Newby With A Newby Question About Decks

chrisgood

hi, i have been doing construction for a few years and stopped a while back to go to school. i'm out of school for the time being and during my search for a job, i was introduced to somebody that needs a deck built, a room addition, and some flooring replaced.

i've always worked under somebody, so they took care of the buisness end of things. i'm looking for a price range to charge for my labor. i've always enjoyed construction work and may take on my own business if all goes well with this first job. always wanted to be self employed.

what i'm looking at first is the deck. it will be a simple pt design 36" high measuring 8X12, and tied onto 2 existing walls. i will be coming up from blocks with my foundation. she has already purchased the materials and will gladly get anything else needed. the stairs are already there, i'll just be moving them from the doorway and attaching them to the deck. the railing is pre fabbed also.

i'm basically looking for a good base for labor costs in south texas region. a sq. ft. price would work fine for me. i'll look further into the cost of the other projects at a later time to keep things simple.

DecksEtc

Chris, if you read old posts when it comes to people looking for quoting help you'll see that it's very hard for people in other areas to give you specifics. I would suggest that you start with what you made as an employee and add on from there. Since you are now "the boss" you need to consider what your overhead is and make sure you are compensated accordingly. You say the customer has provided most of the materials. Things to consider are your fuel costs, consideration for you supplying the necessary tools, etc. Do you have to take the time to pick up the "missing" materials? If so, you should be paid for your time to pick them up.

Hope this helped.

IHI

Real simple and quick, material cost= labor cost. That will get you going in the right direction, but until you do and bid actual jobs, be prepared for a rough start figuring it all out and KNOW you will lose money initally...been there done that Not too many seasoned guys are willing to give ouot much info on pricing since we all had to learn from the school of hard knocks...not too many free rides being in business for yourself unfortuneatly.

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nadonailer

I used to try and figure out what I'm worth per hour and then go through each project, do a detailed breakdown and figure as best I could how many of my hours it would take. Its more time consuming than using a flat per sq ft rate, but will be an eye opener for you and fairly accurate.

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RobertCDF

I have been refining mine down to a sq ft price based upon previous work and the amount of time spent on each and I find this works well now. My last job was withing 200-300 of the other bids. That is the closest I have been yet. But it has taken almost 2 years to get to my sq ft price. I used to spend 2-3 hours breaking down EVERY LITTLE item. But now I can give someone a rough idea on the spot and it helps a lot then I dont waste as much time on tire kickers.

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IHI

Bad part is that it's taken that long to get a base sq/ft price figured out and I'll bet that's for a "standard" type build? I had the bull by the horns a few years ago with many of my bids by the sq ft for standard work, and it seems these last few years I can throw all that out the window, everything I've bid has been alot more complex be it material, labor, or sub work needed to complete it...I just wanna bid some normal jobs again to get my sanity back

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casey344

I'll second that idea ... it seems nobody ever orders the same job after I have the sq ft price figured out.

chrisgood

thanks for all the replies. i was told by a local contractor that around 7/sq is a average low around me for this type of work. i think i'm going to go ahead and do it at 5/sq just to lock in the job and charge her closer to average on the home addition.

DecksEtc

You're going to charge $480 for the deck? No offense, but I wouldn't get out of my truck for that. What rate are you going to charge for installing the railings? What are you going to charge for moving the stairs (it isn't as simple as just removing them and screwing them into the new location)? Don't say you're going to include that in the sq. ft. price.

$7/sq. ft. may be the low end but I'll bet there aren't many contractors in your area will to A.) take on a small job like this one B.) a job that the homeowner is supplying all the materials for and C.) do it without charging a "small job" premium above the sq. ft. price.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do but you really should make sure you're compensated for your skills, tools and time.

nailbanger138

First, nadonailer is right on. Bidding by the square fott is a good process, but you have to have a ton of experience. Check out my post about bidding. If I happen to bid byt the square foot on a house I only use that formula for basic shellframing. As everyone has mentioned, everything is so different any more I then take everything in to account indivudually by the hour. And as Decksetc. pointed out, you probably won't even be able to use the stairs again. If you are not planning on a permit for this job, you are still liable for the product, so even if the homeowner wants to save time/ money you should make sure that you build to your local code.

RobertCDF

First year of my work was a mix of all kinds of crap not just decks sheds, staining, a few small PT decks, wine cellar, kitchen remodel. Now I have gotten to a point were I should only be doing composite decks that is what I am targeting all my marketing at only took me a few of those to get a SQ FT price range depending upon size, height off ground, a few upgrades.

5-7 sq ft? labor only? That is a little low even for a PT maybe if you are nailing it off with a nail gun I might consider 9.50 a sq ft based on it taking 20 man hours.

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A+Carpenter

I live in Texas and build decks and charge 13,75 with materials . Just for framing alone and they bought them already I charge $7.85 .

I sub from major pool company and get that allot

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A+Carpenter

I live in Texas and build decks and charge 13,75 with materials . Just for framing alone and they bought them already I charge $7.85 .

I sub from major pool company and get that allot

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surf6524

Hey chris, I'm pretty sure no one outside of a reputable builder in your area could give you anything outside of a rough guideline as to what to charge for your area. Ask builders what thier rates are for your area to try to get a feel for pricing. Also, think about getting contractors insurance to cover yourself against any losses. It could save you a lot of grief later. Best of luck to you

Tscarborough

With any project as individual and distinct as a deck, you are better to figure it like this:

Take the drawings (what do you mean there are no drawings!), figure all material costs, then figure any tools you have to buy/rent, then add any additonal labor you have to hire and estimate the time required to complete the project. Double that labor number, and add in what you want to make from the job, and that is your bid price.

Sq Ft bidding should be reserved for when you already have a database of jobs you personally have done and have figured the formulas to arrive at that type of pricing. If it isn't worth doing the work to estimate actual costs, it damn sure isn't worth doing the actual job.