Cedar Siding

HUDSONVALLEYEXT

We are thinking about paying our guys per square instead of by the hour. What do yall think is a good rate per square? Fast production is important to us.

Back in my day working for some one else I would have busted ass if I could work faster to make more money.



We are making $200 a square labor.

Rollo

Why would you want to compromise quality by paying your laborers by the square? You should be charging your customer what it actually costs to do the work properly. How many nails are they going to skip, thinking you won't know the difference [will you?]. In my opinion, it is important to do a better quality job, especially with a high-end product like cedar.

HUDSONVALLEYEXT

They will be fired on the spot if the produce garbage. Thats the first thing I tell people when I bring them on.

what is a good rate of pay for an installer?

needthingsdone?

The issue I have with paying installers by the piece or square is that there are areas of houses that are very time consuming and you can spend hours to hang 1/2 a square.As an owner/installer I can tell you that I know which ones are gonna be money and which ones are gonna be pennies and that's the downside of bidding per square for one GC and doing all his units at the same price. When they are faced with that situation they are going to take the easy way out.
Are you doing this so they can make more money or are you doing it so you can make more money? If they are doing a good job now, they're happy with their pay and you're making money, why rock the boat.
It will cost you in the long run if they skim thru something in order to make the buck and it develops a problem later.

__________________
"It's not the first freakin' time I've done this you know!"

MKECONTRACTOR

Pay them by the hour, and if you want, offer a bonus if they do a nice job quickly. Paying piece work does not work in construction, factories, or anywhere. The end result is a high volume of low quality product. The only time I would do it is with a job that requires almost no skill, like stripping a roof, or removing siding. I would not do it for installs though. With subcontractors, yes, but with employees, no.

roofwiz74

i agree,when I was an hourly employee there was always the battle of who got the easy side and more squares blah,blah.
AS a sub I definately would not work by the hour.I worked for quite a few companies putting on plenty of roofing for them at an hourly rate.they just couldn't pay enough an hour to keep me happy.not when you can go get insurance and sub for say 50 a sq.have no headaches from working for someone and I control my pace.I have only been working a couple day weeks and still make a 1000 or so.I don't think I could ever go back to the clock,or any of the other B.S. that companies offer.
then again I've seen alot of guys go down the drain with money in thier hands every couple of days.

__________________
You have ONE advantage over me.....you can kiss my butt and I can't!!

TimNJ

What kind of siding?? T&G, Board & Batten, bevel? What kind of corners? Scribed?

HUDSONVALLEYEXT

Its pre primed cedar is comes but the truck load i dont know who makes it. They are 50 square buildings we are getting $200 per square labor and $4 per ft for soffet. I don't think we are getting enough

Patrick

Maybe if you were putting up vinyl siding....

HUDSONVALLEYEXT

We priced these when had no work at all. They called us back 3 months later when we were busy and asked us to re-bid them. We are making some money but I want to hit my partner over the head with a peice of siding for giving them the $200 a square price.

What do you guys think we should be charging?