Advice on pricing up jobs

Time and mats.

Time, what you want per day, X days + 15% or nearest whole day in the contract.

Mats + 15% over cost.

This should be close unless you are in London or more than 1 hour travelling time to site, if so add in extra for time spent on the road and London rates.

 

or even maths!

I think it was Wally (no longer with us sadly ) said to get the figure you need to earn and divide it by the number of days you are going to work (which remember wont be all of them!) and then times that by 1.3 to allow for hic-ups and other stuff and arrive at a daily figure and work on that.

 

Mats = Materials

 

sorry bud, it only occurred to me after posting!

 

I use estimating software to price extension works, apart from the cost of the software....around £1000...it only gives you approx figures.
Material prices as you know vary from one retailer to another, even by region. Unless you tinker with the material costs in the program it will only ESTIMATE these costs. Again you have to tinker with the Labour cost, yes I am from London where wages are higher. Also I find that these estimator programs assume you have a clear site and access to large plant to under take the works. When digging foundations, these programs can be miles out....mostly we are digging by hand as we can't get a digger into the rear garden of the terrice house. Every bucket/barrow needs to be walked to the skip. Skip prices are around £275inc plus any local council permit.
Unless you are tendering for multi trade works, like extensions ect stay away from the software option.
Pen and paper, phone and internet are all you need plus time to sit down and work it through.

 

All good advice. It will prob take a few jobs to get 'right' as its easy to under estimate your time. Don't forget that the cost of fixings can add up quickly too.

 

Yeah dont forget to charge for fixings its easy to spend £100.00+ on screws and adhesives

 

Another difference with working for the public is that you have to give 'em a cooling off period once you have quoted them these days. Also if the job is fiendishly complicated or there are dependencies on third parties doing other stuff, try to avoid fixed prices. "He who quotes and is sent away lives to quote another day!"