Maybe I Charge Too Much.

bellerose

I was complaining about giving estimates for free.Maybe I charge too much so I will submit this small job for your scrutiny. I know everyone charges different but you can tell when something is too much or not enough.

Here it is:

A 3 foot by 3 foot landing outside a door. 6 steps to the ground.
The landing stayed. I removed the old stairs and installed 3 new 6 -step stringers and steps out of 5/4 . I removed the old handrail and ballusters.
I installed one new post, new handrails and ballusters. 4 new post caps.
All P.T. wood. How much is reasonable ? I will tell you what I charged later.

Grumpy

There are two methodologies to determining that youcharge too much. Comparing your price to others or doing the hard work of breaking down all of your costs, iincluding overhead, and determining you can do the job for less and still make a decent profit.

Unless you have gone the second route and know all of your true costs, then your just flying blind.

I can not comment on your price, it's not what I do. Have you practiced your sales skills or are you just a bidder "here's my quote. Call me when you are ready." or even worse you leave the bids in the mail box? I sit down with every customer and explain from start to finish what we plan to do, where corners can be cut, why it's important not to cut those corners, and how to hire a professional contractor. Seldom am I ever the cheapest. I price to be in the middle, but I think we do a better job than most other contractors and I make sure the customer knows that!

PipeGuy

Why later? Why not now.

Grumpy

He wants us to give him our unbiased opinion first before he tells us what he charged. If he told us he charged $1000 I bet a few pople would chime up and say "yeah about the same." but if he tells us later a few people will actually have to do the math and say what they'd charge then he'd tell us $1000.

Hypothetically speaking ofcoarse... I only speak from my own experience of having asked similiar questions.

Peladu

To be honest with you, my final quote will move either up or down depending on the customer. Elderly people, get the better price...Yuppies get hit hard...nice looking mommy gets a beter price than...a ginormous mommy....
Not a real big difference, but its there...call it "customer profiling", if you will.

If I have to dodge bullets or walk through crime scene tape..it goes up.
If little Mrs. Butterbaker is bringing me cookies...then it's a win win.

Some people like to use Material (times) 3, rule. I say shoot for 350 a day and work it from there. But then again, who am I to say.


Edit to change typos (some anyway)

bellerose

I charged $580. Spent $210 on materials. Took 2 half-days. I had to start late one day then came back the next day. About 8-9 hours of time.

Grumpy

$40 dollars an hour is what you grossed. Did that cover your overhead?

I went to an estimate today and after the roof presentation the lady asked me if I knew a handy man to take care of some stuff because her husband refused to do anything around the house. Anyways I said I knew a guy and he'd charge $40-45 an hour plus materials... I also implied it's a pretty good rate. She said that she paid her last guy $25 an hour and $40 seemed high. I asked what happened to her other guy, and she said he went out of business and I then implied it was because he was too cheap and couldnt afford to stay in business at those rates.

RobertCDF

That sounds a little low... if its a BIG job $40 an hour is fair... a little lower than I like. But a small job like this I think it is way to low. Small jobs bother me. I dont unload my tool lock boxes, I usually bring the material instead of having it delivered. It just takes a lot longer than it should. All of this needs to be taken into account.

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747

Bell thats a great price i would hire you in a second. Actually i was thinking about doing that on my house. Main entry door is a big block cement step. But alot of my neighbors have redid theres to dress up the entry door by removing the concrete step and replacing it with like a wood steps with dressed up balasters. Actually my one neighbor just did his about 6 months ago i like the way it looks because the balasters have a slick modern look. I know it wouldn't be a problem to build it for a carpenter but that cement step is going to be a mother F to get out. I'm so not renting a jackhammer and trying to take that out.

My question do those come in like kits. Because his my neighbors looks so slick that i figure it has to be a kit.

GEB7678

Depending on the Job, I wont go under 35/hr for T/M jobs. also depends on the customers budget. I dont mind going a little low if the customer is finacially strapped and the project is priority. otherwise 40-45 seems very very fair.

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Capt

So back to the original statement. Why do you think you charge too much? It would partly depend on the area of the country. I hope you also charged for
any time related to material pick-up.

Mike Finley

Move to Colorado and I will sub out work to you all day long at those rates.

sage

I just got to the thread

ROFL

So wrong but sooo True.

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Woodcrafter74

Bell,
I'd be at about $700 for that--I'm assuming you had to haul away the demo debris.

bellerose

He hauled it away. Here is my problem. When things are slow I tend to get nervous because I need the work and go low thinking I will get the job.Not always the case. I don't
doubt my ability to do the job, just asking for the right price.

nadonailer

I would have charged at least a grand, probably more... But my expenses may be higher than yours and I've always figured high in any busines I've owned, I'd rather not work than work too cheaply. You're definitely not charging too much!!!!!!

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GriffDecker

I think it depends on where you work. I'm lucky to work solely on a "hoidy-toidy" island where everyone charges a bunch (but it's a 30 minute drive at least to get there). I usually estimate how long in days it will take and charge $1,000/day or so. A little less if it's brainless work, a little more if it's brainless work I really don't want to do.

tcleve4911

On small jobs I always say to myself "What would I expect to pay?" I would gladly pay someone $1,000 to come home & see a great job done, a clean site and a trades person I can call in the future.
I am in the trades and know what I am looking for. Don't sell yourself short..

copusbuilder

Damn thats approx. $262,000 a year. With no Saturdays or overtime? At that rate you should at least move to "hoidy toidy' island. Then you can party with them and get more work

In my parts I'd still be looking for my first job if I bid at that price?

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Mouldings&More

I do not think $1000.00/day is out of question. I think if you are self employed as opposed to a business you can charge less as you do not have big numbers to deal with. I will you hypothetical numbers but you will see. This is for New England area

Self employed #:

pay to your self(no workers comp has to be paid for owner)

35/hr*8=$280

Truck payment/day(including insurance and fuel)

$50

Liability insurance/day(general carpentry no construction)

$10

Cell phone, work phone(if you have one), computer and tool depreciation

$15

So self employed is around $355/day if you work every week

Business:

payroll(5 guy crew) $920.00/day

1 st guy $15/hr
2 nd guy $15/hr
3 rd guy $25/hr
4 th guy $25/hr
5 th guy 35/hr

Business insurances(construction($6000.00/year)workers comp($205.00/day)

$210.00/day

Office rent, equipment deprecation, utilities

$32.00/day


Expenses=$1162.00/day

Now I like to see a profit so add 20% to this and you can see how we are coming up with $1000.00 dollar days