jcb

I just stared working for myself and need some help give a fair price replacing some prehung doors. I work in New York Westchester and Putnam county.
I caming up with $150 a door is that to low or to high.

send_it_all

In my opinion, you are on the high side of the right ballpark if these are standard, paint grade, Masonite (or similar) doors. If they are expensive or heavy, or require extraordinary care, then you might be a little low.

The only other answers you will get to a pricing question on this site are:

Only you can know how to price your work.
How long will it take you?
How much do you want to make per hour?
Only you know your overhead. (I'll assume it's pretty low since you just started)
How much profit do you want to make.

Pricing questions generally piss everyone off.

wink

last time iwas in a home depot i saw something listed about the price of installation of a door. that might give you an idea about the price in your area.just remember that they charge extra for all kinds of little things. good luck

jcb

Mike thanks for the reply. Thay are stain grade pine. and thanks for telling me that price guestions piss everyone off. I'm not looking to do that I just what to give a fair price to the home owner and not under cut my felow tradesmen....Jim

al10fred1081

charge $250 a door and tell em they'll have to have the ro replaced on each one then bump it to $350. They'll think they got such a good deal on the framing they'll call you back to reno the rest of the house...

I'm around $150 depending on the install, and $45 upcharge if I gotta rip an extension jamb.

Alex

SelfContract

Add taxes, insurance, warranty, service calls, etc.

AtlanticWBConst

Whatever pricing you come up with, figure how many doors you will realistically be able to install per day. Also factor in your costs per day (or per the overall job) for:

Nails
glue
shims
other materials
Gas
Set-up time
Break-down time
Liability insurance costs
WC costs
Income taxes
Self employment taxes
state taxes
General overhead operating costs.
additional material picking-up time
Time spent looking at the job
all connected paperwork time
etc.
etc.

Many new guys forget to add in all the other costs to a job (overhead), they charge per install, then, "if" they were to go back and really subtract all the other incidental costs (that are often forgetten about) they realize that they should have charged a little more, or alot more ...or, they get that fuzzy-warm feeling that their pricing was right on target...

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john5mt

Holy crap...150 a door!!!

oh you guys are in New York

I thought i was ripping myself off there for a second

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C.C.R.

Generaly, if you have a good number of doors, I treat them like replacement windows. ie once you hit a certain number of units they get a % discount. Because no matter how many units you have setup and breakdown take about the same amount of time. Realalisticly, new construction I can take my time and install 22 prehung units in an 8 hr. day. So if you charge as little as $100 per (for labor only) they feel they're getting a great deal (which they are) and you still make a nice days pay. Obviously that's new construction with no extra work to the R.O.s.
As far as pissing people off with pricing questions. I think it's more when people just want us to give them a number is when people get pissed off. Asking how to come up with a number is differant. Like Atlantic said consider all your factors and go from there. When you forget to factor in the little things - like nails, shims, glue, etc. that's when you end up F-ing yourself.
goodluck and don't undercut the other guy too much, but more importantly don't undercut yourself. Every minute of your time is worth something - It's up to you to decide what.

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