Labor Percentage

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laketime

laketime

Senior Member
I bid a job thinking I was going to use mc cable and then a change has asked for it to be emt. What extra percentage on labor time do you think you would add?
 
mcclary's electrical

mcclary's electrical

Senior Member
Location
VA
laketime said:
I bid a job thinking I was going to use mc cable and then a change has asked for it to be emt. What extra percentage on labor time do you think you would add?
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I don't have my software near me, but I would use that to find the difference in manhours per 100ft. When I get home, I'lll let you know what mine says the difference is between the two.It's probably double the mh's. Gimme an hour
 
laketime

laketime

Senior Member
mcclary's electrical said:
My software has 6.1 crafthours for 100' of 1/2" emt with (3) 12's, 9 straps, 9 couplings, 2 box connectors.



.95 craft hours for 100' mc (9.5 hrs. per thousand)

.02 craft hr per anti short bushing
.04 craft hr per one hole strap
.05 per connector
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wow, 6hours for 100' of pipe!
 
mcclary's electrical

mcclary's electrical

Senior Member
Location
VA
laketime said:
wow, 6hours for 100' of pipe!
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Yes, it's very generous. You can't go wrong using this software, but you can lose alot of work with it. I only bid larger commercial jobs with it. I could run 100' of EMT in an hour easily. But , depending on conditions, it could vary greatly.
 
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satcom

Senior Member
mcclary's electrical said:
Yes, it's very generous. You can't go wrong using this software, but you can lose alot of work with it. I only bid larger commercial jobs with it. I could run 100' of EMT in an hour easily. But , depending on conditions, it could vary greatly.
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Yup, the conditions will make the job, if you have 100 ft run in an industrial plant work floor the 100 feet may take the better part of the day, a retail store with an existing drop ceiling and isles of display racks could also take a good day, an open area, with a mobile lift may get done in 6.
 
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cdslotz

Senior Member
laketime said:
I bid a job thinking I was going to use mc cable and then a change has asked for it to be emt. What extra percentage on labor time do you think you would add?
Click to expand...

Just curious, but if you have to ask what the labor unit for EMT vs MC is, what are you using as a source for labor units? Are you just winging it?
Also, a hard pipe branch job lays out completely different than a MC branch job.
I laugh at estimating programs that boast about substituting EMT with MC with just a push of a button.
I don't start a take off without knowing up front which way to proceed.
I have done two different take offs using MC with EMT home runs vs. all hard pipe, just to make a comparison.
My findings were consistently around 25% more for the branch wiring using hard pipe
 
laketime

laketime

Senior Member
cdslotz said:
Just curious, but if you have to ask what the labor unit for EMT vs MC is, what are you using as a source for labor units? Are you just winging it?
Also, a hard pipe branch job lays out completely different than a MC branch job.
I laugh at estimating programs that boast about substituting EMT with MC with just a push of a button.
I don't start a take off without knowing up front which way to proceed.
I have done two different take offs using MC with EMT home runs vs. all hard pipe, just to make a comparison.
My findings were consistently around 25% more for the branch wiring using hard pipe
Click to expand...

I am sort of winging it. The jobs I am bidding are not that large and I just try to figure labor per area. I haven't started using software. Do you have a commercial software program recommendation? A friend of mine who has been in business (successfully) for 15 years has used a couple said that he never got any projects when he used the software, his number was always high. Ideas?:confused:
 
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cdslotz

Senior Member
laketime said:
I am sort of winging it. The jobs I am bidding are not that large and I just try to figure labor per area. I haven't started using software. Do you have a commercial software program recommendation? A friend of mine who has been in business (successfully) for 15 years has used a couple said that he never got any projects when he used the software, his number was always high. Ideas?:confused:
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I use Conest software, and it has residential in it. It's expensive and probably not suited for a small contractor. Vision EBM has an affordable system that I used for years that I would recommend for commercial, plus it has resi also.
Your friend probably does the work himself, as you probably do. In that case, you can get away with winging how long it would take you to do a task. But when you grow and you are sending crews to do jobs, then you need an established way of setting budgets on material dollars and labor hours.
Labor units are standard and published. They come with your software. They can be adjusted up/down according to your shop's performance against these units.
If you have a crew out on a job ready to rough in, and your budget for rough in is 350 man/hrs, their job is to meet or beat that budget. If they consistently beat your budgets, you can adjust down to be more competitive.
 
laketime

laketime

Senior Member
cdslotz said:
I use Conest software, and it has residential in it. It's expensive and probably not suited for a small contractor. Vision EBM has an affordable system that I used for years that I would recommend for commercial, plus it has resi also.
Your friend probably does the work himself, as you probably do. In that case, you can get away with winging how long it would take you to do a task. But when you grow and you are sending crews to do jobs, then you need an established way of setting budgets on material dollars and labor hours.
Labor units are standard and published. They come with your software. They can be adjusted up/down according to your shop's performance against these units.
If you have a crew out on a job ready to rough in, and your budget for rough in is 350 man/hrs, their job is to meet or beat that budget. If they consistently beat your budgets, you can adjust down to be more competitive.
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Ok thank you I will look into them.
 
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