ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Bid breakdown?

Ditto on all said here!! Glad to see all in agreement.

Obsaleet

Whenever I've had a customer want to purchase materials, I will take out my cost, but the markup/proffit stays in the bid. I don't like it because they rarely get the right stuff. I've had several customers try this and just before the job tell me to go ahead and get the stuff for them.

I hear you loud and clear Gasparky,just went through the same process last year,had a customer that wanted us to rough it in but no-finish. I canceled the finish permit which upset him, He couldn't get his lights to work (Three and 4 ways)He had out the ol black and decker book HEHE. So when I went back to fix his crappy work, I also charged severely, increasing this customers pucker factor.....For these very same reasons I am now a maintenance electrician for a printing outfit...

A sincere good luck and when you drive by and see your competitions truck outside just know that during the same time period you were out making money.

I can't tell you the number of times that I've done the same thing that Eagle described. When I was estimating, the big word was "value engineering". Value engineering is a fancy term which means, "cut the guts out of it." I can't tell you the number of projects that I lost because the GC would take the lowest 2 bids, and have us value engineer the project. The project that I was first on was lost because the other EC "cut more guts out" than I did.
'56,
I would worry about more than just the material on this project. I would worry about getting paid even for your labor. Watch out for people like this.

Bid Breakdown?.....Nervous Breakdown,
Doc

Thanks for the input! I've tried this a few times and it never seemed to work out well. I just wanted to see if someone else had a good,workable way to do this.

Just as a footnote,the work is on some new buildings at a lodge/campground/retreat.
I can't find out who really owns the place,only the manager,who is a fast talking,high intimidation type who almost had a stroke when she read the line in my bid that said"all invoices to be due on Friday of week submitted". It's a business not a job.YUP!

Russell

I have learned the hard way that you NEED to know who the owner is. If the manager/agent avoids that question, pay problems are much more likely.

I've done the same thing (well,almost) I had a home builder that wanted to furnish all of the materials so I just did the job per manhour. Frustrating waiting on him to return from the big box store for the third or forth time to get the right material, but hey, I was being paid by the hour.
If I were to do a job with a quoted price on labor and the owner/builder furnishing materials, I would not start it until ALL of the materials required for the job were on the jobsite and would charge him for my time to doublecheck his purchases.

[This message has been edited by txsparky (edited 05-23-2003).]