Opinion Poll : Charge less money for new decks?

I have a couple of new decks to bid on. Do you feel you should charge less money to clean and seal a new deck? I have mixed feelings on this ........it is easier to wash, but you still need to do just about the same amount of work. Also, a new deck could potentially use more sealer.

Well, I bidded the two jobs a little less then normal, about .09 cents per square foot less. That's what I decided to do.....but, what would you do???

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Mike Hughes
Everclear
Souderton, PA

Yo Mike
What you going to clean these new decks with?

Hey Mike,

We charge the same price on any deck we do. If it is an older deck and appears it MAY use quite a bit more sealer than a surcharge is added. If it's not used we do not add it in.. but sq. ft to sq. ft the price is the same new or old.



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Greg Rentschler
GCR PowerClean
www.gcrpowerclean.com
NEW E-Mail address: GCR PowerClean@cs.com

Mike, We pretty much charge the same to clean/seal a new deck compared to an older deck because the labor is pretty much the same. Basically I charge everything by how much time it should take to complete the job. I dont use sq. footage which is to compicated for my thinking. If an older deck will take longer to clean then we price accordingly.

Mike, one more thing that we do which is different than what alot of contractors do is we give a labor charge than after that we put + materials. example if we have a deck that needs to be powerwash and stained, on the estimate we break it down like this: powerwash deck $150, Stain deck $200 + materials. And then we put aprox how many gallons of stain that needs to be purchased that way if we use more than we thought they needed than they pay and if we use less than we thought we needed than they save money. This way nobody loses. Also I give the owner the option of picking up the materials which they never do and then I pick it up for them and I'll save them 20% because that is my contractors discount and they always appreciate this. I make my money off of the labor charge only. In the future I may only give the home owner a 10% discount on materials so I can make a few bucks on picking up the materials even though the paint store is less than 5 minutes from my house. Sorry a little long. C-ya.