estimating

[staticcontrol]

Hello,

I'm an new company owner. I have an offer provide the labor to replace bulbs and ballast to 2x2 lights 32watt t-8 and a some 4' bulb fixtures also. The customer is supplying the material and wants a price to do the work. It's a 2 story building occuppied. These fixtures are in common area only. I figure that there will be 60 or more to work on.

Can someone please assist in an idea of what to charge per fixture to replace 2 bulbs and a ballast and what the craft/hour might be? Thank you in advance. I have a book on estimating but very green in this department.

 

[chris kennedy]

How easy is it to get in and out of the building? How much traffic will you be working around/over? Can you lock up ladders and materials there overnight? How much clean up will you have to do? Don't forget your install will have to comply with 410.136.

Don't forget proper disposal/recycle.

 

[Dolfan]

welcome to the school of hard knocks.The working climate is tough this year compared to last.When I estimate a job, it's like going to the dentist for me.After 3 months of bidding to high, I figured that I had to do something.As soon as I got a job, at a price that I ended up raising three times, more work poped up in my area. I just wish I had some capital to be able to hire help. I'm getting to old for the kind of work I've been doing lately.

 

[Rewire]

Take your base number for a fixture, say 45 minutes. multiply by number of fixtures say 100

45 X 100= 4500minutes or 75 hours

average work day is 6 productive hours so divide 75 by 6 that gives you 12.5 days

8 hours in a day

12.5 X 8 = 100 hours

100 hours times your rate

$100.00 X 100 = $10,000.00 labour

 

[ishium 80439]

I would think about .6 to .8 for a labor unit based on setting up ladders around people. .8 x 60 fixtures = 48 hours. Some are going to disagree w/ me here but I feel that there are 2 different rates: service and construction. Service rates are higher to account for drive time, face time, troubleshooting, planning, getting tools+ladders+material to and from work area, clean up, more face time etc.

Construction rates take into account that you alot of things are only encountered once and therefore have less nonproductive costs involved. A straight construction rate is typically salary plus burden. Get that number and add overhead. Get that number and add profit (one rule that many people use but is not necessarily one size fits all solution is 10%OH and 10%P). Add a contigency to that for unforseens.

There are conflicting theories out there on how to bid things but I feel bidding service work as construction will make you lose your shirt and bidding construction as service will lose you any job you look at.

 

[staticcontrol]

Thank you both- "Rewire" and "Ishium." I found the adice very helpful. After spending about 6 hours looking at the craftsman cost book and doing formulas, I'm very close to what you both stated. I found the formula that "Rewire" shared to be very beneficial.

Thank you again.

Staticcontrol, NJ