Pricing

I am looking to start a deck cleaning and protecting business. I was wondering if anyone could offer any suggestions on how to price such jobs. I really don't have any idea was the going rate is. Any help would be highly appreciated.

Originally posted by timdar:
I am looking to start a deck cleaning and protecting business. I was wondering if anyone could offer any suggestions on how to price such jobs. I really don't have any idea was the going rate is. Any help would be highly appreciated.

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Hey Timdar;
Thats a hard one to answer, some contractors like to charge the by the square foot method

$1.00 per sqft X 400 sqft = $400.00

And some like the hourly charge plus material costs

$75.00 per hr X 4.50 hrs = 337.50
$16.00 for brightner + $48.00 for 3 gal of sealer = $64.00

So $337.50 + $64.00 materials = $401.50

Now on bigger jobs gets to expensive

the sqft method for a 2200 sqft would be $2200.00 @ a $1.00 sqft

the same would be about $1200.00 with the hour material method
hopr this helps
Richard

Price varies per area/state. We charge as much as 5.00 per sq foot on small jobs and never under a 1.25 on big jobs. That is to restore and protect.

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Dan Flynn
Flynn Service Pro
www.powerwash.net
708/715-4206

Hi Timdar, I don't belive that it really makes any differance what the going rate is. I have people out here charging $1.00 a sq. ft. and I charge a min. of $2.00 with a min. of $4.50 a lin. ft. for railings. In just decks, I did just under $250,000.00 last year. Keep in mind that this does not include my log homes and cedar homes which I specialize in. We use nothing but professional products. Nothing over the counter. I see a lot of people using Thompsons and Behr and other like products. These products will not hold up. I know a lot of you are concerned about the cost of your products, don't make the same mistake as the home owner. Do the jop with professional products and get professional results that last. I see that you are not to far from Lansing Michigan. I will be there on June 2,3 and 4TH at the Log Home Show. If you can make it, I would love to talk with you. I'll be in booth 104. If you would like to talk more, just let me know. Have a good day.

Hey Timdar
Pricing depends on how you want to position your business. High end, low end? I got a lucky look at my competitors bids on a deck I bid thursday. The deck floor was around 800 Sq ft. Railings were 77 ft by 8 (two sides by 4 ft each - they were unique - usually just 77 X 5 for rails) and 100 ft of miscelaneus. 1538 total sq ft. 200 ft per gallon plus 20 dollars for cleaner and gas =

8 gal stain @ $20/Gal = 160
Misc materials = 20
M = 180

Wash = 200
Seal = 300

Total cost = around $680

This was a little low for my usual price, but my price goes up and down depending on how much work I have. The other two bids were at $1300 and $395. One guy is full of himself, the other guy is too cheap. Guess who got the job? Service Source, Inc.- High quality at a good value. I'll make $500 for two days of work. Could be better, could be much worse.

.... and just to show you how prices differ...

the same size deck Russ was speaking of would be around a $1200 job for us using F & P or similar. I am one of those "full of myself" guys.





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Greg Rentschler
GCR PowerClean
www.gcrpowerclean.com

1450.00, Call me real full

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Dan Flynn
Flynn Service Pro
www.powerwash.net
708/715-4206

I guess you can call me really full because I would charge right at $2000.00 for this same deck. Now I know that some of you might think that this would give a lot of proffit. The finish I use costs $29.99 per gallon. I buy this in 100 to 300 gallon lots in order to save shipping costs. My cleaner/stripper runs about $18.00 per gallon. I have to buy this at $3000.00 a pop in order to maintain my price. Now you have to factor in the cost of doing business. Little things that cost money, like a truck, insurance on the truck, equipment, office cost. Even if your a one man operation, it still cost you for a phone and paper for your bids. Then you have the costs of liabilaty insurance and the cost of your bond, both of which you should have even if not required by the state your in. If the state requires that you register with the state construction board, you have to factor that cost into your rate. I call cleaning decks a " numbers game" The more decks you do, the greater the possilability that someone is going to sue you. You had better be prepared for it.
My deck business runs about 6 months out of the year due to weather. This puts it into seasonal work. Although I have no income coming in from this part of my business during the winter months, I still have expenses going out. I have to make my profit during the season to carry me through the winter. If you have employees, your $500.00 profit will send you to the poor house real quick. As far as I'm concerned, theres only one position to put your business, and that is at the top end. The bottom end people won't be around long enought to worry about. As I said befor, I only use top grade products and I only give top grade results. While I'm on this, I see a lot of you are using bleach and TSP. Have any of you done research on what these products are doing to the wood? We have, and I wouldn't touch them with a 20 foot pole. Using these products could be why your finish isn't lasting as long as it should. Bosie Cascade is the largest user of bleach in the world. They use it to make wood pulp. For you people around the Great Lakes. I am from Michigan and I know that the water tables are high there. By using bleach and TSP, you could get envolved with EPA. This s**** has been known to leach into water supplies. There are better products to use. There are other reasons not to use bleach but I won't go into them at this time. Hope this help you a little. Have a great day. ... Jim ...

