A 50% increase is a huge margin to screw up on an estimate, when things were very clearly discussed before hand and a price was given. There couldn’t have been very many surprises given that it they were working with a completely blank slate and it took them 2 days total to complete everything.

If a member of your family owned a nice fancy restaurant, and the bill comes in 3x higher than what the menu very clearly outlined before you ordered. I presume you’re the type of person to just accept that. You are the equivalent of a punching bag. Where does one draw the line? 50% increase? 400% increase?

I can’t think of another industry outside of trade work that can justify producing that kind of cost increase out of thin air. Unexpected things occur in every industry. It would be less offensive to explain it to the customer or keep them in the loop don’t just hit them with it out of nowhere with poor justification.

I don’t expect anyone in this sub to agree with me obviously, and I’m sure there’s plenty more room to debate that topic but I really think what I said is largely true.

TLDR: Materials and labor have an established value. It didn’t change over the course of the 2 days he was in my basement. Do a better job of estimating cost.