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I have run about 98 feet of simple crown molding for a client and have what I consider to be an awful lot of hours in it (i.e I cannot believe that it took me that long). How long would it take a reasonably skilled carpenter to run that much crown. I have a part time home improvement business and I do not do that much crown (mostly do work for real estate agents but pick up jobs like this from time to time).
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Chuck:
Actually, the deciding factor is the number of cuts involved more than the # of feet. Around here, mid end trim is installed at the rate of around $2.50 (US) - $3.50 a cut. Base, casing, crown etc, all the same rate. You can do the math from there. A good trim carpenter should make around $30 (or more) an hr.
*Chuck, I agree with Matt. It would help to the latout of the room. A square/rectangle w/ just 4 inside corners? A square room with a fireplace/chimney 6 inside/2 outside corners? etc. Lenght of wall if ya want to get real specific. Jeff
*A couple weeks ago I installed 92' of 2-3/4" crown that was bought by the customer in 8' lengths which made for several splice cuts. One end ended into wall cabinets that had cove moulding and the crown had to be scribed to fit against the cove. The entire job took me 6 hrs.
*That's six minutes a cut! (Or faster!) That's skill!Rich Beckman
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There were two rooms all with inside corners with two splices.
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What about coped wide (5 1/4") crown, unusual angles (90-225°)? Are there "class A" jobs, "class B," etc. varying price with installer's effort (for example, floating drywall dips flat instead of using 3/8" glop of caulk)?
*I don't break it down into class "A" or class "B" jobs. I only have one class, and it's the best job I can give the customer for his money.When I go to look at the job, I discuss all the details with the customer and discuss all the options and costs that will go along with them. After that, it's their call.The job that I previously mentioned above, I priced out at $1.80 per running foot, with material supplied by the customer.
*Well, OK, class A clients and class B. I didn't mean craftsmanship or profit, just some people want Cadillac and others want Yugos.I charged $4/ft incl $1.50/ft mat'l, doubtlessly too little but I really wanted the experience. I definitely sweated the details -- all of the existing cheapo builder's trim was coming apart and I wanted to make it look bad. :)
*How many feet did you have to install? Was that for the 5-1/4" coped?How did your price compare to charging by the cut?
*Since we're talking $ here, how would you go about bidding trimming an entire house? Had a builder tell me recently that a trim carpenter nearby will trim a house for $2/sq.ft. Obviously, I don't know what that includes (doors are usually prehung, most folks use some crown in the "public areas", etc.), but does that even sound close?Doing the math, for a 2500 ft house, that'd be $5000 which works out to 166 hours at $30/hr. Should it take 4 weeks to do that size house? Sounds like a lot to me, but I'm no builder.What do ya'll think?
*Well, out here in Abilene, Texas I would love to get $2.00/sq'. The most you'll get here is .50.Normally what's included in the basic price is hanging all the interior doors which are usually pre-hungs. Make up and install the window stools and aprons. Install caseing around doors. Run baseboard. Installation of one pull down stair. Build closet shelves which includes one shoe rack. Anything other than the above is an upcharge or extra.Most of the builders here wrap the windows with drywall, but if they are requesting them to wrapped with wood and caseing installed that's extra.Working by myself I can trim a 2000 sq' house without any extras in about 7 days.I just finished trimming a 1150 sq' hunting lodge that is an all metal building having those metal studs on partition walls and metal half hats on exterior walls and charged $l.00/sq ft. Took me 5 days to trim and wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
*180' coped. About 40 cuts, few of them simple 90° inside corners.So I charged something like $750 for three rooms, one a large open-plan kitchen ... that's maybe $400 labor or $10 a cut. I also filled and caulked the crown. It's hard to recall how many hours it took -- too many, but I'll only get faster.
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In indiana ive gotten anywhere from ....50 to a dollar depending on the house .The problem i always faced was the builder wanted you to go back and do knobs and punch out stuff for the extra few cents a square foot.Back to the crown thing i think a good trim man can cut and install (cope) 51/2 crown with out stopping to figure out what to do next.Speed has a lot of variabels as listed above
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I have run about 98 feet of simple crown molding for a client and have what I consider to be an awful lot of hours in it (i.e I cannot believe that it took me that long). How long would it take a reasonably skilled carpenter to run that much crown. I have a part time home improvement business and I do not do that much crown (mostly do work for real estate agents but pick up jobs like this from time to time).