sourkrause

Hi everyone. I am new to this site and am hoping that someone will finally be able to help me with a problem. I am a wallcovering contractor here in CA and trying to make the transition from primarily residential to primarily commercial. I have been bidding jobs but got stuck when it comes to prevailing wage. I understand the concept, but don't know how to get started or how to qualify to begin bidding. If someone can leet me know what steps I need to take to begin pursuing these projects, can you please fill me in.

Bob Kovacs

There shouldn't really be any "steps to follow" unless the particular project requires you to hold a license or certificate in order to bid on that work (many government agencies require this). Otherwise, you simply need to get a copy of the prevailing wage rates and benefits costs for paperhangers in your county, and make sure to use those rates when preparing your bid. Once you win the job, be prepared to provide certified payroll to prove that you're paying the proper amounts, so make sure you include $$ in your bid for the additional paperwork and accounting time.

K2

Find out what wht projects are up foir bid. That should be public info posted somewhere, ( contracts office), on the military base etc, etc. Find out what gc's are bidding on the projects and contact them. Find a retired contracts man that represented that base and see if he/she might consult you. I thew an ad in the paper one time for an experienced govt. contracts person and got a lot of response and a lot of free advice. .. As a gc there are lots of hoops, half of which you can ignore, and the other half you had better get right.

JSC

The only difference between PW jobs and others is the hourly rate, and the nuisance factor of paperwork and jobsite interviewers stopping your crew and asking them questions about their pay rate, etc. The pay rate for your craft is usually part of the job documents, but may also be obtained on the Dept of Labor website. Overtime rates are strictly enforced, as are proper work classification rates. A word of advice: If there is a labor rate change at any time for the duration of the job, you will have to pay the higher rate from then on.

K2

Prevailing wage is not always something to write home about as is the case in my city. With no Union presence for certain trades around here the PW is researched and set off the existing non union scale which ain't much. For painters, paper hangers, drywallers, and grid guys, pw is at about 16 to 18 bucks an hour. The local trades where there is at least some union presence, (therefore setting the pw), the pw is double or triple. ... Disgraceful in my opinion. ... People that complain about unions should come to Non-Unionsville and see how they like it.

knucklehead

Wow! I just bid to frame a fire station and the scale for carpenters is 48.00.Which is about twice what I normally pay. So that is how I bid it. I figured what I would normally do it for , then doubled that plus an extra couple of grand for redtape.

cleveman

Look up the bid tabs on old jobs and bid accordingly.

Bid a small job first and bid it to get it. If you get it and lose money on it, at least you will know what it takes the next time. And the next time you won't lose money on a big job.

easymoney

Yeah I like Knucklehead's method best, another thing to remember... you'll be out of pocket for about 90 days, A project we worked on some 10 years ago, took 120 days to be paid in full, man when people talk about "red tape" they mean it. plan for the worst, and if you don't think you have the capital... best not start the job, your not likely to be able to get an emergency 'bailout' if you get in trouble! -- sure fire way to go under quick and painful!

K2

That's not true in all cases. I know some projects that can get paid 15 days from completion and I know of some subs that get weekly draws from the gc.