What Do You Get Per Hour?

Roger Manning

Hello,
I'm a lic. contractor in California, I am a finish carpenter and cabinet installer.
I raised my Hr. rate the 1st of the year from $45 to $52. Cabinet install I get $25 lin. ft. for base cabs. $25 lin. ft for uppers and $50 for full ht. cabs. that includes install of sub tops and any mouldings that go with the job.
One of the cabinet shops that I do work for says that my Hr. rate is to high. I don't think so, I think $65 to $75 is more like it for a Lic. contractor.
Any of you in California like to reply?
Thanks , Roger

smellslike$tome

I am a plumber not a carpenter and I live in Alabama not California but if I was making $52/hr I would close my doors tomorrow. And isn't Kalifornia supposed to be the most taxed state in the Union? How are you even surviving? I hope you are marking up your materials at least 50% and finding some other ways to increase your bottom line 'cause I gotta believe that at that rate you'll be eating a lot of spaghetti and beanie weenies when you're 70.

As for the cabinet shop telling you you're too expensive, if you were charging $40 or $30 they would say the same thing. If you were at $25 they might not say anything for fear that they might tip you off some how.

"Bad, bad," says the buyer; but when he goes his way then he boasts. Proverbs 20:14

StairBuilder

Don't work by the hour.

MKamis

I agree with stairbuilder,

Ever since I've gotten away from hourly pay and gone with solid estimates, my income has improved greatly. I think this is partly because I will make the same regardless of how long it takes me. I am then more motivated to complete jobs faster, and I can squeeze in more jobs (or free time?)

Marty

Dave Mac

yea but you still end up with a hourly wage, you make so much it takes so much time divide one into the other and you have your hourly rate.

Roger Manning

I guess I was not clear with my post. I bid almost all my work, sometimes you have to go with t&m, I would say only 5% of the work I do is t&m.

Roger

Cole

Roger,
I am the same way, I hate T&M work and about 5% of my total work is T&M.

Charge what you want, dont let someone else tell you that you are too high.

I would think in Cali, you should be up around the $70-$80 an hour mark.

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El Dorado Wood

Hey Roger...

Your hourly rate is pretty low. Most journeymen installer/carpenters in San Diego are commanding $20-25 an hour. Some as high as $30. If you sent a guy out on a job paying him $20 an hour... would billing $50 an hour cover your comp, insurance, overhead, etc. etc. etc.?

I know guys doing high end work in RSF that are billing out at $90-100 an hour and they turn work down everyday. Tell the cabinet shop that if they don't like it they can send some of their $8 an hour assemblers out to do an install and see how it works out for them. He he he...

I'm curious as to why you do lf pricing for install... most guys I know do a box price. Seems to me like it'd be more accurate. 6 14" uppers would take longer to install than 4 22" uppers... and you make less. Any reason you do it that way?

Mike Meyering

My partner is a 30 yr. tradesman (union) in trim and millwork installation. I have about 12 years of various carpentry experience, and passed the GC exam. I am subcontracting the trim on an old house in Pensacola, FL for $30/hour, with materials supplied by the contractor(no profit for me there). Probably setting myself up for beans and weenies, but there are a lot of hungry carpenters around right now, and Pensacola has always been cheap, compared to the national average. Most carpentry employees around here top out at about $15/hour. No state income tax, but those who have house insurance sure are taking a hit. My home is uninsured, and contains a rebuilt mobile home, and is therefore appraised as a mobile home (even if it grows to become a mansion, according to the assessor). I definitetly do not want to be part of the problem of low wages. Anyone with advice on pricing for our area, feel free to chime in.

MHMConstruction

Mike,

just curious: how did the hurricanes (which I know you're area got slapped hard in 04) affect wages/pricing there??

I gambled on hurricanes last year, and we got nil. I've still got like 30 sheets of plywood, 10 tarps, huge rolls of plastic, and an unused generator that I bought at the start of the summer.

MHM

Mike Meyering

I would be interested in a survey of wages, and especially of pricing.
Here is a bit from my limited perspective.

Wages/pricing spiked after the hurricannes, but is now about back to where it was- A large local commercial GC that I interviewed with has a carpentry pay scale from $10-$15 tops, and a supt. pay scale from $15- $22, tops. I remember the wages pre-Hurricanne Elena/Opal ('96)- the same company topped at about $9 for carpenters, and one of the best residential framers I know made $10, framing without supervision, the biggest waterfront homes, and $0/hr benefits.

