Pricing and Estimate Questions

Body and paint labor is $210 per hour. Mechanical and electrical labor is $260 per hour. Diagnostics are $285 per hour with a one hour minimum, credited toward the repair if you proceed with us. Detail labor is $95 per hour. Materials bill separately: paint supplies at $55 per paint hour, body supplies at $5 per body hour, and a $45 flat hazmat fee. California does not tax labor, so sales tax at 7.75 percent applies only to parts and materials.

Because diagnostic hours produce information rather than parts installed, and the time gets spent by the technicians who cost the most to keep on staff. Tracing an intermittent 12 volt fault through a coach with a factory harness, a dealer installed inverter and two owners worth of aftermarket wiring is slow, methodical work with a meter and a wiring diagram. We charge $285 per hour with a one hour minimum and we credit that hour against the repair if you authorize work with us.

Collision estimates are by appointment and insurance walk ins are welcome. An RV systems estimate is $150 and that amount is credited to your repair. Diagnostics are one hour at $285, also credited. We charge for systems work because writing an honest scope on a slide, a roof or an electrical fault means putting a technician on the coach with tools, not walking around it with a clipboard. Collision teardown, where it is needed, gets quoted separately in writing before it starts.

Parts at $100 or less carry 100 percent markup. Parts over $100 carry 35 percent markup. Special order parts require a 100 percent non refundable deposit, because RV components are frequently model year specific and not returnable once the manufacturer ships them. Sales tax at 7.75 percent applies to parts. Those numbers appear on every estimate as line items, and you can see the supplier quote and the lead time for anything significant we order on your job.

On jobs over $2,000 we collect 50 percent at authorization. On jobs over $10,000 we collect an additional 25 percent when parts arrive, and the balance is due at pickup. Special order parts require a 100 percent non refundable deposit on the part itself, because those components are not returnable. On insurance work the carrier payment usually covers the deposit position, so what you bring at authorization is often just your deductible.

Yes, with one thing to know: card payments over $1,000 carry a 3.5 percent surcharge, which on a $20,000 balance is $700. Most owners pay deposits by card and settle the larger balance by check, cashier check or bank transfer to avoid the surcharge. Insurance drafts are accepted, and if your carrier issues a two party check we walk you through the endorsement. Everything is itemized on the final invoice with labor, parts, materials and tax broken out.

No. Repair labor is not subject to California sales tax. Tax at 7.75 percent applies to parts and to materials such as paint and body supplies. That is why a $30,000 refinish invoice carries a smaller tax line than people expect: the majority of that number is booth and prep hours, not product. It also means comparing two estimates requires looking at how each one splits labor and material, because a shop that buries material inside a labor rate looks cheaper than it is.

Paint supplies bill at $55 per paint hour, so the material charge scales with actual booth and prep time on your job rather than being a guessed flat number. Body supplies bill at $5 per body hour. A hazmat fee of $45 applies once per job. Both material lines are taxable at 7.75 percent. On a full coach refinish running 120 paint hours that is $6,600 of paint material, which is realistic for the volume of primer, sealer, base and clear a 40 foot coach consumes.

It is a $45 flat charge per job covering compliant disposal of what a body and paint shop generates: solvent, gun wash, contaminated filters, sanding residue, spent sealant and used fluids. We hold EPA identification number CAL000367879 and California Bureau of Automotive Repair registration ARD00288521, and both carry documentation and disposal obligations that cost money to satisfy. It is one line, it does not scale with job size, and it appears on the invoice rather than hiding inside a labor rate.

Sometimes, and we will tell you plainly when it is a bad idea. Owner supplied appliances, fans, awning fabric and similar bolt on items are usually workable. We install them, we bill labor, and we stand behind our installation, but the part itself is on you if it fails or arrives wrong. Where we decline is structural components, adhesives, laminates, sealants and anything in the water sealing path, because we cannot vouch for a bond line built from a product we did not specify.

Surface area and access. A 40 foot Class A carries roughly six to eight times the paintable area of a sedan, and none of it is a removable panel you can hang on a rack. Masking a coach means the roof, windows, awning rails, slide seals, marker lights, graphics and every sidewall penetration. Then there is substrate: gelcoat and laminated fiberglass need different prep than sheet metal. Add multi stage graphics replication, and 120 paint hours at $210 plus $55 material is what it costs.

Full refinish runs $5,000 to $35,000 and up. A 24 foot Class C in a single stage color with simple graphics lands near the bottom. A 43 foot diesel pusher in a multi stage metallic with four color airbrushed graphics lands at the top or past it. The variables are length, number of colors, graphic complexity, how much substrate repair the coach needs first, and whether the roof gets coated. Color match blending on a partial repair is separate at $500 to $5,000 and up.

