going rate for tile and carpet removal - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

oldglorydev · 09-11-2008, 11:09 PM

Whats everyones rate for tearing out old ceramic tile per sq foot?(including tile removal and old mortar scraping with demo hammer) Also What is the going rate to take carpet, pad and tack strip out per sq foot?

I have a demo job todo but have never bid this part out?

SLSTech · 09-12-2008, 07:51 PM

What a loaded question - this completely depends on the location, how it was installed, the speed @ which people work, etc...

Using the National Estimator prices (removal only to a dumpster - no dump prices included)
Carpet - $1.15 a Square Yard (.042 hours per yard)
Ceramic Tile - $7.21 a Square Yard (.263 hours per yard) or $1.60 per SF for Ceramic & backerboard removal
Don't forget to add in the rental cost for the Hammer...

As I stated above the price depends on a lot of factors - small hallways, hard to get to places, lots of edges, dumpster hard to get to - the price can go up exponentially.

Hope this helps

Floordude · 09-12-2008, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SLSTech

What a loaded question - this completely depends on the location, how it was installed, the speed @ which people work, etc...

Using the National Estimator prices (removal only to a dumpster - no dump prices included)
Carpet - $1.15 a Square Yard (.042 hours per yard)
Ceramic Tile - $7.21 a Square Yard (.263 hours per yard) or $1.60 per SF for Ceramic & backerboard removal
Don't forget to add in the rental cost for the Hammer...

As I stated above the price depends on a lot of factors - small hallways, hard to get to places, lots of edges, dumpster hard to get to - the price can go up exponentially.

Hope this helps

Guys that slave for retailers here, would kill someone for those prices.

My pricing is actually lower then that when I average it out, but I don't really have a "one price fits all" attitude. I know what I need to stay in business, and make a profit for the business, while still providing me with a living wage to take home and pay my bills with.

rusty baker · 09-12-2008, 08:53 PM

Carpet takeup here is $2 a sq. yd. minimum.

K_Tile · 09-12-2008, 10:20 PM

You would loose your shirt with those prices for tile. We charge $3.00sf for tile removal over concrete. That includes grinding the thinset. We use a Terminator and a 24" concrete grinder for thinset.

Floordude · 09-13-2008, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by K_Tile

You would loose your shirt with those prices for tile. We charge $3.00sf for tile removal over concrete. That includes grinding the thinset. We use a Terminator and a 24" concrete grinder for thinset.

LOL!!!! I just noticed, that isn't $7.21 a foot it is a yard.

Ya, the tile take up is low and about what retailers are paying their employees, but the carpet take up is a lot higher.

.35¢ a yard for carpet take up, if you subcontract to a retail store, here. Not worth it anymore, unless you want to compete with the illegal immigrant crisis.

When I do wood I can get more for taking up the carpet, then the guys putting it down got. How does that figure?? LOL!!! It is way more then $1.15 a yard.
I'm .50¢ a square foot to remove carpet pad and tackstrip, not including haul off and dump fees.

ClassicCarpets · 09-13-2008, 11:26 AM

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ClassicCarpets · 09-13-2008, 11:30 AM

hmmm .. according to the National estimator, the rates weve been paying is just right or to much ....

Carpet T/U has been anywhere between $1 - $2 SY

Floor dude, you charge $4.50 SY to T/U Carpet? That sounds highway robbery ...

PrecisionFloors · 09-13-2008, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClassicCarpets

hmmm .. according to the National estimator, the rates weve been paying is just right or to much ....

Carpet T/U has been anywhere between $1 - $2 SY

Floor dude, you charge $4.50 SY to T/U Carpet? That sounds highway robbery ...

That's the same thing I charge so it must have some merit...we're still signing contracts and getting the work

If the customer feels its a fair price, and they are willing to pay it, then its a fair price....period. It matters not what anyone else thinks. How many times have you bought something, and some jerkoff brags that he bought his for x amount cheaper down the road. Did you reflect back and think that you got ripped off, he got a really great deal, or was he just an asshole stroking his own ego by telling you

.......

