How to price Jobs?

[dal]

Been a while since I have posted on here, finally looking like I could be getting my own work. Very excited.
I am doing quite specialist work, it is formwork / shuttering. This is reinforced concrete structures. Now the jobs I might be getting are not massive. They will be small little bits.
Staircases are a nice earner, I love them, they are interesting and could be getting a few of these now and again. I know the rate for an average set of stairs, which we won't say on here.
Now I'll be getting small walls, flooring and some small structures. How do I price these?
I have a rough guideline, from a friend of mine who is a main contractor and employed a formwork firm not long ago and gave me his price schedule on his last job. Now I compared this to a firm I last worked for and this firm was about 3-4 times more expensive than the last firm.
Some of my friends have their own little firms and they talk of 20% profit margins ontop of costs. Now I am told in shuttering/ formwork there is more risk of not being paid, as your dealing with companies compared to 'joe public'.
Obviously the thing is to get a Quantity Surveyor but this is not an option on small jobs I'll be getting. Could get small firms to put a price in by submitting drawings to them and 'bluffing' I'll be subbing it out to them.

 

[profitxchange]

Whilst I am not familiar with your market I would regard a markup/gross margin of 20% to be very low unless you are in a commodity market.
I would expect a min of 30% but 50-80% better. You need to be sure you are covering ALL your costs of not only doing the work , but all the prep, quoting, admin etc. Every hour of your time should be earning, it is your life you are using up.

 

[roofing solutions]

I normally charge around £200 per man per day. I might only be paying £50 per day for a labourer and £120 for a tiler but i find this is enough to cover my costs and if it runs over day or so i have something behind me so i can swallow it a bit easier. ill bill at least half a day wheather it takes me 5 mins or 4 hours otherwise its not even worth bothering. I used to work for a large roofing company who worked for all the large house builers (Barratts, Redrow, Wimpeys, etc) and they billed £250 per man per day if any day work was needed, I was told that this is the going rate! Dont sell yourself short i did it a few times when really needing the work and by the end of the jobs i wish i hadn't bothered.

 

[crossdaz]

I normally charge around £200 per man per day. I might only be paying £50 per day for a labourer and £120 for a tiler but i find this is enough to cover my costs and if it runs over day or so i have something behind me so i can swallow it a bit easier.

I think this is about right - for small scale works and, more importantly, where the job is likely to go to the cheapest bid, a fair day rate is the best way to go.
Working to scheduled rates is only practical (in your case) where you doing extras or have a valid and agreed claim (for delays caused by others, for example).

In short, you should have an idea of how long it takes to do the shuttering for a staircase so a simple x number of days x rate plus a little contingency is the way to go.

 

[dal]

I'm confident with staircases, I know what to charge on them. I'll be getting little fiddly bits of work.
For example: a small extension of a slab (reinforced concrete) floor. Now there was not many m2 covered so you couldn't make your money on m2 rate. It was also very fiddly, as there was a few drop-beams in them. It would be a bit tricky to estimate how long would take also. Do you just have to try your best?:redface:

 

[profitxchange]

For jobs like this that are really uneconomic using conventional rates
Try an establishment cost - getting on site and doing the prep and cleaning up afterwards.
Then material costs plus 20% ( readymix I presume?)

Nevertheless you should be able to put together an estimate of your time! If you sat down and did it objectively.
There is no point in doing it at a loss so make sure you will make a profit or not do it.

 

[dal]

If I think it through properly I should be able to make it work. Sometimes I'll be using 'Caltite' (waterproof concrete), in them cases there are a few other things to remember like 'water-bar' a specially formulated bar that swells ten times its original size which I am told is rather expensive. A few other things too that I must remember to take into consideration.
Thank you for your input. It is much appreciated.
Regards
Darren