Reasonable to me as a Contractor is you call me,I come out and see what you got going on,I give you a few ideas, I give you a price for your project in writting. You check out my Happy Wallets,look at my workers comp/libality insurance and go with me,or not.

U n Reasonable to me is the guy working out of his 82 ford station wagon, no license,no workers comp,no insurance who will give you a basic price but not with some materials.
Also unreasonable is a wallet that is willing to take the risk of paying labor only, knowing or not knowing that if the driver of that ford cuts off his hand doing the work you told him to do you and your home owners insurance are going to pay big time.

On the other hand,pun defently intended, the man might be ok $15 a sq ft for a preasure treated deck with handrail is about right in a basic kinda way.He might have comp and libality and he might know using trex there is a very good chance you are going to hate it down the road but you bought it so he is completly in the clear.

Over here in Cow Town my basic price starts out at $16 sq ft and can range right on up to a $55 sq ft. The best I have done this Season it being early on is a Com Job with ipe and allum balusters, service for the first 2 years with twp finish>> $95 a sq ft<< Looking Gooooood!!

Dont know a Contractor in MD, You might look in the phonebook and check out the Guys using the above guidelines,also angieslist might be helpfull for info on how there Wallets liked the work. J

If you use a VA contractor in MD, and they do a bad job, you have a problem as they aren't licensed, insured or bonded and you may not be able sue if you have a problem. If you are willing to hire a day laborer, then it might be fine.

Perry's has the "best" selection on decking at their Gaithersburg store (I've been looking) but they don't like to deal with anyone but contractors. We are going through another company for our windows (Smitty's in VA) and Perry's did a week later after I ordered them from Smitty's reduce their price to give me their contractor's price (we are DIY) but it was still $300 more than the other store. I originally tried to get a bid from Perry's and they blew me off. I went to the Gaithersburg store to look at decking and they offered to bid the windows - their initial bid was full MSRP and it took them a week to give me a new estimate even though I told them I needed to order ASAP. Their guys who work in the yard are much more helpful but in the store, their customer service is horrible so don't expect a lot of help or advice.

If you can't get neighbor referrals, I try to use Washington Checkbooks in their neighbor-to-neighbor section but they don't have much for decks.

>> haven't been able to find anyone to do a 4x6 deck for us ... give me their contractor's price (we are DIY) <<

So you'll tackle windows but not a 4x6 deck?

I built fences and decks in the MD/VA/DC area back in the 80's and our basic (#2 py, #1 pt decking) was around $12-15 sqft. The caveat is that the estimate can be highly site specific: access, finished height, size, materials etc. Very few EVER turned out "standard". Customers always wanted: benches, planters, curved sections, cedar decking, electrical outlets ... you get the picture. Please make sure you see and talk with the contractors past customers, both recent (currrent year) and several 2-3year old clients. Our crews changed from year-to-year. They should be licensed/bonded/insured.

Bob

In NC a general contractor's license is required for any project $30,000 & over. Most decks are less than that with the exception of JH's $95/sq ft jobs.

Obviously they should have a business license to be able to conduct business but I don't think you guys are referring to that so which license are you guys talking about?

Regarding " I will have to get my own permit since this contractor is licensed only in VA. Does this sound reasonable? ". Here in NC a person without a general contractor's license can still pull a permit to perform work on another person's house.

All he had to was add his project on the website and they found a perfect contractor for the job. Licensed and insured.

They also bundled his project together with another neighbor close by and it saved them all alot of money. over $1000 each

i used then for my kitchen remodel in md. it was easy to use.

i've had a bad experience with servicemagic poor contractors . They changed their name because of the bad press they got from their customers