Pricing A House Am I right

[clint86]

I gave a GC a price for wiring a house @ 3.25 sqft. It is 4400 sqft and has a 400 amp service, 2 kitchens, 2 laundry rooms, 3 car garuage. It is a 3 story house. He want me to do bath fans, fire alarm, and do fan boxes in the ceiling instead of regular boxes. He is trying to say it should be done for around 2.35 a sqft. It think he is low. Can you let me know? Thanks.

 

[nolabama]

I bet he does want it done for a dollar less. I see a lot of contractors in my area do houses for about 2.50 a foot. I do not know how they do it.

 

[mcclary's electrical]

I gave a GC a price for wiring a house @ 3.25 sqft. It is 4400 sqft and has a 400 amp service, 2 kitchens, 2 laundry rooms, 3 car garuage. It is a 3 story house. He want me to do bath fans, fire alarm, and do fan boxes in the ceiling instead of regular boxes. He is trying to say it should be done for around 2.35 a sqft. It think he is low. Can you let me know? Thanks.

Don't let him tell you what it should cost. Tell him you get what you pay for. If he wants to pay 2.35,,,,,tell him to go down to the corner and round up a bunch of illegal aliens,,,,they'll do it cheaper. I try to avoid contractors like this. They nickel and dime everybody to death,,,just to make himself rich. Good contractors realize that there's a piece of pie for everyone. He should have allowed way more than that. He's wrong. I'm starting a custom home next week that is 4500 sq ft. I'm in at $15,900 WITHOUT THE SERVICE. The service is priced seperately. This is for branch circuit wiring

 

[Jljohnson]

Tell him you can do it for his price and the job will meet minumum NEC standards. Then figure a switched receptacle in every room of the house and no ceiling boxes for fixtures and CO them back in later. (Just kidding but that would be playing the same game he's playing with you). I would NEVER price a house by the Sq. ft. to begin with but $2.35 a ft. is WAY to low.

 

[forman400b]

Wow these seem like low prices. I guess it depends on the location as well.

For you guys who price per sq.ft. ,what are you including?


Permits?
Services?
Stock fixtures?
RG59?
cat5?
other low voltage systems (AV etc.)?

 

[Ohmy]

No matter how you slice it $3 - $4 is pretty typical. Tell him will do it for $1.25 a square foot plus the service, lights, outlets, switches, fans, and smokes.

 

[growler]

I gave a GC a price for wiring a house @ 3.25 sqft. It is 4400 sqft and has a 400 amp service, 2 kitchens, 2 laundry rooms, 3 car garuage. It is a 3 story house. He want me to do bath fans, fire alarm, and do fan boxes in the ceiling instead of regular boxes. He is trying to say it should be done for around 2.35 a sqft. It think he is low. Can you let me know? Thanks.

The number of square feet have nothing to do with actual cost. What is he wanting to put into the house, the idea of two kitchens and two laundry rooms is an extra right there.

Better figure out what your materials are going to cost and then calculate the labor involved and this will give a much better idea of cost than square ft.

 

[Ohmy]

Seriously, floor guys don't charge by the square foot when you want them to do a mosaic.

 

[480sparky]

How many square feet of NM are you including? Square feet of recessed lights? Square feet of boxes? How many square feet of AFCI circuit breakers have you figured? How many square feet of labor is calculated? What is the calculated square footage of the service.....will 100 square feet be sufficient or will you need a 200-, or even a 400-square foot panel?

Seriously... pricing solely by square footage is a recipe for disaster. It only works will in tract housing projects where all the homes are built with a cookie-cutter mentality.

 

[nolabama]

I always hear on this forum and others to never price per square foot, yet nearly all GC's and EC's price by square foot in my area. (at least the ones I have talked to)

 

[rodneee]

2.35 sq ft will work on an 1800 sq ft, 4 bed, 2 1/2 bath, all gas, 2 story old style colonial, wired to min code (stripped), along with the builder supplying easy to install contractor grade fixtures and a prayer that the home buyer will spend 1000 to 1500 dollars in upgrades.

i do not think it will work for you.

