To include or not to include??? THat is the question

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Dorsky01

Guest
When pricing a job is it a good idea to have 2 prices, labor, and materials. If so when do you decide how mutch to tell the customer for the materials. Is it bad to wait until the end of the job.
Thanks Guys
Matt
 

Jeff Moen

New Member
Matt

Just bid it straight out and include everything in the bid. Right now I'm charging 11 cents a sq foot for lower levels and all the way up to 15 depending on how hard it is to get to. I have no idea if I'm over or under but the old timers really can't complain about newbies business if they don't share specific info. But Matt I should say here I have found no competition in my area accept the home owner themselves. I wish we could all get on some national average, but everyone is too weirded out about just saying it. I have no idea if I'm lowballing the other guy unless someone tells me, until then I'll just do what I'm doing. I'm good at it, I like it and the homeowner is always so thrilled they actually tip me. That tells me I just might be short changing myself, but I won't know unless someone tells me. I'm in it for the long haul, and make better money at this than I ever have in my life. So good luck to you Matt, and when I get my prices down I'll share.

Teri
 

FCPWLLC

New Member
Jeff Moen said:
Matt

Just bid it straight out and include everything in the bid. Right now I'm charging 11 cents a sq foot for lower levels and all the way up to 15 depending on how hard it is to get to.
Teri

$ 0.11/sqft for what? I'll tell you if you are low or not.
 

Jeff Moen

New Member
11 a sq. for lower siding, I'm sorry the question has been asked so many time's here, and nobody answers it. I just feel like if any one wants to get the low ballers out of the equation, then bring them up to the same pricing standards. If someone giving a low ball knows I'm charging 11 cent a sq. foot to clean siding and he's charging 7 cents, he will bring his price up simply because he now knows he can make more. Then he will have to meet my standards of cleanliness. My husband and I have been in the roofing and siding biz for years. Pretty much the bids are close around here, because everyone knows about where to bid, yes there are low ballers, but they do half a job ask for half the money and never come back. Ran into it all the time. Any way the difference between companies lies in the expediency of the job done, the cleanliness of the ground after the job is done, and overall salemanship and insurance. Quality is the name of the game in every other contractors bids. I have no competition here that I can find in the phone book, by talking to people, or even find a contractor web sites, nothing. Being in siding and roofing though we have cleaned alot of it, and what I want to know is are we charging too much or too little. What are the averages. If there were someone in my area I would call him up and just have him come out to my house and give me a bid instead of asking those of you who have the knowledge, but there is no one. So I humbly submit this question, what is the average per sq. foot for siding, and is it different for soffits?

Teri Moen
 
M

MPW

Guest
Actually, you are a bit low. Add .05 to your price and you will be right.
 

FCPWLLC

New Member
We price Vinyl Siding according to the home. 1-story, 2-story, 3-story.... Brick front- 3 sides vinyl etc. Price start at $250 and upwards of $550.

Window Genie here charges $600 for the houses I charge $300. Am I Low? NO! They think they need lifts and tell customers that it will take them 7 hours. Needless to say, I love bidding against those guys. It takes me an hour to hour and a half to do most homes.

Anybody else have a Window Genie Franchise in your area?

I called them once to see if they would sub any of thier vinyl out and they told me that because they were a Franchise, they couldn't use subs. I think they just weren't having luck getting vinyl jobs because of thier high bids.
 

Jeff Moen

New Member
I could never bid the house by just the house, what about the soffits, do clean them or just spray them off. We charge more for soffits because we use a soft spin brush and actually get up there with planks and clean them, even walk roofs for the hard to reach places. A home owner can just spray the house down, and many do. I had a lady yesturday who just bought a 2500 psi power washer and tried to do it herself. She didn't like the results and called me, so I better be doing a much better job then she did.
 

FCPWLLC

New Member
Jeff,

If you are having to get on planks and the roof then you most likley are not using the right Chemicals. We NEVER use any pressure. We NEVER use more than a Chemical tip or an x-jet. You are most likely spending more time than is needed to clean.

Are you using an Extension wand? An X-jet? Sodium Hypochlorite? Does your machine produce at least 4 gpm?

Most on here will agree that Ladders and Planks or lifts or actually using pressure on every square inch of vinyl is a waste of valuable time. And on top of it all, the process that most of us use here, will most likely out clean and produce better results than the guys using poor chems and too much pressure.

A homeowner can't just spray down a house like we do and get the results we do.

Keep studying this site; you will see that you can make more money in less time and save your back aches by working smarter.
 

PressurePros

New Member
On housewashes I never break down material cost becuase there isn't really much. On decks where materials can total $400 I break it down and markup the cost of sealer to match my margins.
 

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