Message Thread:
Pricing prefinished trim
4/19/16
Hey guys,
I need to price a job for a new build that is underway. The contractor asked me to price out the trim for the whole house. It is a 3 part trim (flat stock, cap, shoe).
I have 2200ft of each component to mill, sand, stain, seal, scuff, glaze, top coat, and install.
How do you guys come up with pricing per foot on the finishing end? Sanding, staining, sealing, scuffing, glazing, top coating, time.
Being a 4 month old business this will be the first time I'm personally taking a job like this. I have no experience with the pricing end and I'm trying my best not to sell myself short. I know it varies from region to region. We are in New York an hour from the city.
I was reading some companies charge by sqft of finish, some finishers charge by the window and door, some go by the day. What is a fair pricing method for the customer, but is also profitable for the company?
My number for just the finish was $3.20 per foot. Not counting a milling charge, or install fee. (I also don't have a widebelt sander to cut the prep time and drop the price). This is going to be done with orbitals and hand sanding.
Am I too high?
4/19/16 #3: Pricing prefinished trim ...
If there was no glaze then yes. But with the glaze I'm not sure if the price is high enough. How tall is the flat stock.
What kind of glaze job? Just in the nooks and crannies or are you applying glaze to everything and wiping down so the glaze alters the color?
4/19/16 #4: Pricing prefinished trim ...
The color is supposed to be a dark walnut brown color. The homeowners/contractor didn't want to spend the money for hardwood and asked that I give them a price for clear white pine and premium eastern pine. Whichever they go with I was going to stain it with dark walnut and glaze it with mohawk black heavy body glaze to tint it down a bit more and hide the yellow.
Application would be spraying the stain, wipe, allowing to dry, seal, scuff, wipe glaze/wipe off, top coat.
4/19/16 #5: Pricing prefinished trim ...
forgot to answer your questions. The flat stock is 3 1/4" or 3 1/2" tall. The cap is 1"x 3/4". Overall height will be 4"- 4 1/4" with 3/4" shoe.
I would be covering everything with glaze to tint, not just in the corners.
4/19/16 #6: Pricing prefinished trim ...
It'll sound expensive to him, but the price seems reasonable. What will you have to do to prevent blotching of the pine?
4/19/16 #7: Pricing prefinished trim ...
Good question Leo. I'll be honest, I hadn't thought about it until you mentioned it. The only thing coming to my mind is spraying shellac and staining on top of that or using a pre-stain. But the homeowners are already trying to pay as little as possible on this without giving up the stained trim altogether. If I throw in a pre-stain step I'm going to have to raise the price. And I have yet to tack on for the milling and install work.
Is $8-14 milled/finished/installed per linial foot normal?
4/19/16 #8: Pricing prefinished trim ...
Yes.
Simple 3 5/8" preprimed crown I'll charge $7/lf plus corners to install.
Also depends on the install. Lots of straight runs and you can charge less because it's quick. Lots of tight rooms, corners and short runs is more expensive.
4/20/16 #9: Pricing prefinished trim ...
What some other guy charges a foot is only half the equation. How much is an hour of your shop time.?
Just to, maybe, help you judge.......throw a lineal/foot number at the job.
10 bux a foot x 2500 feet is 25 Grand.
Subtract your cost... for example, 8 leaves you with 17 Grand.
If your shop time is 100 dollars/hour, that leaves you 170 hours.
Can you do the job in (close to) 170 hours.?
That is 21 days...2 guys for 11 days...etc etc.
As others have said...2500 feet on one straight wall will go faster than 100 walls that are 25 feet with inside and outside miters, etc etc.
good luck
4/20/16 #10: Pricing prefinished trim ...
Denny, thank you so much for the post. That really helped to clarify how to think about it for me.
This molding is going to be used for all of the base, every door 2 sides, and every window. Large open spaces with long straight runs to bathrooms. Not my taste, but that's what the contractor specified with the homeowner.
Your example helped me think about it in terms of how much time will be needed for all of the cutting alone. Windows and doors- 2 to 4 cuts for every side, base trim-3 cuts. Not to mention using fill sticks to fill every single nail hole.
