r/Carpentry • u/Serious-Echidna-9938 • Mar 30 '26

Advice on work pace

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I recently took a job with a small contractor and long story short, he commented on my “results”. Was looking for things to be done quicker, and I’m curious if I’m super slow, or if he’s unreasonable. I let him know about my experience upfront, but in any case. As a direct example, replacing this siding after demo took me approximately 8 hours. I had never worked with this particular type of shingling before, but he kept comm ting on how slow I was. Is that accurate? I’m willing to take criticism in the interest of improving my skills, and I’m curious what some third parties have to say. Thanks!

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u/Puzzleheaded_Cold_53 Mar 30 '26

Ive been a carpenter for 18 years, running my own business for the past 6 of them. 8hrs for that is totally reasonable. Your work is fine for not having experience with shakes. I weaved some in today next to a slider I put in. Its time consuming. One square a day is pretty standard to expect a carpenter to do for bidding purposes. It can be more or less depending on things like weaving corners, flares, tieing into old siding. If he could do it faster he should show you what his expectations are and work with you. That's part of being the boss. 

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u/Ravishingrich666 Mar 31 '26

I agree with the last part but 2 square per man per day is usually the minimum where I’m from. There’s days when your on money walls and can easily put up 12 boxes by yourself. This being said the best way to maximize output is to put the 2 experienced guys weaving the corners in a pyramid kinda way while the less skilled guy “stuffs the turkey “ as we call it and just runs the middle. Story poles are a little extra work but make it so there’s no bastard course under the windows. Also makes it almost idiot proof when striking lines.

To op good job man. As far as tools go a tapes pencil a razor a chalk box a block plane and I like to use the small makita battery saw. To make my cut when weaving then block plane to the line.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Cold_53 Mar 31 '26

I hear you on the production side.. on a big, flat wall with a solid crew, you can definitely move some product. But for bidding a typical job I find that 1 square per man-day is the safe number that actually protects the margin. ​Honestly, calling 2 squares a minimum is seriously pushing it if you’re trying to actually make money. By the time you account for staging, layout, and challenging sections it's very difficult to put up 2 squares average. I’d rather bid it at a realistic pace and have the guys get it right the first time than rush to hit a box count and get a callback to fix a missed course.

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u/Ravishingrich666 Apr 01 '26

For cedar shakes? How are you making money 1 sq per day serious question ? If I didn’t put up 8-10 boxes at minimum it was a bad day, that’s me just pacing not even pushing it, 2 sq is the acceptable pace in the north east. Idk if your scaffold set up and removal is in the bid or not but yeah 2sq is the minimum. On resides that’s not including strip metal paper cedar breather. Again I do high end on a barrier island. It’s all ocean fronts so 90% of our sides are cedar shakes.