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Teaspoon

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Camden,Tn.
Do any of you Residential Electricians bid your jobs by the square foot?
I have done some bidding this way but it can be a little risky.
I would usually try to factor in about $.90 per sq.ft. rough-in labor plus materials plus 10%.Most recently I have been working time & materials,on some of the multi level homes.Because what I have ran into on these larger homes is changes on top of changes.
 
Oh and Welcome to the Forum

Oh and Welcome to the Forum

:)

Theres some great historic information previous presented here via the use of "Search" a choice 2-3 word phases, will light it up, Enjoy ...

Teaspoon said:
...Electricians bid your jobs by the square foot?
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quogueelectric said:
That was just wrong.........
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why? he probably has a better shot now than before...heck, if he was a personable as Bill Clinton, he'd be the 1st president ever elected by a write in campaign...
 
Teaspoon said:
Do any of you Residential Electricians bid your jobs by the square foot?
I have done some bidding this way but it can be a little risky.
I would usually try to factor in about $.90 per sq.ft. rough-in labor plus materials plus 10%.Most recently I have been working time & materials,on some of the multi level homes.Because what I have ran into on these larger homes is changes on top of changes.
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Teaspoon,

You are not going to find anyone here that uses square foot pricing. About the only thing I can say is, look at the last several T&M that you did, and divide from the sq ft. You will be VERY surprised to see that it is much more than you thought.

Then, do a take off of the project. And, then you can compare it to YOUR sq ft price. But do not get into bidding them that way. You will loose every time.
 
i did sq. ft. pricing when i first started because that's how everyone in my area does it, and that's all i knew. it didn't take long to realize i was making <$0 in residential before i started doing take-offs and charging by each device/fixture/etc. . . It took a painfully long amount of time to come up w/ a pricing system to use, but it was worth it. To compare: the lowest figure I know of in my area is $1.85/sq. ft., and that guy will argue over the cost of 3m temflex; i know of several in the $2.25-$2.50 range. There are a lot of guys in the $3.00/ft range now. By comparison, if you divide one of my estimates by the sq. ft., I'm in the $3.85-$4.25/ft range. The smaller the house, the more it will cost per sq. ft. (fixed costs of the service & appliances ya know, but, my time is better spent banging my head into a wall then trying to explain that to other electricians in my town). Bottom line is, i'd rather sit home and watch oprah before taking another job by the sq. ft.


edit to add --- to be honest my price is not high enough, but its high enough to keep almost everyone from using me for new residential, but i still make a few bucks at that. i'm focusing more on service anyway nowadays so i'm completely happy to not be doing new houses.
 
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I convert my prices to square foot prices after the real estimate is done just for curiosity's sake. The only guys I know bidding by the square foot are bidding NEC minimum for builders with whom they're famaliar with their style of bulilding.
 
mdshunk said:
I convert my prices to square foot prices after the real estimate is done just for curiosity's sake. The only guys I know bidding by the square foot are bidding NEC minimum for builders with whom they're famaliar with their style of bulilding.
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out of curiousity, what would a job in PA cost by the sq. ft (code minimum job> as that's what the price i gave above was for.)?
 
brantmacga said:
out of curiousity, what would a job in PA cost by the sq. ft (code minimum job> as that's what the price i gave above was for.)?
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I come in around 6 dollars, and the low end is closer to 4.
 
mdshunk said:
I come in around 6 dollars, and the low end is closer to 4.
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do you think the cost of living and materials up there brings you to the $6 mark, or is my suspicion that i'm surrounded by residential electricians that don't mind being poor true? by my calculation i should be more in the $5 range.
 
brantmacga said:
do you think the cost of living and materials up there brings you to the $6 mark,
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I have no idea. It is what it is. Truth be told, I wire very few new homes in a year. I'm happy to let someone else chase that work. For some reason, there's a certain sex appeal attached to new home wiring, and guys seem willing to do it at oddly low prices just to say they wire new homes, I believe.
 
brantmacga said:
do you think the cost of living and materials up there brings you to the $6 mark, or is my suspicion that i'm surrounded by residential electricians that don't mind being poor true? by my calculation i should be more in the $5 range.
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5$ is the norm around here to make a nice profit. 6 sounds nicer tho Fuel surcharge sound familiar??
 
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SQFT pricing is only good for budgeting a job for which you have control of the design, otherwise do a take off.
 
Teaspoon said:
Do any of you Residential Electricians bid your jobs by the square foot?
I have done some bidding this way but it can be a little risky.
I would usually try to factor in about $.90 per sq.ft. rough-in labor plus materials plus 10%.Most recently I have been working time & materials,on some of the multi level homes.Because what I have ran into on these larger homes is changes on top of changes.
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I think you are asking for trouble bidding this way.

As for changes, change orders are a profit center for most contractors. In some cases, their primary profit center.
 
we did 2 new houses for a friend of mine that works for a commercial gc that give us alot of business. we did them t&m plus 20 points on the material. these were absolutely code minimum with him purchasing all the light fixtures. because we dont do residential but i had a mechanic that did it for ten years before he started with me i did a square foot analysis at the end to see where we were at and it came to $3.13. thats here in central nc.
 
tyha said:
we did 2 new houses for a friend of mine that works for a commercial gc that give us alot of business. we did them t&m plus 20 points on the material. these were absolutely code minimum with him purchasing all the light fixtures. because we dont do residential but i had a mechanic that did it for ten years before he started with me i did a square foot analysis at the end to see where we were at and it came to $3.13. thats here in central nc.
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You calculated it by your exact time though. My takeoffs assume standard labor hours (basically what you'll find in the estimating book). This pads them a bit.

For example: a 15A receptacle in a plastic box costs $24.37, and takes 0.375625 labor hours (what's that, about 23 minutes?) to install. that is to mount the box, pull 30ft romex, make a joint, install recep, install plate. Receps w/ a HR cost a lot more.

But the goal is to beat the clock!
 
I could probably wire a house for 3 bucks, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I'm pretty liberal with home runs, use a CH-CH panel, use 12 for the receptacle circuits, do a front and back chime, phone and cable in every room (sometimes 2) , and lots of other things above code and misc stuff that just makes things nice, like a spare pipe to the attic, etc. I just wouldn't feel like I did the right thing by wiring the NEC minimum house. If someone hired me to do just that, I would certainly comply, but that request has never been heard by me. Oh, every ceiling box just about is a paddle fan box. I dunno, I guess there's a lot of things that many guys do that are above code or just plain make for a more slick install. New work isn't really my bread and butter anyway, so I have a hard time squeezing pennies out of it.
 
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