My 1st Deck For The Year And Biggest Effup I Made

rotarex

well i went out and gave a quote, the customer liked it, they wanted me to be the contractor, and was very happy with me, i usually sign 99% of contracts when i meet a client, so nutting new to me, and a small deck like this i do with no payment until im done, oh well im buying the material and im saying to my self, God dam did material price went up, im not going to make anything on this job, so after all material was bought today and dropped on the site, the homeowner said they want to extend the deck now, so i said ok ill let you know what it is in the morning, the cost is $900 for 56 sqft so obvious i charge $16/sqft, i said to my self thats alot for such a small addition, how am i going to tell them $900 for a 5th of the deck when i charged them $3000, after i just calculated the cost of the deck the dam price is $6800..................i am so depressed

so tommoro i am going to tell them my personal messup and let them know, its ok my problem, but for the addition the real cost

__________________
Custom Decks
Custom aquarium all salt water
Renovation
next on my list............planting trees for all those material i used

WarnerConstInc.

I am just going to be quiet, after I say, never price something like that on the spot.

Now my lips are sealed.

Five Star

maybe its late or maybe i missed something..how did you end up at $6800..?

whats the $900 material or the price of the first deck..?

how can you charge by square ft on such a small deck..? just curious..?

to me it sounds like $3000 for the first deck then they added a piece so you told them $900
= $3900..sounds like a fair price. you bid cheap to get in then make it up on extras(contracting 101)

__________________

rotarex

here in Toronto we charge per square foot, some how or the other i left out the second part of the deck

here is the deck 2 levels
top just a walk out 68 sqft
bottom 168 sqft <<<thats the one i left out
plus a privacy fence on the deck plus a fence on the property all charged at what i would charge for such a small job

when i went over my quote i seen that somehow or the other when i calculated i must have been so stressed or something, i missed the 168 sqft, because something like this has never happen to me

i had all this drive to go build this thing, now i feel like crap, but i will still follow through with quality work and make them happy


odd thing tho
the owner said to me, a few of the neighbors wanna meet you tomorrow and see how you do, not like all clients i dealt with dont say that to me but was weird how she said it, maybe they are all thinking god dam this guy is cheap, and doing all the work with no payment gotta see him

__________________
Custom Decks
Custom aquarium all salt water
Renovation
next on my list............planting trees for all those material i used

strathd

Tough situation dude. I have made a few mistakes over the years. Most of them were small scale. And I ate them. This one reminds me of the song Should I stay or should I go.

WarnerConstInc.

Good luck on the collecting payment in full after completion b.s.

I don't care what any one says, if it is going to cost more than 1 grand total, I want $$ up front you dead beats ( not directed to any one at all). If all the neighbors are going to come over and look, just do a ****ty job that looks like they are getting what they paid for, you will get a bunch more decks, that you could just slap up super cheap and move on and never come back.

If I was in your spot, I would quit, walk away and not come back. I couldn't even make my self get in the truck to go lose money.
You should sub it out to a ....., I forget, we have amigo's, what do the Canuck's have? Whatever you call them, sub it to them, I am sure they work for nothing, maybe you could make a little bit then.

Sorry about the rant.

Don't you make drawings and lay things out and make material lists and check prices before you tell them how much it is?

I don't see how you could have missed that part.

Five Star

we here charge sq ft also,but its common knowledge,or i thought ,that the smaller the deck the more the $ per sq..

__________________

TimelessQuality

There was a thread awhile back that explained how to handle this...

Something like respectfully withdrawing your bid, then, when they ask why, explain your mistake.... I have done this, and they really just appreciate your honesty, and will usually let you resubmit.

Either that or do the job at a loss and get the rep as the cheap guy

__________________
-Steve

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." ~ Albert Einstein

A W Smith

You cant really figure cost per square foot for small decks. You will get eaten alive. an 8 x 12 for example is just about as much framing labor as a 12 X 16. Yet you lose the benefit of double your labor/material sq foot price on your 12 X 16 quote. 96sq feet Vs 192sq feet. Always always always break out your material costs and labor.

__________________
Al Smith
http://www.awsmith.com

macatawacab

Any chance of finding some rotten wood that needs to be replaced, or a flashing problem? There must be something wrong with the house that needs fixing right away as long as you are there

Five Star

i think even if you caught it i think you would lose money!

you got 236 sq ft of deck 2 levels @ $16 sq ft...thats $3800 (rounding up for your sake)

im ball parking 1200-1500 material...so your gonna do plans,submit,dig footers,mix concrete, frame get inspections more framing,rails stairs etc. for 2K..ohh asuming you dont pay for a helper.

come down my way i got plenty of work for you here...when you finish that deck ofcoarse!

__________________

rbsremodeling

It wasn't the pricing on the spot per say he missed a section of the deck on the estimate. That can happen anywhere

__________________

strathd

Just remember 5star cost of living in NJ is sky high. Dont know what it is in Toronto though.

WarnerConstInc.

I believe sky high as well.

Five Star

i have relatives there, its not much cheaper, taxes there are over 10%

__________________

WarnerConstInc.

I picked up on that after he made a couple posts but, if you read the first two, lines or, are those sentences, in the initial post, you will see why I very plainly thought that.

Reading it again I still do think that. He had no idea of the material price untill after he gave them a price on the job.

Roterx- Punctuation is your friend and mine as well. Maybe a few paragraphs and some capiltalization.

rbsremodeling

Then he made a big mistake if he did that

__________________

Five Star

The first post he wasnt specific on sizes of the decks, Just said he gave a price on a deck and they added a piece, and the way i followed was he charged 3k for the first deck and was affriad to tell them $900 for a little landing.Something to that effect

__________________

Five Star

And how do you give someone a contract and not take a down payment..even 10%.

Isnt the down payment what turns a proposal into a Contract.?

__________________

WarnerConstInc.

Not if you are Mike Holmes.

I'm sorry, I am not trying to be mean or anything.

I just can't understand how this would happen.
I have screwed up and made something bigger before and accidently made too much money.

Whoever said withdrawl your bid gets a vote from me.