Per opening pricing

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UPMICHIGAN

Member
Location
Michigan
Hello.
I have been bidding residential jobs by the square foot and it really isn’t working out. Could some please help me out with how to do per opening pricing. Thank In advance
 
Location
Wyoming
With the cost of materials changing almost daily, it is impractical to bid a job at all.

I have been quoting a price to wire a house by using the square footage to calculate labor cost. Then I price out materials and mark them up accordingly. The quote is good for three or four days. After that time frame I must check material pricing and availability again. I tell my customers that if they want to lock in material pricing, they must prepay for materials. Once I receive a check I will order the materials for their job.

Availability of materials have been problematic also.

i don’t think pricing by opening is going to work any better than a square foot price since the “wild card“ is the material pricing.
 
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UPMICHIGAN

Member
Location
Michigan
With the cost of materials changing almost daily, it is impractical to bid a job at all.

I have been quoting a price to wire a house by using the square footage to calculate labor cost. Then I price out materials and mark them up accordingly. The quote is good for three or four days. After that time frame I must check material pricing and availability again. I tell my customers that if they want to lock in material pricing, they must prepay for materials. Once I receive a check I will order the materials for their job.

Availability of materials have been problematic also.

i don’t think pricing by opening is going to work any better than a square foot price since the “wild card“ is the material pricing.
Thanks very much for the reply!
 

brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
use assembly pricing. You build assemblies for each item i.e. receptacle, switch banks, GFI receps, etc. You need an assembly for everything in the house, and all of your switch combinations. Its far easier in software. When I first started pricing this way I spent a lot of time building custom Excel spreadsheets that pretty well covered me for the type of residential work I was doing at the time. I use Conest Intellibid now and its a bit easier.

20 years ago, I bought this book and it was a great starting point.
 
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
In the past I bid by the opening via a spreadsheet but each variant was considered. Price per opening was an average of the assemblies. It worked for me, then. Service, laterals, large loads were calculated separately and tacked on to the total.

Today I would be inclined to the software.

Ordering materials upon deposit is a good idea.

House have changed. My nephew is Htg/Air. He walked into a closet and thought it was another bedroom. Master suite is 1400 sq ft. Freaking ridiculous.
 

cdslotz

Senior Member
use assembly pricing. You build assemblies for each item i.e. receptacle, switch banks, GFI receps, etc. You need an assembly for everything in the house, and all of your switch combinations. Its far easier in software. When I first started pricing this way I spent a lot of time building custom Excel spreadsheets that pretty well covered me for the type of residential work I was doing at the time. I use Conest Intellibid now and its a bit easier.

20 years ago, I bought this book and it was a great starting point.
THIS^^^^^ This way you can quickly update pricing for every nut/bolt of material in assemblies
 
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