Back to reality here-

Timdar hasn't even started yet. If he goes in expecting to make almost $700 a day (Dan's price) - I hope he has a part time job to keep food on the table. He certainly isn't going to do it cleaning decks. If he does, I need him to sell some ocean front property in Nebraska for me.

I am reading some of these posts for $4.50 and 5.00 sf and I have to say, "WHAT"? I do charge a bunch myself and just this year raised my prices to $2.35 a sf plus $1.50 lin ft for rails. I guess I can see Dan's $5.00 quote a ft. with the fact in mind that it is a small one. I dont do small ones unless they are on the same house as a big one. I really dont have a problem as I live too close to too many lakes. 2500 is the minimum that I do unless its for a friend of a customer. What about maintenance? I sell a maintenance contract on every single job ot I just flatly will not do it. I give a 2 year warranty and then go and do it over again on the 3rd sometimes the 4th year.
Some of you I am having a hard time belving that you getting what you getting. Russ brought me to this page with an e-mail. Well I'd love to talk to you guys that are making bigger bucks than me and I'd love to trade war stories with you and compare notes. Sorry I dont come to the chat room, but I have work to do at night. Well good luck and I wish you all the best.

Rob

Timdar, I'm also pretty new to the business. I've been in it about 9 months now and have only done one deck and that was in Oct ( late in the season). I also do residential and flat work. The deck was 1063 SF with a gazebo. I only charged 700.00 and was timid about giving that price. After I completed that deck and and compared that 700.00 to the cost of supplies and time I realized that I way underbid that job. Profits was only about 200.00 after subtracting the cost of supplies. You have to judge your pricing on the cost of the supplies and the amount of time it will take. Listen to some of the old pros and don't sell yourself cheap. Luckily I'm only in this part time right now, I'm a Deputy Sheriff full time but I don't plan to chase bads guys forever. PS I just de-winterized my system 2 weeks ago and have already completed two residential jobs and have bid on two decks. Keep your chin up and have a profitable year.

My price for doing the 800 square foot deck mentioned above would have been $1235.00 depending upon factors such as elevation, etc... I have a set minimum price per SQ FT. for decks and I never haggle about price. For the year 1999 I had a 63% closing ratio for sales verses total estimates and as any salesperson will tell ya, that ain't bad. One of the biggest things you have to do when bidding a job is SELL YOURSELF! If the people are not impressed with you than you don't have a real chance at all of getting the job, no matter what the price.

Don't be fooled about the difference in prices per square foot quoted on the board though since a lot of it all comes down to how each person figures the deck in their own way. I know a lot of people that don't even measure rails, they'll just figure on deck surface and add a few cents per square foot if there are alot of rails. Other people like myself measure everything and then determine a total square footage of wood surface. It all boils down to that fact that its a numbers game. I use the total wood surface square footage way of presenting an estimate because its a much larger number and if you mention the total square footage to the homeowner they will start to think larger numbers as far as $$$'s go.

Good Luck,
Paul

Hey Timdar,

Sun Brite Sevices in Atlanta would charge

$ 1254.20 on your deck.

you did say whether there were any steps.
we add $12.00 for each step too.

Good luck, you'll love the business

Chris www.sunbritedecks.com