I'd agree that pricing will be somewhat dependent on conditions and distance traveled. And if you are a nursery owner, which I believe you are, you need to be cognizant of the fact that you are losing the services of an employee/sales person during the period of time they are offsite, as well as the fact that you are paying their wages during this period. Of course, this may already have been considered if you have a dedicated delivery/planting person. With both the nurseries that I have been associated with, planting was not a service we offered and even deliveries had a fee associated with them, pro-rated as to distance away from the nursery. We simply could not afford to have a staff member away from the nursery for the amount of time involved in planting assorted delivered trees and shrubs. Only you can determine the proper economics of your specific situation, but there is a cost involved to you for offering both these services in terms of lost manhours away from the nursery as well as transportation costs and with the cost of fuel these days, that could be significant. You could make it up by raising the cost of your plants or by charging a fee for such services but you will need to account for it financially in some manner. We offer a referral list of known and experienced landscape contractors who can do the planting for customers. In the Puget Sound area, where I believe you are located, landscape labor (which would cover planting) is generally billed at a minimum of $35 per hour. You could certainly use this a guideline for your rates, factoring in other issues like travel time and transportation costs. Obviously, digging a planting hole and planting a larger tree or shrub will involve more effort and time than a smaller plant. Other issues to consider are any gurantees you might offer on the plant and evaluation of the skill and experience of the person involved doing the planting and how likely you would have to act on the guarantee should the planting not take. Sorry, but it is not a very cut and dried issue :-)

More and more I'm not so afraid for my safety. I'm beginning to realize that the guy has cash flow issues so he fabricated these fees to finish the job without going out of pocket. It won't work. I also sense that he's not making a profit on my job since I reduced the scope (which I'm permitted to do under the contract, by change order - we have no change orders signed but he did credit me for work removed from the scope already), and instead of asking for more money and explaining the situation (which I'd totally respect) he's cheaping out on labor or making up fees. I want him to make a reasonable profit on our job, I don't want him to do things poorly or in an underhanded way. I could be really wrong but I sense that if he thinks he won't get money from me, he is likely to disappear and move on to someone more into paying him. Meanwhile the architect hasn't returned my call/emails from Friday - I guess I needn't be surprised. I don't think I'm letting this guy back in my house, ultimately. I've been setting up appointments for a roofer, plumber, electrician and flooring person to pick up where they left off. I've emailed him proof of deficient or incomplete work so it's documented. Whatever I pay to new contractors I'll document, let him know that neither he nor his electrician were responsive on finishing up so I got my guy as permitted under the contract, and spent x amount. Same with flooring person. I have less of a leg to stand on with a plumber or roofer but yes I'm tired and want it done. As for a roofer, our contractor vented bathroom fans through the roof. And a dryer exhaust cable. In theory good but rain is getting in through the flat roof somehow. Today a roofer I brought in to look, said it's because the vents are unsealed tin, so when I hear rain through the roof in the walls and it sounds like it's in the ducts, it's really just the sound of the rain hitting the tin from the top floor. But there's still water getting into the third floor pipes area somehow, and the roofer said the duct work to the roof isn't quality and is pricing out for us on building a little mini-roof to protect them from direct rain; a plumber said he would do caps of some sort but then you would still hear rain loudly on the tin. My focus now is on protecting my home, and getting 2nd opinions. And 2nd, getting the job done and problem work fixed as needed, hopefully without the problem contractor's involvement anymore. And my 3rd priority is making sure the contractor doesn't defraud me and/or put a lien on my house for non-payment (even if he's ahead of the game and I'm getting a bit of a shaft). And 4th priority is possibly going after the contractor for anything he legitimately owes me in the end. And lastly, moving on. That's my current game plan anyway.

Vegiegardnr- Did you talk to you flooring person about thier hours? Not that it really should need to be any of your concern what it takes to run their business as long as you get the finished product that you are paying for (and of a reasonable quality), but there probably is a lot more to it than you seem to assume. You saw work from 10:30 -4:30 and decided that was lazy. There could have been other work that is necessary to their job that was happening during those "lazy off hours": Meeting other potential clients for quoting work, billing and paperwork for jobs done, billing and paperwork to pay supplier accounts, getting quotes or filling out forms for insurance and/or licensing, filling out forms for employees or past employees that need employment verifications for loans/apartment renting/new jobs, picking up materials for jobs or tool expendables, servicing of their truck or equipment that they use to do the work, researching and/or buying a new piece of equipment, going to a class about a new floor surfacing product, etc.. Based on how you present yourself here it seems you don't view contractors as human beings that "just might" be working hard to try to do good work. There are bad guys out there in all fields of work, but most contractors do not deserve the assumption that they are all just trying to find ways to overcharge and be lazy. Or maybe in your experience those are the only ones you've worked with - because as others have pointed out, contractors look at their potential clients in terms of risk of loss/stress/hassle/not getting paid/not getting sued, and the good self respecting contractors who have a good reputation and referral base don't need to take on risky/unpleasant work and probably steer clear of working with someone with those attitudes. Maybe next time - still protect yourself with reasonable due diligence, but treat the contractor as a human, ask (a reasonable amount) of polite and non judgemental questions if you don't understand where charges come from or why things cost what they do. Maybe then you'll have a better experience with your next contractor and start to shift your views away from assuming they're all bad.

Regardless of whether or not the contractor "deserves" more profit or is going to go out of business, this is probably not allowed. California has some specific requirements for remodeling contracts that help eliminate surprise charges. First, in contracts "cost" has a very specific meaning, it is the amount paid by the contractor after all discounts and rebates. So it is the actual amount of money (or trade value) that the contractor surrendered and not a penny more. Contracts don't have to use the word cost for there to be a legal inference of cost. In California time and materials contracts are prohibited in remodeling projects. This essentially leaves only fixed cost and cost plus contracts available. In most states, including California, a fixed price contract must include the material selections necessary to complete the project. If you then choose to upgrade to a different material then the contractor will initiate a change order for the upgrade and can largely charge whatever you and the contractor agree to before the work starts. A change order, once agreed to, essentially becomes a fixed price addendum to the fixed price contract. However, if some type of allowance is used for materials then that portion of the contract becomes a cost plus. In a cost plus contract, the contractor must charge his actual cost for materials plus the disclosed overhead and profit (often called builder's percentage). So if your contract states 10% for overhead and 10% for profit then the contractor is only allowed to charge his actual cost plus 20%. California has additional requirements to prevent contractors from marking up the job after the contract is signed that are a bit more restrictive than the standard cost plus mechanism described above. My guess, without actually reading the contract, is that since you know the builder's percentage this is not a fixed price contract and the contractor is not allowed to mark up your selection an additional 24%. Again, this is just a guess inferred from the information provided and is not something you should rely on to take action. If you decide to take action start by reading the applicable statutes or finding some resources from the CSLB. As for the going out of business thing... that's not your problem. If your contractor needs to break the law to stay in business then maybe he should consider a different business.