New home price

[wyatt2]

Just starting out on my own. Around here we bid by the sq. foot, any thing elsie would be too hard for the GC's to add up. But the smaller the house the less profit. I'm thinking about separating the service cost. IE here it's around $3.00 per sq foot. So I would like to charge $2.75 and $500 for 200 amp and $1000 for 400 amp.
See any problems with this.

[electricmanscott]

Just starting out on my own. Around here we bid by the sq. foot, any thing elsie would be too hard for the GC's to add up.

Thinking like this will put you out of business before you even start.

YOU come up with a price and present it to THEM. What they do with it at that point is their business. NEVER EVER give a squre foot price as a bid. That is crazy. :shock:

[j_erickson]

I agree with Scott. I'd never give a square foot price. I price per unit.

[jes25]

The square foot thing is a good way to check your work but to base the whole bid on it can screw you. For example I just wired a 500 sq. ft. addtion that took 2 guys 3 days to complete (we were hustling). You wanna wire that for 1500$?

[ceknight]

Around here we bid by the sq. foot, any thing elsie would be too hard for the GC's to add up. But the smaller the house the less profit.

You won't survive at those rates, unless "survival" to you means living out of an old truck eating Vienna sausages and Saltines.

There's only one good way I know to do a SF bid: figure out what the actual job should cost, including overhead and profit. Divide by the building's SF and then you'll have a workable SF price for that particular job.

Anything less and your startup will be brief.

Good luck,

Chris Knight
Syracuse NY

[tshea]

Just starting out on my own. Around here we bid by the sq. foot, any thing elsie would be too hard for the GC's to add up. But the smaller the house the less profit. I'm thinking about separating the service cost. IE here it's around $3.00 per sq foot. So I would like to charge $2.75 and $500 for 200 amp and $1000 for 400 amp.
See any problems with this.

What is your goal? To stay in business and make money or to go belly up?

1. If you are underbidding the competition, you are throwing profit away.
2. Sounds very very cheap for those services. I was doing easy trailer services for $500 in NC 20 yrs ago.
3. Like others have said NEVER bid sqft. If the GCs are not smart enough to figure out what you are bidding, they probably are not smart enough to write your check!

[satcom]

Around here we bid by the sq. foot,

Don't look at what others are doing, sq ft is good for checking against your estimate figures, not to submit as a price.

any thing elsie would be too hard for the GC's to add up.


What is he adding up? You give him a firm contract price, with all YOUR terms in the contract.

But the smaller the house the less profit.

Size of home, has nothing to do with profit, your percent, of desired profit, should remain the same.

[wyatt2]

Thinks for the info my old boss kept me in the dark on biding I can do the work but the buisness side I need to learn. I want to make money, but I still like a good can of vienna sausages now and then. :wink:

[Minuteman]

Tony,

GC's look at the bottom line. Around here they check our prices with a ft/2 price, but that's their rule-of-thumb, not how WE bid it.

What if a house has high ceilings? what about recessed cans? Does a 2000 ft/2 house with gas heat, range, and water heater bid the same price as a 2000 ft/2 total electric? What about a well? Or a hot tub?

I bid based upon the number of "openings". How many recept's, switches, and fixtures. I bid more for cans, ceiling fans, and track lights.

I had a rookie GC hand me a set of prints with recept's every 6' and a ton of cans in the eve and living room. He said my price was too high per ft/2 and gave the job to a guy I know. Latter, I saw him at the supply house... He had Vienna sausage breath. :P

[brian wisemiller]

Its difficult to give a fixed price on a panel you havent seen unless all the houses are the same prints. And what if wire goes up again? It nearly doubled in price here recently. If you need to give a fixed price on services, go up on it. I usually do a lot of old work. I recently changed out old interior zinsco panel (difficult circumstances, took 7 hrs) charged $900.00 and had good breakers for service calls to boot.

[brian wisemiller]

Also any extras or changes you could keep on a seperate invoice and have gc sign each one before you do anything, that way its easier to get paid for all those "favors" that add up. I learned the hard way.

[wyatt2]

I must say that here every EC competes on a sq-foot price. and to price per opening or strait puts you out were the GC's can't compare yet I know that the others is a better way to bid. the $500 for service in no way means I would go do a change or build just a service for that price. It is just a mod on the price to help out with the size factor.

1000 sq house
1000 x 2.75 = 2750
2750 + 500 = 3250
3250/1000 = 3.25 per sq

2500 sq house
2500 x 2.75 = 6875
6875 + 500 = 7375
7375/2500 = 2.95 per sq

[scwirenut]

I wish in South Carolina we didnt have to price by the foot, but its the only way unless its a hugh custom(4000sq) I am the top paid contractor at $2.00/ft under roof..most are around 2100-3800sq/ft , I know 7 other contractors doing it for $1.85. In my town they build hundreds of houses a week so compitition is at a all time high. here you do it this way or dont do any. Again a custom house is more, im talking spec houses. I just finished one I started today. 2300sq/ft all electric, 200amp underground, 2 cans , 4 fans, 4 ea, tv/telephone. about 125 openings. thats $4600.00 it took 3 guys(including myself) 1 day, I had about $1000 in material and $250 in labor help, thats 1250. draw was half at $2300 - 1250 = $1150 profit for one day, P.S. I dont viennas only steak. when the trim out comes ill have less in material so even more profit., now..rough 2 a week, and trim 2 a week and your over $200.000/yr.

