Hello! So you wanna bid a job the right way. Lemme share with you a few thoughts on this. I may be able to shed some light on the subject here, as I’ve been bidding jobs for over 20 years.
If you are bidding a job where the house is occupied here are a few things to consider.
- Will you have access to the house and when? People may only want you to work when they are there. This can severely limit how long and when you can work on this project. Will they give you a key to the house. Will the house be locked up. Hash this stuff out ahead of time for scheduling purposes.
- Will you have to cover stuff and how much. This involves time and material such as plastic, making paper, tape.
- Will the work area be free of furniture, nick knacks, electronics, curtains? You may have to work around this stuff and cover it or ask the home owner to move it. It’s nice to have at least 3-4 feet of working area, especially by walls. Best to let homeowner know the more stuff out of the way the better.
- Do you have to move anything? Include the cost of moving stuff in your bid.
- What if you brake something when you’re moving it? Maybe you need special packaging for delicate/expensive items, figure this into your bid.
- Is the sheetrock hung before you start taping? If so, how hacked up is it? Are there extra joints? But/bastard joints instead of flat joints?
- Are there fasteners (clickers and clankers) sticking out all over the place? If so, ask customer if they plan on driving them below the surface of the rock without breaking the paper. Sometimes they won’t do it or won’t do it properly, so you probably should just plan to include fixing that in your bid.
- Are there pets and kids running around? This could slow you down or you could get bit. Another thing to consider addressing or including in your bid.
- Are there backers needed before hanging rock? Generally speaking, when you bid a remodel or patch job your price should plan on including this stuff, because it’s likely to happen.
- You may want to put a lot of this stuff in the fine print, but also explain verbally …especially the main points.
- Write a contract. This helps eliminate misunderstandings, or something forgotten, also if a signed contract goes to court you have a lot more leverage. Contracts should not be lopsided, make it fair for you and the customer. I.e don’t charge $10k to patch a hole in the wall.
- For some big money ideas on contracts and how not to leave money on the table, you can get access and much more, through our paid subscription.