I know there are different variables than Residential work.

What are some of you getting for Commercial unit pricing
(open shop).

For example:

Receptacle (about 25' spacing)
12/2 homerun (about 50')
Standard 2X4 lay-ins @ 12' spacing

I'm in the SE Pa / South Jersey area

Thanks.

Redsy for a residential job, your variables are not near as pronounced as commercial, unless you are talking very large quantities. What I mean by that is a price screw up on a storage room addition to a residence job is a lot softer than a price screw up on a missed fixture in a 400 unit repeat subdivision. Same goes for commercial in general. Your unit price for example for a receptacle is ok to compute if every job is interior wall partions of light guage steel studs, secured well prior to your start, 10' high t-bar ceiling, good jobsite working conditions, well lit, daytime work, and an inspector who limits himself to enforcing codes not preferences. That is going to happen on one out of every three jobs. The other ones are going to have too many trades piled in at once, dark, loose non secured studs left for when the drywall screws will "secure them in place" , bla bla bla. I opt for nuts and bolts instead of unit price myself when I bid commercial, I make better money at it that way.

Redsy:
Comm was my primary workload, and for 25+ years I did NO unit pricing. As above the variables are many,

Fortunate for me, I had a steady client base who relied on the same subs for most jobs, so we all worked together good. The clients were for most part not nickel & dime people/companies; jobs were priced off of the prints.

we use a hybrid method when doing commercial...if it's a print job, we use a combination takeoff/assembly pricing to determine our pricing...

for example, I know that a typical duplex receptacle assembly will have a 1900 box, Caddy H23, mudring, spec grade receptacle, 25' of MC, cover, wirenuts, MC connector, ground screw, and tec screws....around $12-$13 when all is said and done...

so, i'll do a count of all the receptacles, assign a labor unit depending on the construction (which then gets multiplied by our labor rate)....

and add it all up to get our total...I could count every foot of MC, every connector, every wirenut...but experience has shown me that we will get waste in those materials, and when I had a % for waste, i come close to the amount that my assemblies call for...

if it's a small job, no prints, i simply determine all my my material, guesstimate my labor units, multiply and present.

Thanks guys!

I appreciate everyone's input.

I tend to use maherle's hybrid method at this point, because as you other guys say, jobsite variables can make a big difference.

I use unit pricing for new residential and it works well, but I was wondering how well it might translate to commercial drawings.

If you do similar type of commercial buildings with simular type of construction then unit pricing could be doable. However, there are so many variable to contend with that it can come back and nip you in the kiester. It would be case by case basis. Quantifying everything is time consuming. Working to cover a lost on a privious bid is a waste too. A good takeoff will give you so much to for the money if you get the job