Can I Get As Much To Tear Up As To Install?

I have recently got involved in a water damage project in a fairly wealthy section of Vermont. The entire first floor done out of 3-3/4" wide 5/8" thick prefinished bamboo has to come out as declared by the insurance adjuster. The house was on the market and is completely empty inside. I first asked the adjuster as to how to price the tear up and he said just send him an invoice.(O.K. I will)
I first had to remove a pocket door (was damaged by water anyway) wall and all. Then had to remove a vanity on the other side of said pocket door. A bar sink with cherry cabinet and granite countertop were also removed as both this and vanity were set on the bamboo. Then I had to remove all shoe and baseboard slitting all the caulk as to not tear the paint from walls. All plinth blocks from bottom of door casing detail, plus baseboard heat covers. All the shoe in the kitchen, thank god the floor didn't run under kitchen cabinets. (Did I mention the home owners are petrified of mold problems with reselling?) Unhook the dishwasher, gas stove and water line to icemaker in fridge, and move all three as floor ran under them. Then I started to rip out the bamboo and the guy who put it down used 1-1/2" staples a lot of 1-1/2" staples. And I quickly found that they didn't use any paper underneath, but they sure used 1/4" luan and nailed it every 4-6 inches both ways. So it took me 2 days to get all this done I still have to get the luan up and pull all staples and nails. I counted one sheet of luan had 150 nails in it. So one 4x8 sheet of luan is 32 sq. ft. 1250 sq. ft. divided by 32 is roughly 39 sheets of luan with on average 150 nails in it. Thats pretty close to 6,000 nails and probably 75% of that number in staples lingering behind from the bamboo. Yep there holding right through pulling up that luan. So about 10,500 nails and screws to pull up, 1250 sq. ft. of luan to pull up.
So long story short . I want to charge $3-$4/sq. ft. to put down the new bamboo. Can I charge near $3/sq. ft. to tear it all up?

Originally Posted by cleveman I'm afraid that your are just going to have to charge some hourly rate for the removal. How long did it take you to do it?