Breaking Into The Commercial Drywall Work

dryrocker27

Hello Everyone - I have a small drywall company with 10 employees. We supply all material and labor needed to complete the drywall phase the job.

For the past 4 years we have been working with custom contract builders and their customers. No spec houses. Due to the size of my crew i would like to move into the commercial side of the drywall trade.

My problem seems to be getting the Developers/GC to take me serious. I have all the paperwork that they ask for. I have adequate manpower. We are fully supplied with bazzoka's, flat boxes, angle heads, sanding machines and vaccums. Have all our own scaffolding and access to any lifts needed. Each man on the crew has at least 12 years experiance and can work unsupervised.

I have stopped at all job site trailers to talk to the foremans, gone to the GC offices. Had meetings with Contracting Company's Owner. All with no results

Even went so far as to pull up on a job site with my trucks, 7x16 enclosed trailer, and my hanging and finishing crew. Just to be told that the job had not been awarded to any drywall company, they took our info and we never heard from them. They brought in a drywall company from another state.

How can using an out of state drywall crew be cheaper that using a local trsdesman.

Any advise would be appreciated.

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Robert

Bob Kovacs

You'd be surprised how cheap some guys are willing to work when there's no work in the states they live in- there are crews out there that will work for probably 1/2 of what you'd be looking for, and the GC's know it, so they don't bother talking to you- they know that you'll be looking for much more than they're paying.

You need to look for the smaller companies that are doing one-off projects like converting a house to an office- not the strip malls, office buildings, etc. Those projects are smaller, and aren't worth bringing in a crew from out of town.

dryrocker27

Bob - Thank you for the information.

I understand that people travel for work, however, who pays for food and lodging, I can only imagine the cost i would have to put into the job to feed, house, and transport 10 people.

Based on some threads on this site, the going rate is $.35 - $.45 per sqft of drywall. This is for labor only i am told. This comes in at $16.80 - $21.60 per
4x12 x1/2 just to get started. I have also seen where people charge more for commercial work. If the numbers are accurate, how do people travel,support a crew and cover all insurances and taxes?

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Robert

Bob Kovacs

Put it this way- I've seen crews come to Georgia and Tennessee from Lousiana and work for $400/ton to hang ductwork- that works out to 20 cents a pound vs a range of $1-2/pound through local subs- and they were happy to get that because the alternative is to stay home and make nothing. They don't stay in hotels- they sleep in their cars.

thom

When construction slows, prices will drop. Guys will put in 14 hour days for $100 if that's all they can get. That's little more than $7 per hour. It hasn't hit bottom yet.

An no I'm not at all gleeful about this. We went through this in the 80's and to a lesser extent in the early 90's.

The problem is residential is overbuilt. Guys will travel for work and work for cheap. Those who have become accustomed to the high dollar prima-donna life will adjust rapidly when they get hungry.

Some of those guys have posted here, though I don't recall reading it lately. How about "I won't get out of bed for less than $250" guys. For those in S. Cal and Fla, things could get really really bad.

dryrocker27

Thom and Bob,

I really am thankful for the info. working in residential work for the past 4 years has been great. i guess commercial work is a different animal and requires a different kind of person.

I will talk it over with the guys, i doubt they are ready to take a pay cut right now.

Thom - I have posted in the drywall thread a little while ago and saw a thread that you posted in,where the guy said he would not get out of bed for
less than $250.00 a day

Thanks again.

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Robert

TreyMUtah

The Best Advice to a residential DW outfit to try and become a Commerical DW outfit, is to go hire some really good metal stud framers, in residential your Carpentry contractor does all the framing, in commercial, the DW sub does all the tin can framing. Go hire an excellent layout guy for the framer as well. Start with small office and retail T.I.'s first. Go through the GC's office, most of the sub-contractor work in commericial is contracted through the office's of the GC, not the job site.

SelfContract

Bad... bad... bad.. bad ... a very bad economy we are experiencing right now. Sorry to say, but when this economy continues to suck... anything bad can happen to anyone at any time!.. Just try harder, think wiser, and ... live longer my friends.... Good luck with your endeavor & hope.

painter jeff

People do have the answers that you need, but they are not going to put it out there for the world to see.....These people don't need anymore people under cutting there prices.

You people need to fix your bio info, put a contact # to be reached.....
The people that knows the answers you need, aren't going to tell someone in there area, or state.

They will contact you, if they want you to know....Most of use do help people.......

Friends are Friends

Family is Family

But Business is Business

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" Life is pain! anyone says differently, is selling something,"..." Life is like chess" by Ben Franklin