Help Me Price This.

fastg60

what would you price this job.
new referral customer in a new house, has potential for more work (deck, basement remodel)

painting 1 coat, walls only (no trim) 3 12x12 bedrooms (8' ceilings).
tile in 2 <20 sq.ft. baths and a 65 sq.ft. kitchen.

i'm used to working for my "regulars" in their 6k sq.ft. homes that keep running lists and pay by the hour (gotta love 'em!), so bidding is something i'm learning.

thanks for the help guys!

747

ok i will give it a shot just to see what the guys think. Deck 2,000 dollars. Basement remodel 3-5000 depending on how fancy. Painting the 3 bedrooms 600dollars. Finally 2 20 square foot baths 1500 dollars and 65 square foot kitchen 2500 dollars. Definately run those numbers buy the big boys here.

fastg60

that seems a little steep on the baths. i'm looking just for labor pricing. what do you normally charge for toilet R&R and stripping linoleum?

go dart

careful you don,t pay for an education here. shoot the bath floors @ 750.00 ea if simple/includes reset stools to existing supplys. basment finish @ 35.00 per ft /less flooring. there are no 2000.00 decks. treated framing, s4s cedar finish simple rail, simple height 33.00 per ft.

sage

Not nearly enough Info to really help.

__________________
-Lead from the front, or dont lead at all-

sage

Maybe if you normally work hourly and manage to stay in buis, then just figure how long you think its gonna take and apply your hourly. Plus material of course.

__________________
-Lead from the front, or dont lead at all-

747

I ask a guy how much to put a deck on the back of my house he gave bid of 2,000. 33.00 per foot. When i get home i'm going to measure and multiply.

sage

So you have a 60 square foot deck?

__________________
-Lead from the front, or dont lead at all-

Greg Di

This could be the most retarded thread I've ever read on this board.

How can anyone say "$2,000 for a deck, $3,500 for a basement" without any details? I am assuming that was a joke...(because those prices sure are).

If you have to go onto a public internet message board to ask "how much", you have no business bidding a job, let alone performing the work. It's guys like you that give the good contractors a bad name because you go in offering the world for a song, only to realize that you f-d up, are loosing money, and head for hills leaving the customer stranded.

Sometimes I really wonder....

747

It was kind of a joke. I just threw those numbers out there to see how far you guys would think i was off. Oh as far as the deck i got a bid on. I'm 99 percent sure it was 18 feet wide by 12 feet long. I'm now thinking the guy tried to highjack me wanting 2,000 dollars.

jproffer

Careful now....

I just love it when people say stuff like that..."If you give me a good deal on THIS job, I'll call you first when it comes time to do the deck and the basement"

To which I say: " ummm....OK ....."



"...BUUUUUUT...I'll have to go back and work up the bids for the basement and the deck, and when I come back and you sign all 3 of them, I can proly find ya a little discount...how's that sound? "

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Jim P.

jproffer

At $33/sq. ft., that would be $7128...maybe you're hi-jacking him 747 .

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Jim P.

go dart

gregs right which is why i posted sq ft prices which are ONLY A SHORTCUT TO BALLPARKING. buy some estimating stuff and READ. walt steppleworth will teach you all you need to price in 30 sec. (cost x .67) add the two. also remodeling magazine print a cost vs value once a year that can be a good sales tool

fastg60

well, apparently you have forgotten what it felt like, starting out on your own. thanks for the help.

Greg Di

The number one rule of estimating is IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT OTHER PEOPLE CHARGE! You have to charge what YOU need to charge to stay in business. If you don't, you will be "wearing an orange apron" (props to Bob Kovacs) sooner than later.

For instance, my tile sub charges me $5.50 per s.f. of ceramic tile. A 20 sf floor costs about $120 bucks. So, if you asked him how much for that floor, you'd be broke. Why can HE charge $5.50 and make a living? Because:

1) he is a specialist. That 20 sf floor is done in under an hour
2) he doesn't have to dick around with the customer, plumbing, access, material. Everything is ready to go when he gets there.
3) Volume. While the floor was only $120 bucks, he also did the shower stall and mud job.

My point is that YOU will get screwed by asking how much to charge and frankly, if I were bidding on the same job as you, my price would be closer to $800 for that 20 sf floor because I am aware of overhead, profit and what it takes to maintain a successful business. So the HO is now comparing a guy with no clue as to how much the job actually costs because he asked someone else how much to charge against a guy who knows the exact costs, pays insurance, will be there next year because he makes a profit etc...

POORLY ESTIMATING BIDS HURTS OUR ENTIRE INDUSTRY BECAUSE IT GIVES THE CUSTOMER AN UNREALISTIC EXPECTATION OF WHAT A JOB SHOULD COST.

Mike Finley

Greg, you are perfect example of the 20/80 rule.

go dart

20/80 rule?

Bob Kovacs

Wow- my "orange apron" line is being quoted by others- maybe it's time to take the show on the road and start making money with my concept.....lol.

Bob

Scott Young

i am new to these forums so i hope i don't offend. well maybe

fastg60, kudos on trying to learn the business. is that manly to say...."kudos", i digress. it is hard to figure out what to bid and how to charge. i have been at this only for about ten years for myself. i had always worked for someone else who bid and earned the big bucks. i floundered for a while until i came up with a method to my madness. i remember when i was doing some stuff under one of the other guys that he had "resources" he would check before ever giving a bid. or even an estimation or for that matter a ball park. he simply didn't bring money into it until he was able to put a pencil to it. that was for the jobs we would work on. now if a lady came from next door and asked him to fix a door that wouldn't shut, he would tell her, he would look at on his lunch or after work. he took his nail bag with him and fixed the door quickly and then priced it accordingly, but those times are always gravy, and he didn't always charge depending onthe circumstances.

His sources were,

1. figuring availability of material and cost to deliver either us or them.
2. figuring clean up
3. figuring the cost of material and then the cost per sf, lf, sq, total install, etc.
4. the labor for such thing he took from a book that he had comprised like a flat book.

i could never figure it out how he came up with those labor prices, but they were competitive with all the other folks in town some time higher and sometimes cheaper. i use some thing similar put out by rsmeans. reed construction data. i went to it a couple of years ago simply for the fact that it is in every box store you go in and it seems my customers refer to it as the industry standard. i bid a job for a fellow, it was high. he pulls out this contractor's pricing guide and told me i was way out of the ball park. since that time i have run into at least four customers who will admit that they bought the book just to make sure they aren't getting cheated. it is like their "ace in the hole". i use the raw data and adjust the figure for my needs sometimes its higher and sometimes its lower depending on my own personal circumstances.

there are a couple of other books on estimation and pricing, but for now this book is where you need to start as far as getting a hard figure to work from. you won't loose your shirt using the figures in there. you can survive long enough to learn better to adjust.

Gordo

Right on man.

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Looks like some pros were here.