Smart move . takes every trade to do a bath it takes to build a house except a roofer and a mason. They can be difficult to administrate and execute. We do about 1.3 million a year,mostly baths. If I weren't set up and organized to do them it'd be a mess. And I ve had a few that didn't go well at all. If there is any problem with customer making decisions just brace yourself is all I can say.

 

I have never had one that didn't go smooth, and I don't find them to be unpleasant jobs to run. I tend to enjoy jobs with my subs on them. I just don't enjoy bidding on them. That's how I arrived at my decision. I will gladly build them, just not bid. If someone wants a ballpark for a bathroom I will just tell them I would think it would be in the 5k- 50k range unless the get carried away.

 

Bathroom remodels have always been a money making problem for us. Our problem, I believe, is that we can only do so much in the room at one one. Almost has to be done in stages. This also draws the project out.

I started telling people, right from the beginning, we will be doing another project while we work on your bathroom. I layout the timeline and the expected scheduling. As soon as I do this, they are ok with it. After about the 3rd day, they understand.

As for showers, I started subbing them out about 20 years ago. I just couldn't make the money I wanted to make. We occasionally do one, but only if it is part of the larger picture and only if I need something to fill in.

I definitely think the money is there, I just have a hard time finding it. At least as much of it as I want.

 

I think they only work for us because we do 6-8 at a time and do most of it in-house except electrical and plumbing... And we ve used the same ones so long they know how we want it set up. I tell homeowners either 6-8 weeks or 8-12 and expect downtime and dry times.

 

I tell homeowners either 6-8 weeks or 8-12 and expect downtime and dry times.

Thats crazy

 

Well there's been a slight change in topic. The title asks about tiling a shower to make money. Naturally, you can easily change that to an entire bathroom.

Yes, I can make money tiling a shower. It is much harder to make good money with an entire bath remodel. Like the new guy said, you might need every interior trade. And the problem compounds for certain trades when that bath is on the smaller side. Drywall, electrical and paint don't have much work to perform and therefore, isn't always worth their time. How can the painter make money if they have to drive 40 mins to work for 2 hours?

Some trades might increase their bids to make it worthwhile. That eats into profits when you're trying to be competitive. So unless you can keep most of the work in-house, a bathroom can be a lower profit job.

I started pushing certain items off to the HO directly. Yes, I lose the markup but if it contracts you the job, you are working and the subs don't have to lower their prices to ridiculous margins to be working either.

 

Well there's been a slight change in topic. The title asks about tiling a shower to make money. Naturally, you can easily change that to an entire bathroom.

Yes, I can make money tiling a shower. It is much harder to make good money with an entire bath remodel. Like the new guy said, you might need every interior trade. And the problem compounds for certain trades when that bath is on the smaller side. Drywall, electrical and paint don't have much work to perform and therefore, isn't always worth their time. How can the painter make money if they have to drive 40 mins to work for 2 hours?

Some trades might increase their bids to make it worthwhile. That eats into profits when you're trying to be competitive. So unless you can keep most of the work in-house, a bathroom can be a lower profit job.

I started pushing certain items off to the HO directly. Yes, I lose the markup but if it contracts you the job, you are working and the subs don't have to lower their prices to ridiculous margins to be working either.

The bold above is a key point.

As I stated in a previous post, I had a bathroom come my way this winter. Referral through the lumber yard I work with. The yard owner had already sold the customer high end cabinets.

He wanted me to install the cabinets and do the prep for the tile shower...basically getting it completely ready for tile, and then an acquaintance of the HO was going to do the shower install. I was like..."uh...no thanks." My thought process was, why on earth would I do all the grunt work on this just so the HO's buddy who owns a retail flooring store can come in and make big margins on the material and labor, take all the glory for the project, and most assuredly blame me when something isn't just so with how he wants it. Not a frickin chance.

You make an excellent point. Tile showers are a specialized trade. Once you own the specialized tools to complete them, and develop the skills and systems to execute the job fast, you should be able to be very competitive.

Entire bathrooms on the other hand, encompass a very wide range of trades. Each trade/phase of the project requires specialized tools and skills to complete the job efficiently and effectively.

So in entire bathroom jobs, overhead goes up, and in a sense specialization decreases because you are spreading your skills/experience over a broader range.

This thought process makes it more understandable why those of us who are more of an all encompassing remodeler find it difficult to compete with the more specialized shower guys. And in a larger context, why so many "builders" find it impossible to compete in bathrooms when they are used to working in a much larger context.

 

After you do a bunch of work over many years you won't care so much about the glory of being the guy that puts the bow on the finished product.

If you could make decent money hanging the cabs and doing the prep I would have done it. Plus it keeps the guy at the yard happy which leads to more referrals in the future.

My suppliers have been a good source of referrals over the years and if I blew off the work they sent me they would stop referring it to me.

 

After you do a bunch of work over many years you won't care so much about the glory of being the guy that puts the bow on the finished product.

If you could make decent money hanging the cabs and doing the prep I would have done it. Plus it keeps the guy at the yard happy which leads to more referrals in the future.

My suppliers have been a good source of referrals over the years and if I blew off the work they sent me they would stop referring it to me.

Like Tins said, how would you warranty the prep work? Anything could be said about your prep. This would not be a wise business model.

 

Yes...didn't mean to drive the train off the tracks. I do OK on either but am usually doing the shower as part of the entire package. I will say this, many guys can make money on the same trade some else loses....because they are efficient and execute well. I don't do well on soffit work usually. Any of us can make money where we turn the job smoothly. Sometimes we get off track and don't profit and collect slow. An example is running short of bullnose on a shower and it has to be ordered.

 

I have for some reason started doing baths. No tile yet. I am quickly learni ng that it is a on again off again type gig. Tomorrow I have both the electrician and a plumber in a 5 by 8 space. One in the morning, one in the afternoon.

I do them time and materials also. I also have two seperate ones going at th e same time and tomorrow I wil start jumping between them.

What saves me is I do all the other stuff. Framing, paint, drywall etc. So I can keep myself busy.

Still itbis a balancing act between starts and stops. I am just now trying to get the hang of it as I am used to starting at 8 and finishing on the same job around 5 or 6.

 

Good rule of thumb: if it doesn't feel right, don't do it . Tile showers take experience to do well and profitably. Waterproof is like pregnant... Either you are or you aren't . I'm not saying guys that are doing well are special, just have had a lot of practice.

 

I would have set the cabinets and any other work I was capable of doing. Just tell them how far you'll take the prep.

As a tile setter, I dislike when someone preps my job. Usually it's done wrong and causes me to do more work to get it right. The tile guy would be crazy to let someone else prep.