 

[fridaymean]

Square Foot pricing is good as a self check only. I would never use it to bid a job or base a proposal off a square foot price. That said, you can use it to self check a bid if you job cost and keep good records. For instance, a tract home done around here goes for $4-$5, square foot. That is a Huge range - 25%. That said, I have never done tract housing, nor do I want to. Most new construction housing I have done falls in the $8 - $10/square foot range, some even higher....BUT I would not send a proposal base on that square foot #.

 

[fridaymean]

2.35 sq ft will work on an 1800 sq ft, 4 bed, 2 1/2 bath, all gas, 2 story old style colonial, wired to min code (stripped), along with the builder supplying easy to install contractor grade fixtures and a prayer that the home buyer will spend 1000 to 1500 dollars in upgrades.

i do not think it will work for you.

I have found that we should NOT count on extras to make money. I once heard some industry expert say (Don't remeber who) that contractors actually loose money on change orders......

I would rather make sure I am gonig to make money as bid, than count on change orders to walk away with a couple hundred bucks...what if you bid tight and something doesn't go as planned.

 

[satcom]

I always hear on this forum and others to never price per square foot, yet nearly all GC's and EC's price by square foot in my area. (at least the ones I have talked to)

Ha, you figured out that the GC's you talked to, don,t know what they are talking about, and neither does, the EC that tries to use square foot, you can track actual cost of a completed job, and assign a sq foot total job cost to it, that cost will only apply to that project.

 

[rodneee]

poor guy (clint 86) wants to get a feel for his price level and he ends up starting a debate of sq ft pricing vs material pricing vs labor pricing, tract pricing vs large custom pricing etc etc. so far this has been very insightfull and most interesting. and get this not one
(with the exception of this post) stupid or irrelevant comment from anyone

 

[fridaymean]

poor guy (clint 86) wants to get a feel for his price level and he ends up starting a debate of sq ft pricing vs material pricing vs labor pricing, tract pricing vs large custom pricing etc etc. so far this has been very insightfull and most interesting. and get this not one
(with the exception of this post) stupid or irrelevant comment from anyone

That is the problem, when do you start the job....at the estimate. Everything flows from that, so it is important how you start. It determines the rest of the job.....I don't konw if he is in the ball park..he may be...for him....I think it seems low...but my price structure is different becuase it works better for me and how I operate.

I think he is low...I think the GC is on drugs.

 

[nyerinfl]

I gave a GC a price for wiring a house @ 3.25 sqft. It is 4400 sqft and has a 400 amp service, 2 kitchens, 2 laundry rooms, 3 car garuage. It is a 3 story house. He want me to do bath fans, fire alarm, and do fan boxes in the ceiling instead of regular boxes. He is trying to say it should be done for around 2.35 a sqft. It think he is low. Can you let me know? Thanks.

I think both of you are low. Why would you sq. foot price a job like this anyway? At least do takeoff and unit price it out per your takeoff and add your O&P.

 

[Dnkldorf]

I always hear on this forum and others to never price per square foot, yet nearly all GC's and EC's price by square foot in my area. (at least the ones I have talked to)

The only way to bid sq/ft is to do the entire takeoff, figure in all your costs, and divide by the sq/ft of the home.

Once you do this over and over and over and over again, you'll be able to look at prints at bid by the sq/ft without doing detailed takeoffs. It would take alot of practice. Not something I would want to start off doing.

 

[480sparky]

...... and get this not one (with the exception of this post) stupid or irrelevant comment from anyone

I promise to do better in the future.

 

[okeefe]

I never square foot a price, I may do it for fun after I do a takeoff, but will not give an estiamte using square foot pricing it is too risky. When GC's ask me for a square foot price I tell them that I am not a painter, roofer, carpet installer etc..