Answers
Contractors who don't know how to bid accurately often don't know what their production rates are. A good place to start is the PDCA Cost & Estimating Guide, which is available at google books. Below is the link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=b8...ce=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Once you figure out the production rates for any given surface, you need to figure out what to charge per hour. This is the golden question. Say your painters make $15 an hour (in SoCal this is dirt cheap), you then have to add overhead costs (such as workers comp, general liability, utilities, salaries, etc) and profit. Our base hourly rate is $45 an hour, which includes a minimum 10% profit margin, but this price leaves little to no room for error. I hardly bid a job for less than $50 an hour per worker. I have charged up to $65 an hour per painter on some projects. Our current profit margins are 10 to 20 percent,a and we are currently closing on 40% of all of our estimates.
I recommend contractors who are not a part of the Painting & Decorating Contractors of America to join asap. They have a ton of resources. If there are any other good associations, please clue me in.
Contractors who don't know how to bid accurately often don't know what their production rates are. A good place to start is the PDCA Cost & Estimating Guide, which is available at google books. Below is the link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=b8...ce=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Once you figure out the production rates for any given surface, you need to figure out what to charge per hour. This is the golden question. Say your painters make $15 an hour (in SoCal this is dirt cheap), you then have to add overhead costs (such as workers comp, general liability, utilities, salaries, etc) and profit. Our base hourly rate is $45 an hour, which includes a minimum 10% profit margin, but this price leaves little to no room for error. I hardly bid a job for less than $50 an hour per worker. I have charged up to $65 an hour per painter on some projects. Our current profit margins are 10 to 20 percent,a and we are currently closing on 40% of all of our estimates.
I recommend contractors who are not a part of the Painting & Decorating Contractors of America to join asap. They have a ton of resources. If there are any other good associations, please clue me in.