We've got to get out of this mentality, that if someone is able to charge more than we are, that they are the ones in the wrong.....maybe they know something you don't

Floordude · 09-13-2008, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClassicCarpets

hmmm .. according to the National estimator, the rates weve been paying is just right or to much ....

Carpet T/U has been anywhere between $1 - $2 SY

Floor dude, you charge $4.50 SY to T/U Carpet? That sounds highway robbery ...

Ya, who are you to dictate my worth to MY clients??? I'm not your employee!!!

What is funny... I could ask more, and get it. Then I charge $125 flat rate to haul off and dump the old.

If you figure the rise in the cost of living and inflation, compared to carpet installation in the late 60's early 70's, Carpet should be paying over $12 a sq.yard to install. So why the big difference in what it should be and what it really is.

Bud Cline · 09-13-2008, 09:48 PM

THOSE BOOKS have never been accurate in my experience. I had tried to use them time and time again and finally gave up years ago, decades ago. Those books are published to sell books. They are for the very inexperienced and young.

ClassicCarpets · 09-15-2008, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Floordude

Ya, who are you to dictate my worth to MY clients??? I'm not your employee!!!

Fork off .. no one told you to be an ass

Floordude · 09-15-2008, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClassicCarpets

Fork off .. no one told you to be an ass

Then don't tell me, I was ripping someone off, because you have underbid it all these years.

kevjob · 09-15-2008, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrecisionFloors

We've got to get out of this mentality, that if someone is able to charge more than we are, that they are the ones in the wrong.....maybe they know something you don't

Well said. Making money is the object of being in business, some I guess are happy competing based on price.

Bud Cline · 09-15-2008, 04:25 PM

You must know your market and you MUST KNOW your operating costs. To ramble-on in the flooring installation business year after year going from job to job and never knowing the big picture of your overall "real costs" is a juvenile mistake. Those books have always been low in my experience. Prices charged in this trade are generally too low as it is across the board. There are way too many fools in these trades and no real businessmen to speak of. NO TWO INSTALLERS ARE ALIKE in more ways than one. Seek out your own clientele, set your own prices. Working for a retailer that dictates an installers prices will hopefully one day be a thing of the past.

I may be one of the highest priced guys around my region. I stay busy and am sought-after. Does that make me a thief? I realize 3 out of every 5 jobs I quote and I don't quote everything that comes my way. I have a difficult time explaining my charges and have to educate every damned customer that comes my way when they hear of the prices being charged by morons that have no idea where they chit last much-less how to track their own costs.

Jerry T · 09-16-2008, 09:16 AM

Well .... I have been getting .65 a sq. ft. (5.85 a sq.yd) for taking up and hauling off carpet . People have been paying that for over two years. My next proposals going out are figured at .75 a sq.ft.

Tile removal is 3-4 dollars per sq. ft.

dokuhaku · 09-21-2008, 01:40 AM

Remove tile floor- $2.00/s.f.
Remove hardwood floor - $2.50/s.f.
Remove carpet+tack-strips - $20/ 100 s.f.

**BuiltByMAC** · 09-21-2008, 08:49 AM

Wow. You guys are amazing. I would've never thought a "What's the going rate" question from a noob would generate this much factual info...

And Classic, get over yourself. You call someone a thief 'cause they charge more than you and then call them an ass when they get in your face? Pathetic...

Mac

Bellsfloors · 09-21-2008, 01:26 PM

As an independent flooring installer/contractor I don't have a written price list for going rate. I look at the project, assess the time and materials in my quote that it will require, add 10% for buffer and give them the estimate. If the quote is accepted then that is the going rate for that particular job.

I learned years ago that many dealers don't have a clue to the actual requirements of a project as to labor costs. With that said I pretty much look at my clients projects and give them the actual requirments of the job and what it will cost them to do it correctly, and ussually not the cheapest way. Ussually the cheapest way is most generally the most ignorant or desperate way to get the sale.