[larryl]

WOW,,,500.00 for a 200amp service,,,hey,,, i got a couple you can do,,your gonna make about 60.00,,thats awsum,,,,,
good luck,,did you forget to put a "1" in front of the "5"???
do you do any travel work??

[Minuteman]

I had about $1000 in material and $250 in labor help, thats 1250. draw was half at $2300 - 1250 = $1150 profit for one day, P.S. I dont viennas only steak. when the trim out comes ill have less in material so even more profit., now..rough 2 a week, and trim 2 a week and your over $200.000/yr.

Wow, you didn't buy any gas? Did you buy a permit? What about Work Comp, Liability, vehicle upkeep, or office expenses? Did you buy any tools?

[bradleyelectric]

I just finished one I started today. 2300sq/ft all electric, 200amp underground, 2 cans , 4 fans, 4 ea, tv/telephone. about 125 openings. thats $4600.00 it took 3 guys(including myself) 1 day, I had about $1000 in material and $250 in labor help, thats 1250. draw was half at $2300 - 1250 = $1150 profit for one day, P.S. I dont viennas only steak. when the trim out comes ill have less in material so even more profit., now..rough 2 a week, and trim 2 a week and your over $200.000/yr.

Can you please list material used in this house. It would help me with my bidding. I've heard ft. of 14-2 per square' and .5 ft. of 12-2 & 14-3 per square', but it never comes out that way for me and I do mostly commercial and service. List of all material would help a lot.

Thanks,
Steve

[scwirenut]

1250ft 14/2 @ .16ft = 200
750ft 12/2 @ .24 /ft = 180
500ft 14/3 @ .30/ft = 150
35ft 200amp ser @ 2.95ft = 105
15ft 10/3 @ .75/ft = 12
20ft 10/2 @ .45/ft = 9
20ft 6/2 @1.00/ft = 20
25ft 8/3 @ 1.00/ft= 25
rg-6 coax = free
telephone 300ft @.05/ft = 15
100sg nail up boxes @ .22 ea = 22
10 2g boxes @ 1.00 ea = 10
2 3 gang boxes @ 2.00 ea = 6
CH BR 200amp main breaker 30/40 loadcenter = 85
8 pancake boxes @ 1.25 ea = 10
hardware , rx connectors, ect....20
labor 10hrs. 1 helper at $8/hr and 1 apprentace @ 12/hr = 200
workerscomp/fica, ect = 50
permits, paid by gc
gas, $5
liability insurance $1,000,000.00 = $700/yr about $2.00/day
total $1124.00
in my prior post I estimated around $ 1250.00
im sure i left out something to come close to that.

[scwirenut]

also i figure $2.00/ft under roof, this house was about 1600/ft heated or 2250/ft under roof., most of you may use the heated sq/ft for wire estimates, but I figure everything under roof needs power, porches, garage, ect.

[wyatt2]

larryl by 500 per service I mean. I will set 200 amp panel and meter If you will let me wire the rest of the house at 2.75 per sq.(new construction) any time you want to call.(cans extra tv tell 25 ea.)

[larryl]

good morning tony,,
still sounds kinda low to me,,you said others in your erea charge 3.00$ a square foot,,you should do the same,,,

[bbe]

Wyatt2 where in nc are you located? I'm located around Forest City, nc

[bradleyelectric]

1250ft 14/2 @ .16ft = 200
750ft 12/2 @ .24 /ft = 180
500ft 14/3 @ .30/ft = 150


Thanks, I'll use this as a comparison guide on my next house bid and see how it works out.

Steve

[gngren]

I wish in South Carolina we didnt have to price by the foot, but its the only way unless its a hugh custom(4000sq) I am the top paid contractor at $2.00/ft under roof..most are around 2100-3800sq/ft, I know 7 other contractors doing it for $1.85. In my town they build hundreds of houses a week so compitition is at a all time high.


I just can't get past the but its the only way unless its a hugh custom(4000sq) I am the top paid contractor at $2.00/ft under roof..most are around 2100-3800sq/ft . It is hard for me to remember when the builders around here built homes less than 4000sq/ft. It seems like 4500-6000sq/ft is the norm any more. And the standards that go into them are just outrageous. If I bid my jobs by the sq/ft I wouldn't be employed. I just really can't get past that "huge custom(4000sq)" remark.

I just find it so wild to here about the housing styles and types that are being built elsewhere and compare it to around here. Although the market in this region is so over priced at the moment I don't know how most people can afford to buy a new home ($600,000.00 seems to be a low average.)

[JROD]

The going rate around me is $2 sq. ft. for code minimum under roof.

Recessed cans, phone, cable etc is extra and negotiable.

I don’t like the idea of doing code minimum. In the last month I have come across two new homes (under 2 years old) that with the exception of the kitchen counter and bathroom circuits, all of the rest were 15 AMP branches that had the max number of receptacles and the HO was complaining of breakers tripping. One guy’s house was on a concrete slab and the attic was finished.

[bradleyelectric]

How many receptacles are the max for residential?

[wyatt2]

Around here we only count living sq foot. so at $2 under roof our prices are close to the same. I know that priceing this way is not the best but everyone dose it that way here. so to do it any other way would be hard for the GC to compare you to other EC's

[JROD]

How many receptacles are the max for residential?

Poor grammar. :oops:

He had two 15 AMP general purpose branches that the breaker would consistently trip whenever they ran their vacuum cleaner.