Framing Prices

Rob Saxon

any framers in austin, tx. that can tell me what the going rate is there?

deckman22

About 3.50 a sq. ft. for most of the major builders. If you can get in with a custom builder I'm sure it would be more. Too many hispanic crews that work cheap around here. San Antonio is lower yet for the same houses.

Al

neolitic

How refreshing.
I would have expected the guy to get slapped silly.
Even though, apparently, you and I both know that there is and always has been a rate that area builders pretty much dictate for most of the trades.
Bravo, Al.

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BuiltByMAC

Man, he even had the $64,000 phrase! Athough, it's kind of anticlimactic at this point... inundation, saturation, consternation.

Mac

deckman22

Everytime things get slow in other parts of the country I see all kinds of trucks around town with out of state plates. Framers move around more than any other trade it seems to me. Things are slower here than last year, but it's still not bad like some places. What these guys don't realize is that it will get slower here too before it gets better & it's hard to get in with the big builders here & harder yet for the truely custom home builders, plus we always have too framing crews here all ready. Without contacts, established crew members these guys will be pawning their tools just to get home.

Al

d-rez

As stated in countless other posts, a question like that is hard to give a accurate answer to due to different details used by different builders or architects. I usually pay around $5 sq/ft for my projects. -Chris

Rob Saxon

Thanks for the info, I'll stay in colorado at those 1980 prices!

Carson Wales

2 - 3 bucks a foot?

Maybe in Austin....but...

Not in the San Francisco Bay Area...NOT IN A MILLION YEARS...In fact in the 30 years I have been doing this, I have never seen anything approaching that...30 years ago a Journeymen union carpenter was pulling down 22 bucks an hour plus benefits. Cost to the contractor was approximately 32 bucks an hour give or take back then...

Lets do the math on the 2-3 bucks:

3500sqft x 3 bucks = $10,500...

Project is a hillside lot with and underpinned lower floor, main floor and garage. Includes several hardi-panels and seismic sheer walls, 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, LR DR FR Laundry etc....roof is stick framed with some steel ridges and hips to interface...nail guns only used for sheeting and some blocking...

Ok...5 man crew: Foreman, Journeymen, High-Apprentice, Low-Apprentice and Laborer to schlep stuff around.

Foreman runs the cut off saw, does layout stairs etc. Cut off saw is 14" 220 volt radial that is used to pre-process wood.

Journeymen teams up with Low-Apprentice

High Apprentice floats on smaller sub-assemblies and teams up with laborer to do sheeting and other two man operations.

Laborer schleps stuff and helps tip up walls and hold the ends of boards, rafters etc.

5 days to sill, pin and sheet the underpinning with seismic stuff- ready for lower floor frame

7 days to set floor beams, joist and sheet lower floor with wall layout

7 days to frame walls lower level and sheet sheer panels and deal with seismic stuff like hold-downs and hardi-panels

1 day of float or pick up - plumb, line and brace etc

7 days to set floor beams, joist, seismic transfers and sheet and layout upper main floor.

10 days to frame walls, sheet sheers and deal with more seismic stuff.

2 day to pick up - plumb line, stack roof etc and set steel ridges and hips with crane

10 days to stick frame roof, block, strap, vent and set structural facias

3 days to sheet and nail, over strap, vent etc

Thats about 50 days or ten weeks give or take...but lets get aggressive...lets say it only takes 37 days to do all that work...

37+/- days is 287.50 per day. Now lets portion that out evenly amongst the crew and we will break it down. Once the employee daily and hourly rate is calculated we will apply workers compensation and employer burden for taxes both state and federal and deduct that. No allowance has been made for any profit or overhead in this scenario...the following is Gross hourly wage paid to each crew member based on a percentage breakdown (30%,25,20,15,10). Workers comp is 30/100 and taxes 20/100:

F-Man 5.39/hour
J-Man 4.49
A-High 3.59
A-Low 2.70
Labor 1.80

All wages fall short of federal minimum wage. The foreman is going to make a whopping 10,700 per year for his 25 years experience in the trade. The contractor is going to lose money because he hasn't charged any overhead or profit and his trucks and tools are getting burned up nonetheless...he will be out of business very shortly.

Here is the reality of it: If we do custom residential stick frames that involve any sort of complexity such as hillsides, seismic members etc your hard framing labor is going to run you about 25 bucks a foot...thats the contractors cost

We bid on a rate table that runs from 65 to 35 dollars an hour and the portion of bid attributed to framing labor runs around 35 bucks a square foot.

2-3 bucks a foot?...right...sure thing

neolitic

If you take the time to read the question, he is asking about Austin, Texas.
Why didn't you tell him how to make a cup of coffee as well?

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Carson Wales

All right i did see that and ammended the post but lets work it backwards then...

What is hourly wage IN AUSTIN of the Journeymen, Foreman etc...

Lets see how fast this same crew has to do a 3500 square foot home to make wages....and use the same percentage breakdown going in reverse an assigning Federal MW 5.85 to the laborer...

Thats 58.42 per hour for the crew, ranging from 5.85 to 17.50...but we need to add insurance and taxes...lets bump that by 20% to cover- thats now 70 bucks an hour...

At 3 bucks a foot we have 10,500 to work with...or in other words these guys need to finish the frame in 150 hours or 18.75 days or 2.67 weeks...and the contractor still hasn't made any profit or overhead to cover the cost of their operation...

2-3 bucks a foot?

I wouldn't get out of bed for those peanuts...and I would hate to see the quality of the frame that is produced at that pace or rate...

But hell...we pay 3 bucks a gallon for gas here...and have to put up with all the hippies...

neolitic

Hmmm, nobody told me that life had to be fair.
It is what it is.
I wouldn't work for that money either, but apparently there are those who do in Austin.

Hope I can get back out to your city again.
I used to live on 46th ½ block south of Balboa.
I see on google earth that they bull dozed the old Family Dog building and the amusement park down on the Great Highway.
Looks like the remains of the Sutro Baths are gone too.
Did the Yuppies chase the seals away as well?

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