vandyandsons

purely for curiosity,

state big city that you are nearest to, and what you have to charge per billable hour.

obviously, your rate includes wages, benefits, OH, insurances etc....your bottom line.

me: chicagoland, $45/man hr to pay the bills

how bout you guys?

WisePainter

Kansas City.

$35 a man hour.


The money is divine and the cost of living is even better here.
If you can handle the weather.

__________________
My advice: Hire a real painter to do it.

Dougmt

NW Montana. If I bill hourly it's $35.00. I try to bill by the job though...
Doug

BACKWOODS

Birmingham Alabama
$50-65 per hour depending on type of skill level the job requires

Wolfgang

Omaha, Nebraska

45.00 - 60.00 / hr (And I'm not lowering my rates because of the economy)

This is for T&M jobs. I mostly bid the jobs by experience and usually always come out very, very well.

WisePainter

Ooops I forgot to add that my customer purchases all materials (at my price) that I will not pack up at the end of the job.

__________________
My advice: Hire a real painter to do it.

MMC73

Philadelphia Center City(Rittenhouse, Society Hill & Old City) $50 per hour plus material, outside of Center City $45 per hour plus material; don't make anymore in Center City because of the parking.

mahlere

Central NJ -Commercial $85/man T&M electric, $105/man T&M HVAC/R (2 hr min +travel time billed)

Resi - we don't do much anymore, but we were flat rate at $215/billable hour (worked out to around $110/hr for an 8 hr day)

Dougmt

Same here. If I'm billing per hour they are buying everything and having it delivered...
Doug

Celtic

I just started doing some flat rate [resi. elec.service work]...so far it's at 127.50/hr or $170/billable.
New construction/remodel resi. elec. is at about $102/hr

Mahlere...
It "looks" like the resi. would have been the money maker vs. the T&M comm. HVAC/Elec. angle.
Why are you ditching the resi.? Your choice or the market?

__________________

mahlere

i'm not a people person...for us to do $1mil gross in resi electrical, we needed to run about 2000 calls...that required about 8000 phone calls...about 4000 became estimates....and about 2000 became service calls/jobs...for those mathematically impaired, that's a job average of $500...

It required too many 'technicians', vehicles, advertising, and general BS...

Plus, it requires an owner who genuinely likes people...both customers and employees...too much personal contact...

in 2009, we should do approx $4mil between electric, HVAC/R and plumbing...I personally deal with about 12-15 other partners/employees....and about 20 customers....

I like it much more betterer....

But...if I were a 1 man shop, i'd run that resi service flat rate game all day long...

world llc

if you have heard of it, morristown, nj
if not, something like 12 miles west of NYC

i can get by on $25/hr

i like to get $50/hr

as with anything, it depends on how busy we are, how much work there is, difficulty, what i'v charged them on past jobs, and the relationship we have to the client. multiply that by the aggravation factor (scale from 1.0 to 2.5)

mahlere

why bother getting up in the morning? Average home price in Morristown is $437,000... even if you put 20% down, you'd be mortgaging $350,000....at 5%, for 30 years,you have a mortgage payment of $1,900/month- not including taxes....

how do you make that and taxes and living expenses on charging $25/hr?

I concede that you may already own your house, or your wife may make good money, or you may have inherited millions...but on it's face, your rates won't work for the average contractor in Morristown, NJ

MMC73

I am also curious as to how you manage a profit. I am not saying that it isn't possible, just curious. Maybe you figured something out I missed? As with most contractors I am always interested in finding ways to minimize expense while not sacrificing quality.

72chevy4x4

what is the difference between /hr and /billable-is it like pay upon service rendered and billed?

Celtic

These numbers are your BILLABLE rate?
$25/hr to cover:


Even at $50/hr billable, it's simply not enough in NJ to even "get by".

How did you arrive at those numbers?


EDIT:
To give more info requested by the OP:
Right between Newark, NJ and NYC[Manhattan]

__________________

world llc

when i have 4 guys i'm paying 12/hr, i'm making overhead and insurance with no problem.

listen, sometimes it's hard to compete with the painters around here... there is a huge immigration problem and it seems like they all paint. work for painters and even start up their own un- licensed, un-registered companies and saturating this area with cheap yet decently done paint jobs. builders and home owners are all shoppers around here... i'v worked in 100k neighborhoods and 3M neighborhoods and the people are the same... the number is higher, but they want it all for the low number.

this is the reason we have branched into other finish trades... it's hard to compete! we net most of out money through trim work and offer painting for extra.this has been working well for us the last 3 years.

so like i said, we still do alot of painting, and some days it is for alot less then i would like th earn,but that is by no means a complete picture of every week, month, or the year.

mahlere

just what it sounds like...your hourly rate may be $50/hr...but if you only bill 4 hrs in a day, your billable rate is actually on $25/hr...

when working flat rate, guys will quote their billable rate, say $100/hr...since they average only 4 billable hours a day, it works out to an hourly rate, for an 8 hour day, of $50/hr...

does that make sense?

mahlere

IF, and I mean IF, you are paying on the books, your men are costing you $15+/hr without any medical...

at $25/hr, you are grossing $10/hr/man...

So, what you are saying is that none of your men, nor yourself, could ever hope to purchase a home in Morristown today, tomorrow or any time in the foreseeable future...

shame when a man can't even dream of living where he works....

WisePainter

I find that is the final mistake a blue collar contractor makes before they shut their doors...

We work for the rich, we don't live with the rich.

__________________
My advice: Hire a real painter to do it.