El cheapo volume home builders were paying 25-35 cents/sf in 2000- now they are at about 50c for trim(I think- I do not bid their work)

I missed a job setting doors and running base few months ago- I got under-bid by a guy who said he would set the doors for free, and run the base for 20 cents a foot. But that is an extreme example- I guess most small base goes for about 50- 1.50/ foot (of course depending on lots of factors), but I don't really have much data to go on. any surveys out there? Maybe we could start one.

kris jusnes

for punch out and other miscellaneous work that we (my dad [boss], my brother, and i) do, my dad charges $100 an hour. he breaks it down like this to the contractor - $50 for him (since he's an old pro), $30 for my brother (age 23, 8 years experience), and $20 for me (age 21, 7 years experience.)

personally, im salaried at $16 an hour.

oh, and this is NC.

seekingadvice

I have nothing to add about California, sorry...and i'm wanting to move. I live in Western NY. Our company bills & $35 an hour for every employee and we're still underbid! There has been so many factory lay-offs in this area that everyone seems to be a carpenter. I'm a project supervisor making $16 per hour with minimal benefits. We do our own framing, flooring, trim, cabinet installation, roofing, doors, everything but drywall, insulation, and mechanicals. I'm sick...

obxwood.com

Hi mike that area is so much production housing from Adams Homes,Whitworth Builders. ect... That most GCS try to follow suit on what they pay. If you do any work at the beach area down in Navarre beach look up john keener & assoc. or davis & dunn They are high end custom builders there i use to work for these guys and they will start you out low but if you do it right and fast you can get top dollar watch out for old man keener he likes boloxi to much!!!lol

In_Mexifornia

If you can keep working charging higher rates then I say go for it. With the high cost of living in California you have to charge whatever you must to be able to afford to live in this state. With home prices being $400k-$500k for a simple 3 bed/2 bath and gas prices just about the highest in country...take whatever you can get.
I'm actually shocked when I see what people are charging for hourly rates in other states where the cost of living is so much lower then California. With so many non-citizens here to undercut the American it's hard to make a living cause most GC's will just cut you loose and go with someone they can pay under the table for $12 an hour.
I think I need to move to another state.

Stevo

Can't say anything about Cali.

I live in the outskirts of Boston.
Times are tough right now. I can't remember a slower year since the eighty's.
My friend & mentor, who was always a good back-up ,when w*rk was scarce, has abandoned me. I can't compete with illegal's, who will work for half my price and work twice the hours.
So, In the Boston suberbs, I generally charge $40.
In Boston, 50-100$ depends on the situation.

Doc2626

We work predominantly in the San Diego area, manufacturing and installing custom cabinets, workstations, reception desks and the like. We do have three jobs in progress in LA county right now, and we bid by linear feet, only doing maybe 2 or 3 % on a T&M basis. When we do, we generally charge $65/hr/man, and I'll often give them a not-to-exceed number, when I can see what the job is going to entail. Of course, our work is commercial, not residential, mostly T.I.'s, for GC's we're used to working with.
At those prices, we find that we are usually around 10-15% under the other decent shops in town. Anyone that can beat those prices, probably won't get a second chance with the same GC. I know of two decent shops in our area, that charge $75 and $80 per hour.

precarp

I'm in PA works realy dead went from steak to franks and beans have any ideas for advetizing?

vwovw

here in DSM i get $45 a hour. I bid plus do hourly in some situations.

Mud Master

I'm in Maryland and I charge $55.00/hour for a mechanic and $32.00/helper. So if I bid a job having 4 of my guys doing it, thats $220.00/hour if I use all mechanics. $197.00/hour if I use 3 mechanics and 1 helper. Plus mark-up for material and overhead. However I do about 90% commercial.

For my Custom Homes and Additions I charge $48.00/board(4X8) and $54.00/board(4X12). That's to hang,tape,block,skim,sand, and point up after primer. More per board for Greenboard,Durock or Hardyrock,Quietrock,etc..

How ever residential has slowed down terrible here, ALOT of guys I have talked to that do residential have said it's the slowest they have ever been, guys that any other time turn work down. Glad to be in commerical for sure.

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