4/20/16 #11: Pricing prefinished trim ...
I understand WHY trim is figured to be prefinished...but I never liked the idea.
It then has to be loaded, transported, unloaded, installed, caulked to itself and to the wall, and as you mention... nail holes dealt with.
Long straight pieces that butt are not too bad...but door and window frames (or any miter) that require a chop saw at the job-site can realty start to put The F to your work.....and your stuff is somewhat complex to touch-up compared to a solid color.
Just make sure you are not held responsible for installation "damage" to the surrounding surface(s). Of course, a lot of THAT depends on the Walls/Ceilings being finished before or after your install date.
And once it is in, if the painter, floor guy, electrician, carpenter, damage it, you need to be compensated. Just because you are still on the job does not mean you are there to fix damage from the other trades for free.
You "never" want to be a dick-head, but a GC can get rather flippant with YOUR time. One thing I like to say is..."Let me finish the contract work first. Then we can look at what needs to touched up and why".
Anyway...good luck my friend
4/20/16 #12: Pricing prefinished trim ...
I wouldn't give a quote until the samples are done. Since you didn't think about staining the pine, you better get some approvals on your work before you hit them with a price! I'd suggest poplar or soft maple for a lot less work and a more consistent finish.
4/20/16 #13: Pricing prefinished trim ...
Hey Rich,
Thanks for giving me advice again. I do appreciate it.
That is quite wise indeed. I sent a preliminary quote to the GC (who is a friend) today before I saw this unfortunately. No worries though, he will review it first before passing anything to them. I can tell him to let me work up the samples before he shows them the quote.
I worked up the pricing for milling/install and milling/finishing/install. I had already done some preliminary pricing just on the required material amount in various wood types. Poplar and maple (my go to choices) were ruled out based on their price. The GC pretty much told us it's going to be pine, final story. The customer wants caviar, but has a budget for gas station sushi.
At the shop I used to work at we had a similar situation and followed the approach I outline above. Nailed it. That's not to say these guys will definitely approve it until they see the samples, but I feel pretty confident they will based on the samples they showed me of what they liked. Their alternative is no stain at all and just a clear finish, or another shade of brown or some other color using a 1 step stain or the stain/glaze with different colors.
In terms of blotchiness, I'm not going to sweat a little blotched color here and there over the whole job. I'll obviously be doing my best for even color throughout during staining, proper sanding to try to limit variance, and if some have to be color toned I'll do that.
4/21/16 #14: Pricing prefinished trim ...
Something to think about......
Is the cost of all this fancy stuff you need to do to try and make pine look like hardwood, going to be more expensive than just using a hardwood?
4/21/16 #15: Pricing prefinished trim ...
JM..
That is an excellent point that is often overlooked by project managers and GCs. They try to save on material but spend a fortune trying to make the finish comparable to the species they want. They call it value engineering. I call it a PIA
4/21/16 #16: Pricing prefinished trim ...
complete PITA.
The pine is going at $0.75plf. The walnut goes at $6.22plf.
2300 feet of pine is going to run $1725 + miling + finishing+ install+ tax.
Walnut would be $14,306 + milling + clear coat x2+ install + tax.
4/21/16 #17: Pricing prefinished trim ...
instead of the glaze l think you could save time (and money)on both the original application and touch-up by going brown dye-wash coat-stain-top coats (either spray or wiping stain would work) lot more spray gun work less hand work.
4/24/16 #18: Pricing prefinished trim ...
Hey Nick,
Indeed. I've never tried spraying a penetrating stain. I always apply that by hand. But if it can get me to the color I need being sprayed that would definitely be the ticket. I would much rather spray everything then have any more hand finishing steps than I already have with the scuffing.
4/27/16 #19: Pricing prefinished trim ...
don't glaze it, tone it. I've done this with poplar trim to match the existing walnut cabinets. First get half of the color with sprayed on dye stain ( no wipe) seal and sand, then tone with same stain and topcoat. I am cheap so I only charge 50 cents per foot for every step, so that's $2.50 per foot. If I have to prep sand the wood then of course another 50 cents.
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