Flooring and subfloor work runs $500 to $8,500, and broader water damage repair runs $750 to $15,000 and up. What sets the number is how far the moisture traveled. A single soft spot at the entry door, caught early, is a localized panel replacement. A soft floor running from the door to the slide usually means the lower sidewall, the outriggers and often the wall framing are involved. We map it with a moisture grid and thermal imaging before quoting so the number holds.

Mechanism work is $500 to $8,500 and up depending on system: a Schwintek motor and controller sits low in that band, a hydraulic ram and pump on a large living room slide sits high. Seals run $400 to $3,000. Toppers run $450 to $1,800. A full slide room rebuild, where the floor or the face has water damage, runs $1,500 to $7,500. Most slide complaints we see are alignment and timing rather than a failed motor, which is why diagnosis comes first.

Membrane replacement runs $3,500 to $18,000 and up. The spread is length, how many penetrations get reflashed, and how much decking has to be replaced underneath. A 26 foot trailer with sound decking and four penetrations sits near the bottom. A 40 foot coach with two air conditioners, three vents, a skylight, a satellite dome and soft decking over the slide sits near the top. Recoat and reseal, where the membrane itself is still sound, runs $750 to $4,500 and up.

Fiberglass cap repair runs $750 to $12,000. Cap replacement runs $4,500 to $25,000 and up. Repair wins when the laminate is cracked but the substrate and the structure behind it are intact, because a properly ground, layered and refinished repair is invisible and strong. Replacement wins when the cap is shattered across a compound curve, when mounting flanges are torn, or when structure behind it moved. Molded caps are also model year specific, so availability sometimes decides the question for us.

Delamination repair runs $1,500 to $20,000 and up. A small bubble on a slide face, injected and clamped, is a low four figure job. A sidewall where separation runs from the roof line to the belly molding across two window openings means the outer skin comes off, the substrate gets replaced, the wall gets relaminated under pressure and the whole side gets refinished. That is the top of the band. We map the boundary by tapping and thermal survey before quoting, not by eye.

RV windshield replacement runs $2,500 to $7,500 installed. One piece and two piece Class A glass is a low volume item, often model specific, and it is bonded and gasketed into a structure that has to be square before the glass goes in. On a coach that has been in a front end collision we measure and correct the opening first, because setting new glass in a racked opening is how you get a stress crack in six weeks and a leak in twelve.

Yes, and we will tell you what order makes engineering sense rather than what makes the invoice smallest. Structure and water sealing go first, always, because both compound if you defer them. Cosmetics, interior and comfort items can wait. We will write the job in phases with real numbers on each phase so you can plan across two seasons. What we will not do is close a coach up with an open leak path and call that phase complete.

Because the first number was written from outside the vehicle and the second was written from inside it. On a laminated structure the visible damage is typically ten to forty percent of the total. What surfaces at teardown is separation spreading past the strike point, superstructure tubing bent behind sound looking skin, racked slide openings, and roof seams opened at the corner. Nobody sees those through a panel. That is exactly why we tear down before finalizing a plan rather than after.

Fabric alone runs $400 to $2,500 depending on length, whether it is vinyl or acrylic, and whether it is a patio, window or slide topper unit. Arm and motor work runs $500 to $3,500, which is where a powered awning with a damaged roller tube, gearbox or control board lands. Slide toppers run $450 to $1,800. If the awning tore because an arm ripped out in wind, budget for sidewall repair too, because the mounting rail usually takes wall structure with it.

Solar systems run $1,500 to $12,000 and up. Battery work runs $500 to $5,500 and inverters run $750 to $4,500. A 400 watt roof array with a modest controller feeding existing lead acid batteries is a low four figure job. A 1,200 watt array with a 600 amp hour lithium bank, a 3,000 watt inverter charger, a DC to DC charger from the alternator and a new distribution panel is the top of that range. Electrical labor bills at $260 per hour.

The $150 RV systems estimate and the $285 diagnostic hour are credited only if you proceed with us. If you take the estimate elsewhere those charges stand, because a technician spent that time on your coach. Collision estimates by appointment do not carry that charge. If teardown was required to write the scope, teardown labor at $210 per hour is billable whether or not you proceed, and we quote those hours in writing before we start.

We are a repair facility, not a lender, so we do not carry paper in house. Our structure is 50 percent at authorization on jobs over $2,000, an additional 25 percent when parts arrive on jobs over $10,000, and the balance at pickup. Many owners use a home equity line, a credit union RV loan or a card, keeping the 3.5 percent surcharge over $1,000 in mind. We will also phase a large job across two seasons so the spend lands where you can carry it.