I am starting to do small jobs for coworkers and would like to expand. I have a question on job pricing. For example, today I am picking up 30' of 1 1/2 angle iron and 4x8 sheet of expanded steel. I am making a 5x5 trailer tailgate for this guys trailer. How do I price it? By hour? By job or what? He also needs a mower deck repaired. I was thinking $200.00 for both jobs and he pays for materials. Or should I charge by the hour, maybe $20.00. How do you guys price jobs?
Reply:Material + labor = total price.John - fabricator extraordinaire, car nut!- bleeding Miller blue! http://www.weldfabzone.com
Reply:I understand that I am not paying for materials. I meant what is a good price to charge on average?
Reply:I have a minimum for small fabrication jobs. My minimum is 250. Tail gate sounds like a minimum job. That is fabrication price. Are you going to install the gate that must be considered also. With straight repair $75 per hour. Do not underestimate the time/labor involved.In what you described I might do it all for $250 depending how involved the deck repair is.My formula for calculating fabrication cost is 5xmaterial. I get 5 by 1 material+1 labor+1Profit+1finishing+1 installation. It is not foolproof, but you will not lose money. Compare prices in your area, so you won't be too low or too high.I have done many repairs on landscape trailers. The largest problem is the expanded metal stretching and popping up. With the material you described sounds like a square with to pieces of angle in the middle. I'd add some cross members to minimize stretching. Another problem on some trailers is when mowers go up onto the ramp if it is too steep the deck drags at the hinge area. If this is a landscape trailer then consider his mower size and weight. Make your tailgate better than one purchased with most trailer.Good luck
Reply:Thanks Tap, that's exactly what I was looking for. The trailer he has never came with a tailgate, since I will have the riding mower at the same time I will try to build the gate so the deck won't drag on the hinge. He wants the gate removable too, but that won't be hard. I paid $138.00 for all the material today. I would really like this hobby I've had for a couple years take off into a good side business. Thanks again.
Reply:i dont understand the 5xmaterial. I get 5 by 1 material+1 labor+1Profit+1finishing+1 installation. dose that mean this job would have been billed at $700 by you ??? can you please expand on this for me. not trying to start any thing i just must have missed some thing. although odds are you get your stel at a steel yard and he likely got it at home depot, so that will make a large difference but expanded is still not cheap. or did you not mean 5 X the $$$ of matereal???thanks summer is here, plant a tree for mother earth. if you dont have time or space, sponcer some one else to plant one for you.feel free to shoot me a PM or e-mail me at [email]
[email protected] i got lots of time.
Reply:i dont understand the 5xmaterial. I get 5 by 1 material+1 labor+1Profit+1finishing+1 installation. dose that mean this job would have been billed at $700 by you ??? can you please expand on this for me. not trying to start any thing i just must have missed some thing. although odds are you get your stel at a steel yard and he likely got it at home depot, so that will make a large difference but expanded is still not cheap. or did you not mean 5 X the $$$ of matereal???thanks
Reply:i supose it is a bit to complicated for a simple answer. after all every job is diferent, some will require demo and disposal causts as well as all the above mentioned things to consider.labor can be a real pain to setimate untill you get some real expereance under you belt also and even then you can get caut with you pants down if not carfull, if you know what i mean. i try to consider every possible option and unexpected things still pop up to suprise you. and most suprises end up comming out of your profit. summer is here, plant a tree for mother earth. if you dont have time or space, sponcer some one else to plant one for you.feel free to shoot me a PM or e-mail me at [email]
[email protected] i got lots of time.
Reply:saws..cutting ..grinding..welding..sweating..400$ and call it a day.....zap!I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.
Reply:What about extra material left over, such as the expanded steel. I will have a little left. If you have left over stock, do you a) keep it and take some money off the bill or b) keep it and charge as usual?
Reply:in the real machine shop world you get the stock in lengths..or sheet..and you charge for the full thing even if there's stock left over..here's where your gonna need a stock rack soon...but its always best to "get more than needed"..you never know when you'll need more.. and waiting 'till tomorrow bites.....zap!I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.
Reply:B) keep it and start a supply at home for the unknown. you do not need to change the bill.like zapster said make a place to keep the left overs they will come in handy for the lil jobs that pop up. keep in mind that just because you have some left over stuff to do a job you still need to charge for that material if you use it on the next guy, don't tell him i already have the steel so you only need to pay for time. just pay your self for the materials you use out of your stock. no one is going to expect free materials just because you have them in the corner. and always remember to charge for supply's like filler rod and or wire and gas. the lil things will kill you if you think, i have it so i don't need to charge for it.that left over 2'X4' of expanded metal could be used to make a set of 1'X4' drive up ramps for another trailer but that guy will still need to pay for the steel also, or you could just make them and sell them on the side. aether way you had to buy a full sheet of expanded metal for this job so charge for it. summer is here, plant a tree for mother earth. if you dont have time or space, sponcer some one else to plant one for you.feel free to shoot me a PM or e-mail me at [email]
[email protected] i got lots of time.
Reply:That sounds good to me. I have a scrap supply slowly building and have been thinking about making a rack to bolt to the wall of the work shop. Thanks for the help guys. Forums like these are a huge help.
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ne most important rule to remember.....always,i mean always, mark up the cost of materials to cover your time and effort to get the materials.
Reply:Oh absolutely. It's a minimum of an hour and 40miles round trip to the supplier, so that is worth some money alone. I have only been doing work for coworkers, so I need to make it worth my time, but also not stick it to them too bad. This guy I am building the gate for is a carpenter on the side and does good work. So, someday I may need a little hook up. I am in law enforcement,so a lot of us do little side businesses.
Reply:You really first need to consider is if this is going to be a serious business for you. If so you need to address the needs of the business in pricing. In any event here are my suggestions>1.Unless there is a profoundly good reason you should be sourcing and supplying materials. First you end up having a clue as to cost. Second you can develop a relationship with a vendor. Third you will buy in bulk and develop a bit of inventory with each project. As to pricing you may not be able to get away with sticking the customer with the total cost of the bulk purchased materials. Be careful, It 0f course depends on how savvy the customer is with respect to material costs.2.You need to work into the formula for pricing the consumables, that would be your electrodes, gas and cutting/grinding tools. But also things like electricity, transportation fuels and such.3.Some place you need to consider business expenses in the equation. Insurance, lawyers, medical and such. Also retirement should be considered, if you are not working that into the equation then you are really screwing yourself.4.As others have pointed out estimating man hours on a job can be difficult especially one off jobs. This is certainly an experience thing so over estimate at first.5.Figure out what you want to make as an hourly rate. Obviously as a sole owner and operator this might not make much sense, as you will want to maximize your income. But it is useful to have in your calculations a wage rate so that you know how to figure in employees if you should ever need some quick help. In any event for sole owner think of this as your minimum acceptable wage. Items 3 & 5 here can be added together to form an hourly rate of wages and overhead. In other words what is required to sustain you in the job. Note to that you will have idle time so that has to be addressed someplace or made up for.6.Generally do all of the above out of site of the customer, bill him for the finished product. In other words on fabricated gate is $400 dollars or whatever you aim for. The customer may ask for an itemized bill and they have the right to do so, but I would be reluctant to give them to much information. The common problem is that they don't appreciate the cost of your labor.ThanksDave
