Bidding against Commerical contractors

With the understand of pricing small projects , what would the cost per sqft be on a commerical project be from take off . Square footage ranging from 1500 / 8000 sft .
Competing against cast stone and natural stone contractors . What would the over time frame be and break down price be ? How long would it take to produce in man hours , how would this bid ?
I been given an opportunity if I want it to bid on such jobs . Here in Texas most stone work is stagnating and river rock an Austin stone ... So I would have to produce a hand carve look of these choice .... Could it be possible to compete with them at a starting price point of 3.25 a sft from cast stone contractors .
Any help and insight would be greatfull . Every one have a great productive day and accomplished day .

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Randy Murray on March 2, 2011 at 3:49pm

I make most of my mixes myself and my material cost is about $2.48 a square foot 3inch to 5inch thick average. So at $3.25 a square foot you are not making much. This is not taking into account labor or overhead. Around here most cultured stone is $8.00 to $14.00 sf starting. $8.00 is really cheap usually under the table stuff done by some guy who is on unemployment. If you are buying all your mixes it is going to cost you more. Good luck.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Victor Gonzalez on March 2, 2011 at 6:05pm

thanks for the insight , the 3.25 is for material mix .. i'm assuming and I think its about 9.00 sft with Yes , some guy getting under the table. but what would the over all cost be for mix , labor and overhead . there really isn't a formula for this just yet.. I been on cost books and estimators and still can't get any thing close to vertical .. Does any one have a vertical excell spread sheet mix design .. so we can figure this out for such a task.. ?????? Just wonddering who is the key.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Josh Huntoon on March 3, 2011 at 1:22pm

The formula is - Material+labor+overhead+profit=job cost.

You need to figure what your mix is going to cost,(what materials are going in to the mix and how many Sq' is this going to give you per bag, or cu.yard) plus any paper, lath, screws, and any other materials you are going to buy for the project.

How many guys will be doing the job, are they paid hourly or piece work? how much is workmans comp and insurance? how many Sq' can they get done a day? how long is it going to take to do the things that come up unexpectedly? If you're doing the job yourself, how many Sq' can you do in a day, and how much do you want to make per day?

Overhead - How many people, if any, are employed in your office, how much is office rent and utilities, gas for you and anyone else to get to the job? gas for equipment, equipment payments? How much is licence, bond, and insurance? - These costs will vary from state to state, city to city, contractor to contractor.

Profit -How much can you get away with making? Usually contractors will add another 10% - 50%, on top of the labor, materials, and overhead, depending on the size of, and how complicated the job, how long it will take, how long it will take to get paid, the economy, the number of contractors bidding against you, and how much you think you can get.

Estimating - When you're all done figuring out those things, you can divide your cost by the number of sq' on your job for a per sq' price. Just throwing out a sq' price at someone you are bidding a job to is dangerous. bid per job, not per sq'. conditions will be different from job to job, the style of the stone may take more or less labor, and one job may require a thicker or thinner carving mix, which will affect your material cost. Most estimators would make their own Excell spreadsheet, while figuring out the answers to these questions and typing in a formula for them.