Honestly I would go for it.
Do the best you can for the bid. Cover your ass and be sure to get everything tested to be safe.
Multiply your estimate by 3 and hire some goons :thumbup:

 

how well do you know/trust this GC? Sounds like he's hoping for a low bid and he can then stick you with it. I don't know why but my alarm bells are going off. CYA. Sometimes there's more money in the jobs you walk away from.

 

Exactly. Hes hoping for a low bid and then he will stick you with it. My first thought exactly.

 

Welcome to your first day at the School of Hard Knocks.

 

I would be writing an extremely specific bid (and I mean specific, down to listing exactly what you are removing from each room and what will be done with those item l), then a series of additional smaller quotes that lists the additional costs for things you might find as you go along that you can't see from the walk through.

Walls behind walls, asbestos on pipes in walls, multiple layers of flooring not immediately visible, etc.

You only screw yourself if you don't cover the stuff ahead of time. That way the customer has a picture of the best case scenario, but also knows what the costs are for the worst-case scenario.

 

DC has lots of townhouse reno's where they rip out everything but the joists and the two common side walls (brick) holding them in place. It reminds me of scenes in Kelly's Heroes. This sounds like one of those.

 

A lot of this boils down to how many dumpsters and how much weight. From there, how far are you going to have to schlepp the material to get it into the dumpster. Are you going to have to work under lead or asbestos rules.

Depending on condition, what it is, and how it's put down, the old flooring may be worth reclaiming. It may only take a little more time compared to just ripping it up.

If you kept records of smaller demos, you should be able to give a good estimate on all this. It wasn't clear if there was loose insulation in the attic that would have to come out, but if there is it's slickest to pay someone to vacuum it out.

 

Another thing you may want to clarify is if you are saving the trim, baseboards, doors, wainscot, etc.. Most folks would if it is original. For me, if they weren't, it might not be a job I'd be interested in.

Anyway, if you are saving trim, then it is a whole new ballgame. That takes much more time at the beginning. And doing it properly under RRP is another time stealer.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

if anything is being salvaged/recycled it needs to be specifically spelled out in the contract who gets the stuff....

 

I have done some work downtown, on some old row houses. I would certainly expect plaster over lath on a house built in the 1890's.

Any masonry wall, may just have plaster right over the brick or maybe clay tile blocks. Be careful around the clay blocks, they break if you look at them wrong.

I have also seen hardwood flooring installed right over the floor joists on some of those old places.

You might find asbestos in the pipe insulation, in the plaster, flooring and any other product in the last 100 years that could be in the house.

Lead based paint is another likely hazard. You can't always rely on a swab test for lead as it will only test the most recent layer of paint, not what is deeper and covered decades ago.

Be careful, sometimes in those old places the plaster or wall board is all that's keeping the joint from falling down. You might need to do some bracing.

 

As you have just found out, pricing questions aren't allowed. What is allowed is helpful advice. You have already gotten some, I will add a little more.

Having torn out my share of hardwood floors, the tear out isn't so bad. Get a shovel or shingle eater, or pry bars and tear the crap out of it.
What is hard, is the ten million nails left behind. The will tear up trash cans, wheel barrow tires, shoes, they have to be removed. That is time consuming.

I would expect plaster also. Make sure they didn't build walls on top of existing walls. It is possible someone tore out all of the old plaster, and re-built the walls, years ago. It is also possible someone added new walls over the old walls.
What if you tear out the walls and find more walls? Think about that in your bid.

 

This is a good example of why we don't allow pricing threads.

I don't know what a dumpster costs in your area.
I don't know how efficient you are at demoing walls.
I don't know how efficient you are at demoing flooring.
Same for all the other demo.

I don't know what your overhead is, nor your profit goals.

How can I possibly provide you with the "right" figure?

 

Tin c'mon, this is simple. Just do it like everyone else has.

Price it to get it. Realize you worked for nickels, then work your way up to where you want to be. No reason for numbers.

For real though there's a simple lesson here. If it feels like something you shouldn't do... Don't do it.

 

All the tests will be getting done and we are handling all the permits as well.

 

NE DC.
I originally thought a lot of plaster as well but all the drywall seemed hollow behind. I’m going to give him a low range to high range (just Incase there is more plaster than expected.)

 

You will need it tested for asbestos.
Also check with the city to see what they require to get a demo permit.

It may be a job you are not qualified to do.

 

Whereabouts in DC? Original construction from the 20's or 30's, by any chance? I'd be expecting lots of plaster (heavy).

 

Hello everybody.. I run a commercial and residential junk removal company. We offer demolition as well. I just recently had a GC contact me about completely gutting the interior of a row home in Washington DC... I’ve done smaller jobs before but this is the first one that is a complete interior demo.. all the way to the wall studs and floor joists, ceiling joists. Ive never priced a job like this before and after meeting me he said he would be happy to hire me if I gave a fair quote. So basically I want this get this one right. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Ill list everything about the project below:

Location: DC
SQ Ft: 900

-need to rent dumpsters
-most of the walls are drywall and paneling, not much plaster (he said we can knock some holes in the walls to double check before submitting final quote)
-the flooring is old hardwood. It was built in 1890 so there wasn’t plywood back then. He wants all the flooring ripped out.
- it has 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen
-all cabinets and appliances will be removed
-it’s two stories, with a crawl space
-we will be removing all plumbing and electrical throughout the house after his company disconnects it all.
-all ceilings will be ripped down as well

Hopefully this is allowed. And I’m sorry if posting this isn’t, I just want to get this bid right. I do have pictures of the project if that would help. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to let me know. Thank you!

 

It's your first time doing it, so in reality, no matter what we list here (we have no idea what the project looks like so can just give generics), you're likely going to miss something, but where you can protect yourself is...

Whatever you submit as a bid, be sure to be complete in what you are providing for the price and be clear anything above and beyond that comes as an extra charge with a Change Order...

And be sure to use it (Change Orders) as you will be setting a precedent for the new customer if you don't...