Pricing Methods

[Cain]

Bad Dave.
damn fine work Craig and Todd. 2 days thats incredible.

[Scottish Tile and Stone]

I did a Jimmy Johns a few years back.. NEVER AGAIN.. The 4x4's on the wall have to be set so no color touches each other except on the points.. YOU HAVE to start full tile off the bullnose regardless how the cuts work out. Plus that stupid brick wall with their logo on it is a real pain.

[evan1968]

And don't forget having to deal with Tim.

[TonE]

Had to look up JJ.
I figured you might like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=fV9fyl8iQO8

[Jason12479]

Get a kick out of people sometime. Got a phone call referred from a friend....I have all the tile andsupplies to tile a floor. 3000
Square feet that is. Not many corner all just a big square area. He thinks it's 13x13 tile ( now he bought it wouldn't you know). Installation on concrete. How much would most people go in and do it for remind you upstate New York not florida. He said he wanted a square foot price and I said not without looking at it. Prep work on concrete might need to be addressed who knows but he said his budget is $2800-3000. Kind of laughed and said sorry not interested kind if because he seemed to be a know it all on the phone and that he could get some union guys in there for $22 an hour and still not spend $2000??? Am I out of the loop for not taking this or what ? I'd rather do a shower bath remodel job make that in a few days instead

[cx]

That would be entirely up to you, Jason.

[evan1968]

Jason, ask him what he wants left out....thinset, grout or cuts.

I have had a few calls like that this month.

[Houston Remodeler]

I would have hung up the phone before he was finished talking.

[Steve in Denver]

I represent the customer in this conversation, and I figured I would weigh in. I have really enjoyed reading this thread - it's interesting to see it "from the other side" without doubt and mistrust clouding things.

My main comment is in response to the discussion (a bit outdated now) about whether or not to charge more when you are busy. My take is that you should absolutely charge more when times are busy. Why? Philosophically, because there are lean times and there are fat times and you should get while the gettin' is good. Selfishly I want you to charge more because it lets me get what I want, assuming I decide to pay the price. By not raising your prices, you are effectively using the market force of schedule delay rather than price...There isn't anything inherently wrong with that, but I tend to have more money than time, so I'd rather you charge 25% more and be able to get started in a month than have to wait 6 months for your normal rate.

And actually, in a best of both worlds scenario, you would present me with 2 options. Wait 3 months (or whatever it is) or pay a premium to get a "rush job"...

This scheduling flexibility may not be practical in this line of work (why not?), but that's how my cabinet supplier does it (25% upcharge or 50% upcharge depending on how fast you need it). From a customer standpoint, having this option is great!

My 2 cents.

[The Kid]

[Dave Gobis]

About 3-5 years into business I finally got bidding figured out. Also took that long to build up a fair referral business. When I did bid my prices went up 10-15% for every 2-3 weeks of work backlog. I think the absolute cheapest I ever bid a job for was 2.25 and that was for thousands of feet with mostly long straight runs on the first floor. Most of the time we were in the $3-$4 range. At the end of the year we typically averaged 30-35% gross and 7-10% net, our best year being 13% net. We lost money only one year due to a few bankruptcy's and a rescinded change order. Ran like that for 20 years. Unless you are 1099 contractor with no insurance, working for anything close to a dollar is the same as taking a loan from the bank with interest. There is no money in it for you.

[Jason12479]

Just an update on that job. Apparently he couldn't find any union guys to do it at his price so he got a couple Quotes and now he knows my price wasn't to bad for install. $4.75 a foot I guess and even got an apology on his reactions.
Tile guys up north don't install tile for $.60 a square foot.

[PetrH]

For me a 3000 sq. ft. job with mostly wide open spaces would be interesting at about $2 for labour and $1 for materials, leveling extra. I average around 400 sq ft/day set and grouted on stuff like that, so I'd figure on 1 day washing the floors and prepping, and 8 days of setting and grouting. 1 day for optimism and it works out to a 10 day job or $600/day. (440 for me and 160 for my helper) Not lawyer wages, but beats sitting at home. http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/...1&d=1396566167

[evan1968]

I would take that all day long Petr.

[Houston Remodeler]

Hmm,

I just bid a wide open space install of 2000 sf of 24"x48" tiles at a little over $15 / sf.