Humble Abode

Do you charge your customers an equiptment rental fee for every peice of equiptment you use on their job even if you own that peice of equiptment?

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Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe. Kurt Vonnegut, (1922 - 2007) from the Novel 'Hocus Pocus'
The NAPP
Milwaukee Painting Contractor

Teetorbilt

In a word, no. Not a rental fee, I'd never be able to compete on run of the mill jobs.
You DO have to factor in expendables, maintainence, and eventual replacement. In the early years this can be by guess, later you should have records to give you a rough estimate of what these cost will be. You also have to be able to forecast the future prices, err on your side. After a while, you will get a knack for it. I'm at the point now where I can just look at a job and pitch in a close enough figure to build in but it took years of crunching numbers to get to that point. The human brain is still the best computer.

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You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

ppmc

I myself (try)to look at everything as a hourly rate after the job is done and after materials and labor is paid out.If you bid a job that you estimate at 38 hrs
and you have 1 helper ,well then what are you paying yourself and what are you paying your company?Example-say you pay yourself 35$ a hr and your labor 10$,well then you have a base pay of 45$ per hour times 38 hrs eqauls.1,710$ minus 380$ labor you will have 1330$What you have to do is decide what you feel comfortable putting away for emergencys for tips,rig parts advertising,insurance etc.What is your volumne of work?Are you seasonal?Alot of variables should be put in to thought when deciding how much you should pay yourself. :Thumbs:

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Noise ordinace sorry. .sure i'll baffle my pipes.NOT!

PipeGuy

When I purchase a tool or piece of equipment I determine a reasonable life exptancy (replacement cycle) and maintenace cost and add that cost to what I charge for daily overhead. If I have to rent somehing specifically for a job then the entire rental cost gets added to that specific job.
As an example, if I buy a $10,000 item that should last 8 years, and it costs me $500 a year to maintain it in working condition, and my work week is 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year then that item adds almost $7 to my daily overhead. That's a very simplistic way of looking at it. There are other factors that come into play that can be cosndidered - depending on how sophisticated your accounting process is.

mdshunk

Yes, for certain items in my trade, this is a customary thing to do. For instance, power quality monitoring equipment is often installed at a customer's site and left unattended for a week or more. This would "rent" for something like 100 bucks a day. The time it takes to install and remove said equipment and extract reports is straight time work.

On the other hand, having specialized equipment is part of every subcontractor's job. This is, in part, why people hire subcontractors - they already have what they need to get the task done. This equipment is part of the overall overhead burden. I add this into the overhead in very much the same manner that PipeGuy suggests.

There have been occasions where conditions on a jobsite dictated that equipment be left at the site when not being used. For instance, I once had equipement "stranded" on the roof of a building because the crane was out of order and waiting on a part. The crane, in accordance with the contracts, was supposed to be available to the subs at least 1 hour a day, 4 days a week. "Rent" was charged for this gear that was marooned on the roof and not being used.