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We’re a small, actually tiny, new, struggling remodeling business. The business is actually growing in spite of our lack of advertising. Most of my experience is in custom work, and always as a doer not a bidder.
We just looked at a potential job to tape and finish a bathroom drywall job where the homeowner hung the board. He screwed the board on about 4 inch centers. He also tried to be really frugal and pieced together all the green board. There are primarily butt seams and 40 pounds of screws in the 5X7 bath.
How would one (or more than one) of you bid this job? I’m kind of interested in this job because I think we may get more referrals through the wife’s business. I expect to spend two days taping and finishing the room.
We’ve been asked to bid several other jobs but I think we’re pretty lousy at bidding. Do any of you have any rules of thumb or guidelines you use?
On other jobs we use the rule of thumb of “how many days will this take and what would this(or these) days be worth to us if we had to buy them. We replaced a shower installed by a commercial builder and wound up earning about $2.00 per hour. Part of that reason was that our bidder (my wife) forgot to include any time in the bid. Rather than a time and material job it worked out to be a material job. Luckily the homeowner thought our bid was too low and doubled it. They have also asked us to bid their kitchen remodel and another bathroom. I wonder if there’s a connection?
Any advice?
Once long ago I posted a question and it wound up buried in some totally unrelated post. If that happens here, please don’t blast me or assume my parents weren’t married when I was conceived. I may be ignorant, but not stupid and I’m guessing Andy will help me.
Thanks
Replies
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Let's See.......the homeOwner, for whatever reason, (Cheap or needs an ego boost) does a crappy hanging job.
You have never taped a crappy hanging soooooo, figure what your time is worth, per hour, and do the deal T$M.
He's gonna want it to look like my hanger hung it and my taper taped it. In other words, perfect! Without taking into concideration the crappy hanging job that simmers below......
It's gonna take you twice as long as you think it will. Betcha?
With all that in mind, remember to protect yourself, your income and your reputation.
Luck
*> It's gonna take you twice as long as you think it will. Betcha?Unless it takes longer.Rich Beckman
*bid it for the two days and then use a setting joint compound instead of a drying compound and do the job in one day....stop trying to figure what someone else would buy the job for..you have to bid the job based on what you need to make to cover the cost of business AND your wages.. just as you would if you were paying an employee... because you are.. your BEST employee...you !stop shortchanging yourself... bid the job based on what it costs YOU.. not some imaginary competitor...they don't know any more about bidding than you do.. so why use their numbers.?..
*I'd include the price of installing new green board. Start good finish good
*I am remodeling a 4'x8' bathroom with a 3'x4' shower alcove and it cost me $500 for hang/tape/orange peel finish (not including shower walls, shower ceiling only). Two guys did the complete job in one long day. Good work too and to top it all off the ceiling had a large span (about 22") between one of the ceiling joists (non structural, the ceiling is dropped about a foot below the 2nd floor joists) and the wall because of the heater ducting. In was in the way. They nailed in a piece of blocking between the span in front of the ducting and put in a new ceiling joist. No charge, the material came from the owner, he had it laying around in the garage. I was absolutely shocked, they just said that they didn't want to have any problems later on/want to do a quality job etc.... Definite keeper.
*gkw-Bidding is a skill like any other. It takes time and effort to develop it. Get started now and expect to work on it for the rest of your business career.One bit of advice: know how you are making or losing money. Carefully record your actual costs and compare them to your original estimate. Have these costs broken down as minutely as possible. Update the numbers that you will use on your next estimate. As you do this you will gradually build up a wealth of experience that will greatly increase the accuracy of your bids and your confidence in them. Good luck
*Mark is right. You must ask yourself who is your competition for this job. I would figure out how many days it would take, multiply by a fudge factor of 1.5, add your material and add a mark up of 20-30%. Some of the best jobs you do are the ones you don't get. Good luck.
*I would do the job exactly as Mike described...near the stream,aj$375
*A.J.Your hired!
*4 to 5 hundred depending on how bad the hanging job is.
*It would be safer to bid $800 to make sure you don't get it.
*AJQuit underbidding us all!
*AJ If youre ever in NY I have work for you. $375???? You mean a day don't you? Labor only,,,,and cash.
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We're a small, actually tiny, new, struggling remodeling business. The business is actually growing in spite of our lack of advertising. Most of my experience is in custom work, and always as a doer not a bidder.
We just looked at a potential job to tape and finish a bathroom drywall job where the homeowner hung the board. He screwed the board on about 4 inch centers. He also tried to be really frugal and pieced together all the green board. There are primarily butt seams and 40 pounds of screws in the 5X7 bath.
How would one (or more than one) of you bid this job? I'm kind of interested in this job because I think we may get more referrals through the wife's business. I expect to spend two days taping and finishing the room.
We've been asked to bid several other jobs but I think we're pretty lousy at bidding. Do any of you have any rules of thumb or guidelines you use?
On other jobs we use the rule of thumb of "how many days will this take and what would this(or these) days be worth to us if we had to buy them. We replaced a shower installed by a commercial builder and wound up earning about $2.00 per hour. Part of that reason was that our bidder (my wife) forgot to include any time in the bid. Rather than a time and material job it worked out to be a material job. Luckily the homeowner thought our bid was too low and doubled it. They have also asked us to bid their kitchen remodel and another bathroom. I wonder if there's a connection?
Any advice?
Once long ago I posted a question and it wound up buried in some totally unrelated post. If that happens here, please don't blast me or assume my parents weren't married when I was conceived. I may be ignorant, but not stupid and I'm guessing Andy will help me.
Thanks