on her in a first winter. That's not delivery work. That's not even really carving work. That's care.

But I also don't think you can price care. $2,400 for what you described sounds low to me, and I'd say the real problem is you quoted before you knew the stone or the timeline. The fault line wasn't your fault but it was your risk, and you absorbed it. You probably should've built a buffer into the quote for exactly that kind of thing, because there's always a fault line somewhere.

Sol Reyes·1w

Yeah, this. I kept thinking about the care part. You don't just carve that stone, you carry the whole weight of why it exists. Someone's going to sit on that bench for the next thirty years and think about her husband and your hands are in that every single time. That has a cost even if you can't put a number on it.

But you nailed the real issue too. You can't price the meaning, so you priced the hours, and the hours lied to you. That's the trap. The buffer thing is right, you gotta quote for the version of the job where everything goes slightly wrong, because it always does. Not out of greed. Out of respect for the work, honestly. You undercharge and you end up resenting the piece and that leaks into it somehow.

You did right by her though. The fault line thing, redoing the joint, all of it. She'll never know what went into it and that's kind of the point. That's the job nobody sees.

Roman PetrakOP·1w

Not out of greed, no. But here's the thing I keep coming back to: if I quote for the version where everything goes wrong, I might lose the job. She got other estimates, I know she did. I quoted that number and she sat with it for two weeks before she said yes. People aren't going to pay for my worst-case scenario, they'll find someone cheaper who doesn't know it's a worst-case scenario yet.

And the meaning part. I get what you're saying and I don't entirely disagree. But I've done enough of these to know that if I start pricing the grief into it, I'm not doing anyone a favor. The work has to stand on its own or it's just me charging extra for feelings I can't guarantee I'll deliver. I'd rather undercharge and hand her something solid than overcharge and hand her a story.

Roman PetrakOP·1w

You're not wrong about the price being low, and you're right that I quoted before I knew the stone. That's on me. I priced it like I always price it, on material and hours, and this one had more of both than I'd planned for.

But I'd push back a little on the care part. I don't think caring about the work is some extra thing I did for her. It's the job. If I hand someone a bench that cracks in the first freeze, that's not a caring problem, that's a craftsmanship problem. I'd have scrapped it whether she was grieving or not. Grief doesn't change what the stone owes.

Still. 2,400 was too low. I know it now. Next one gets the buffer built in before I pick up the phone.

Ramesh Jha·1w

Eleven weeks and you are comparing with a delivery driver. Ji, that is not the right comparison. The driver did his job in a day and he was done. You carried that woman's grief in your hands for three months. That bench will sit in her garden for thirty years and every time she looks at it she will remember her husband, and also that someone took care to make it strong and true.

The pricing problem is real, I am not denying. When you work with natural material it never behaves according to your plan. The stone decides. A fault line is not your mistake, it is the stone speaking, and you did right not to ignore it. But the customer is not paying for your trouble, they are paying for the thing. That is the hard truth of our work.

For us in Mithila painting the same thing happens. I tell a price thinking it is fair and then the paper quality goes up, or a colour takes three extra coats, or a festival delays everything. My grandmother used to say the work knows how long it needs and it will not be rushed for your convenience. But we also cannot blame the buyer for that.

Maybe next time add a line in the quote about stone and material changes, so the client knows before. Not to cheat anyone, but so you are not eating the whole risk alone. The woman got a good bench, that is what matters in the end. But you should also get paid properly, that matters too. 🙏

Roman PetrakOP·1w

I appreciate the sentiment, I do. But I don't think of it as carrying grief. I think of it as doing the job right. The grief is hers and I don't need to put it on a pedestal to take care with the work. The care should be there on a garden bench or a mailbox post.

The truth is the comparison to the driver stuck with me because it's uncomfortable. He got paid for his day and I underpriced eleven weeks of mine. That's a pricing problem, not a dignity problem. I don't need the work to mean more than it does. I need it to pay what it's worth.

The fault line though. You said it right there. That's where the hours went and it's not something you can quote for until the stone tells you. I'll give her the bench she's getting regardless. She deserves that. But next time I'm building in a bigger buffer and I'll eat the ones that don't have trouble.