Architect, Engineer, Estimator - 05/14/01 06:51 PM
After spending two days on an estimate that I probably won't see fruition with, and realizing that I'm doing the architech's, engineer's, and estimator's jobs (not exactly a piece of cake for me, I'm the chief, cook and the can cleaner...) I've come to the conclusion that I'm wasting a lot of time doing free estimates.
I choose to give floor plan/ electrical plan, itemized materials list, and estimates for options. Then they can't say I bid the whole job and they want 14 $3000 fixtures from my pay. The estimate only includes what I have itemized.
Even my brother-in-law (general contractor) charged $250 for the design of the deck for the recent hot tub installation I've mentioned. That was more money than the whole profit that I made on the service change and rough install for the tub.
My question: Do you guys charge for any of these services? (Electrical plan, take-offs, estimates, etc.) Assume you have nothing but your tape measurer and a piece of paper to work with (no plans at all).
( This thread was done before, but we got a lot of new members now, and I'd like some more input.)
How do the big boys do it? (The companies with well-paid in house engineers, architects and estimators) I could see an estimate costing a big company a good $1K for even a modest home. Say they only get one out of three jobs, and they've got a $3000 overhead for estimates before work starts and the labor costs pile up. Heck I'm lucky to get $2500 for the labor and total net profit from a medium sized home.
How do you all do it?
[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 05-14-2001).]
I choose to give floor plan/ electrical plan, itemized materials list, and estimates for options. Then they can't say I bid the whole job and they want 14 $3000 fixtures from my pay. The estimate only includes what I have itemized.
Even my brother-in-law (general contractor) charged $250 for the design of the deck for the recent hot tub installation I've mentioned. That was more money than the whole profit that I made on the service change and rough install for the tub.
My question: Do you guys charge for any of these services? (Electrical plan, take-offs, estimates, etc.) Assume you have nothing but your tape measurer and a piece of paper to work with (no plans at all).
( This thread was done before, but we got a lot of new members now, and I'd like some more input.)
How do the big boys do it? (The companies with well-paid in house engineers, architects and estimators) I could see an estimate costing a big company a good $1K for even a modest home. Say they only get one out of three jobs, and they've got a $3000 overhead for estimates before work starts and the labor costs pile up. Heck I'm lucky to get $2500 for the labor and total net profit from a medium sized home.
How do you all do it?
[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 05-14-2001).]