Sub Contractor bidding

Darren@Partners

Maybe the builders will sell us 200K houses for 100K.....

Whitey97

Well, the norm around here is about .20 to rock and .45 to tape. Add a couple cents extra for texture, but that's about it.

drywalljoe

no i haven't went that low but there are company's bigger than i am , taking work for that price. we didnt get ajob 5 minutes from my house because someone took it for 67 and you had to wait 45 days after the job was done too get paid

19Riggs88

Are you guys quoting these prices on the sq.ft. of the board count used or the actual sq.ft. of the wall areas finished?

Seems to me if you bid the taping off the actual wall sq.ft. you need to add approx. 20% compared to a bid based on the actual sheet count.
This makes up for the approx 20% waste on sheetrock.

Southern Mn many tapers price their tape and texture at .40 sq.ft. off the sheet count.
Many sheetrockers hang for .18 sq.ft.

But there are a few who may not have a solid rep. that work with lower prices perhaps as low as .34 sq.ft. tape and texture and as low as .15 sq.ft. to hang.

These prices are a general rule for basic residential with 8' lids.

Factors that may increase this for residential are:
Over 8' usually double
Over 12' usually triple..etc.
Extras for tray, pan, racetrack, etc ceilings
Extra for arches
Extra for bullnose type beads
Prices may vary according to different textures

Hanging on steel studs or wood commercial jobs with sound and add channels, chases etc are a whole new ball game

JoeMudder

It would take too long to actually measure every square foot of ceiling and wall space, just takes too long. You have to base your price on the footage of the board ordered. It's far more efficient that way, otherwise you're just wasting time.

__________________
WallmasterDrywall.com

silverstilts

I agree you can't just double up on price anymore on anything over 8' Don't seem right with 54" board available for 9' walls don't have to worry about the rip. Also Gen. contractors hate when you have so many ways of pricing out a job , They need to keep it simple themselves to keep within there price , they themselves don't want to bother figuring out a job six different ways it is way too confusing for them . Have you ever had a GC say he can never figure out how we are pricing something? Keep it simple . I never subtract for window openings after all we need to base a price on something , carpet layers don't subtract for extra carpet waisted or roofers for scrap shingles it is all part of the bidding process , not only that you still have to mask off windows and it takes time and materials to do this so why subtract don't make any sense..... just one way a contractor wants to squeeze more out of you , I had one contractor always grip about the waste , i asked him what about all his plywood , 2x's exc. does he not pay for that waste ??? again it is all part of the bidding process ..... some things are just meant to be , not to say we can't charge more for extras like window wraps or excessive L-bead or specialty textures.

19Riggs88

Some good points.

9' lids with 54" board are an exception to the rule for double over 8'

I have never figured window and door openings in a sq.ft. bid...

I was simply referring to looking at a set of plans and measuring up wall and ceilings.
There is about 20% difference this way in sq.ft. compared to a sheet count sq.ft. due to length waste on the sheetrock

silverstilts

So your saying that if you take a set of prints measure all the walls and ceilings you still add 20 percent ? you should not need that much extra .. impossible..... don't make sense maybe a couple of sheets but 20 percent seems a little high... don't forget you gain on doorways at least the bottom half that could add up to where you may think to add the 20 percent .. The way you figure a 160 sheet house you would add another 32 sheets of rock for waste ,or put it this way say you have for instance 720 lineal ft x 8' ( to make it easy ) = 5760' or 120 4x12 pcs Plus 40 pcs for the lids , why would you add another 32 pcs (1536') you will price yourself right out of a job if this was your practice , maybe i don't understand your reasoning unless your 20 percent is for the window cut outs that you add back in ??????

Whitey97

I love it, we've got all our bases covered guys, northern Mn, southern Mn, and me in central. Just stay there

19Riggs88

When figuring sheetrock waste on an average house the total waste is about 20% which includes window and door cuts. If you figure only the waste from length of sheets it is a little lower and I have to admit my numbers are a little off.....but not much.

brdn_drywall

the only time the 20% rule would come into play is from a computer generated take-off (as some building supply houses use a program that calculates exact wall and ceiling footage for builders who are getting all materials from them) if you were doing a take-off using prints wouldn't you look at a wall that's 10'-6" and order 2-12's and a room that is 10'-6"x10'-6" and order 3-12's for the lid etc. doing this throughout the print would allow for all waste without tacking anything else on wouldn't you agree.

19Riggs88

To be honest I have very little bidding experience since I went on my own.
I am fortunate enough to have home builders who want me on their jobs. I just have a set sq.ft. rate based on the sheet count with a small list of extras. The builders just call me with an address when the house is ready.

I based my prices near the top of the curve of what most drywallers are charging in the housing market for my area. (I say the top because I am fortunate to be able to put out top quality)

There may be drywallers getting higher rates but they rely on getting the houses that the regulars are unable to take on during busy times.

A couple times a builder new to me asks me to shoot a price and I guess that is how I went off the floor plan.

silverstilts

It does take some time to get the right amount of materials , but i find that I have actualy two methods first you can measure the walls and ceilings off a print or the job itself time permitting and also use a formula times the sq ft of the job and compair the two and average out , usally withing a couple of sheets. I also take inconsideration the wall height if a little over 10 ft i bump up to 12 ft only because there will be more waste genarated kinda stuck to having waste. 10' , 9' , 8' you can get away with less waist. I guess i use the 2 ft. way who wants to tape a horizontal butt seam . I hope this makes some sence.

brdn_drywall

I've got 14 hangers in my company and 2 of them aren't the greatest, i will sometimes add extra sheets to the count when i know one of them is working on a job their nick names are ''butcher "and "profit" because there always good for screwing up 4-6 sheets a house

19Riggs88

How do you price a basement with a ceiling a few inches over 8' and they used 4' wide rock with the rip in the middle?

I guess I doubled the price on the ceiling footage and was curious on your system?

Where you at in Northern Mn? I actually grew up in Chisholm over on the Iron Range and lately I've been giving it some thought to move back...mostly because I love the outdoor thing up there.

19Riggs88

So has the recession hit Canada too?

brdn_drywall

i personally would not see that because we install all our own rock and there is never a shortage of 54" drywall at the supply house, but there would certainly be extras involved if i had to tape a job like that, haha i have no set amount for jobs that home owners installed the rock i usually figure out what i woulda charged to install and tack it on the taping contract and explain that the money they thought they were saving by doing it themselves is non existent because of all the extra taping work they caused me.

brdn_drywall

most of canada is feeling the pinch, no where near as bad as most of you guys have it though, saskatchewan and manitoba are the only exceptions, i live in a place that is not effected at the moment.

19Riggs88

I hope I'm wrong but what I see happening is things getting FAR worse before it gets better. Possibly even worse than the great depression.

One factor is most the building market was a built up bubble on people getting loans they should never have qualified for. For some reason banks and mortgage companies were literally throwing the money out there. Now the bubble has burst and the snowball effect is only half over.

It sounds odd to say but it almost seems as if steps were taken to intentionally collapse the economy.

brdn_drywall

you got it, Canada's banks were not so greedy though,i know this because 5 yrs. ago when applying for a mortgage i was denied several times until accepted three yrs. ago. These bankers up here are real tight when lending, Canada and the u.s. are the biggest trading partners in the world so when your hurtin we also feel the pain.