Bid for hot tub

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Re: Bid for hot tub

We were asked to give a bid on the following:
Run 110v 20amp circuit for a gate control, run a 220v 50amp GFI circuit for a hot tub, residential outdoor. We supply breakers Cutler Hammer Classic
The take off as follows:
Come out of a 200amp panel run 40' 3/4" emt 3 90s 2 j-boxes on inside wall of garage (second floor above garage)drill thru brick wall and change over to LB 3/4' and 3/4" pvc in 45' of trench, we dig trench,with 2-#6 thhn 1-#10 thhn and 2-#12thhn to RT j-box and branch over to gate control and hot tub, which will be close together.
We use Accubid, electrical bid manager basic.
Our price $867.00 Labor,Material,Tax,and Permit
$60.00.
We were told another person bid the job for $482.00, we were not told if he was an electrical contractor. We are out of Dallas, Texas.

[ July 15, 2005, 09:39 PM: Message edited by: Jhr ]
 
Re: Bid for hot tub

Jhr, Did you ever think about throwing that Accubid program away and just going back to basics ( common sense ). To make any money at all on a job like that you have to get a minimum of 12 to 14 hundred and if you lose out it doesn't make any difference what your bid is if someone is going to bid that low ( you lost it ). What's the point of getting work if you sweat for free. I don't like bid programs for small jobs, they are better when you run thousands of feet of conduit but when it's 40 ft. the price goes up. Same thing with a short trench, at least $10 pr. ft., with say a $300.00 minimum. That trench should pay around $450.00 to dig & backfill, and I don't think that's going to be considered high ( north of the border ).
 
Re: Bid for hot tub

first things first growel if you had any common sense (as you claim )you would realice that if jhr is worried about loosing 1 job that he must be a small company. This must not be a problem for you apparently you are running million dollar jobs and did not have to go thru the hardships of starting your own company (if you have one i dont know ). Second since he is posting on this web site for advise i dont know why, ("haters") it is apperent he is not doing work south of the border and as he stated they did tell him it was to high north of the border. Also where is the common sense in throwing away a program that cost you money. You must have more money that sense. Last i did not appreciate that last remark about the border some of us out here are mexican, guess that shows how much sense you do have.
 
Re: Bid for hot tub

I to am of Mexican-American decent, what the heck kind of comments are the ones made on this forum :( , now the advise I get is to shoot myself in the foot :eek: , wow, I'm still amazed at how we tolerate such shallow thinking and this is the year 2005.

[ July 16, 2005, 04:32 PM: Message edited by: Jhr ]
 
Re: Bid for hot tub

electricdog & Jhr --

Cool off -- you are taking offense where I don't believe that any was intended. Don't be so sensitive.

Try reading the various threads on this site for a while before you decide to just jump in and attack someone that you know nothing about.

There is a lot of difference between being a good electrician and in operating a successful electrical contracting business. You can learn a lot here about how to operate your business successfully and profitably if you will keep an open mind and not be so thin skinned. Don't take stuff so personal unless it's aimed directly at you.

Growler faces the same business challenges that you face. He has a lot of experience and knowledge -- you can learn a lot from him, and from others on this forum.

You'll get a lot more help if you won't automatically assume that people here are prejudice and if you don't just jump into attack mode.

Some of the discussions here can get pretty heated at times, but I don't remember any of it being racially motivated or racially directed.
 
Re: Bid for hot tub

By the way, I don't think that Growler meant that he thought you should literally throw your estimating program away -- just that it isn't very useful or effective on very small 1 or 2 day jobs.

I agree with him -- estimating programs are designed to make bids on larger work. The labor units that they use don't work well on 1 or 2 day jobs. Your price will be too low unless you double or triple what it tells you.

On small work, you are better off making a bill-of-material, pricing what the total material will cost, adding expenses, then adding the labor that you want to be paid for the time and work involved -- using experience. Not a computer program.
 
Re: Bid for hot tub

Last tub I did was about $800.oo and that was too low. Figure at least 8 hours. The salesman will lowball ya before ya get the call and tell the customer that. I also tell people to get 3 estimates and call you back if they want you to do the job. They generally call back. Also put a time limit on your estimate, I generally use 30 days. It stops those call backs 18 months later for the install from those that are just shopping. I also have stopped doing free estimates. Its the busy season.
 
Re: Bid for hot tub

electricdog & Jhr,

I don't believe growler meant any intentional in nature as racest, in his remarks of "north of the border"..

I have personally had the pleasure of living and working in the Lone-Star State,many years past.

And it being of "common knowledge" that most native Texans love their State and often times "ribbing in refering" to any state -north of their borders- as being foreign , to the great State of Texas..

I do believe that growlers quote,were along the lines of this mindset..And not being of any racest atone..
That being said,
Gentlemen & Fellow Brothers,

Welcome to forum..
 
Re: Bid for hot tub

Don't apologize for me fellows. The statement I made was " I don't think that's going to be considered high ( north of the border ). The border I was referring to was the Mexican & American border. They stated that they were out of Dallas, Texas. I was quoting a price for the U.S. side and I'll stand by it. Things are cheaper on the other side and if anyone wishes to refute this, let them do so. When we start apologizing for statements of fact all will be lost. There was nothing about race. creed , color or national origin mentioned. Not a single thing that anyone could take offence at. It's common knowledge that things are higher in the US than in Mexico. If tell a customer that they could get something done for a certain price in India or China am I making a racial slur or stating a fact to make a point. What this has to do with immigrants and the Statue of Liberty ( The Statue of Freedom fries, since it came from France), I don't know. As far as suggesting that he shoot himself in the foot, I think that was his own idea.
 
Re: Bid for hot tub

Growler -- I wasn't apologizing for you -- just pointing out to them that they were really stretching things to read meanings into your post that simply were not there.

And to point out to them that it generally won't be helpful for them to go out of their way to perceive racial or cultural slurs in innocuous comments where none exist. If they do that in their business dealings, then they are adding a lot of unnecessary stumbling blocks to their path to being successful.

I agree with what you said. I don't agree with what they perceived that you meant.

It irritates me when someone is so insecure or immature that they try to turn constructive criticism into some type of racially motivated slight. That type of hypersensitive thinking and reacting keeps racism alive.
 
Re: Bid for hot tub

So Gunning how did you arrive at your price, as far as takeoff, pricing catalogs, computer estimating programs, doing the estimate manually etc.
 
Re: Bid for hot tub

WHENEVER I DO A HOT TUB THEY HAVE TO FILL IT. IT TAKES ABOUT 2 HOURS (GIVEN THE WATER PREASSURE HERE), 4 HOURS TO DO THE JOB 2 HOURS TO GET THE MATERIAL. RUN GOES THROUGH THE ATTIC (ITS HOT UP THERE) FROM THE PANEL TO A DISCONNECT, THEN FROM THE DISCONNECT TO THE TUB. a GOOD 4 HOUR JOB. MATERIALS ARE A 125 FOOT ROLL OF 6/3 2 BREAKERS, A GFCI DISCONNECT, CARFLEX AND CONNECTORS, STAPPAGE. MATERIAL $320 LABOR $480 PERMIT EXTRA. BONDING TO POOL EXTRA ETC..
THE CUSTOMER WANTS TO SEE IT HOT BEFORE YA LEAVE BECAUSE SOMETIMES THE SETTINGS ARENT RIGHT ON THE CONTROL BOX OR THE GFCI TRIPPS BECAUSE THE OZENATOR IS SHORTED ETC. GIVES YA TIME TO TOUBLESHOOT, CULTIVATE THE CUSTOMER, WAITE ON THE INSPECTOR ETC.
 
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