I am totally new to this industry and I need help quoting this job
Its old painted wood. 800 linear feet and there are 18 of those stone columns. I know its vinyl in the picture but the job is wood.
I thought .40 /sf for a fence was a start but I think that’s more for a privacy fence. Thanks in advance.
Do you make any profit at $.40/sf?
Do u feel good with that price?
Then u should be good.
We have no idea what ur OH is, u can only know that
I need a camera like that
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I don’t really have much OH as it is just me. My concern with pricing is that I don’t want to quote something that is so far off from other quotes in my area that I lose the job.
one that turns bad painted wood into vinyl with no effort?..
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pricing while being afraid of losing the job means pricing too low, 100% of the time
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Then find out the prices in ur area.
If you price based on ur competition u are.doing it.wrong.
Price what u feel confortable with.
Like @JAtkinson said pricing out of fear is loosing.
About 7 folks get my humor. Welcome aboard
Okay, that doesn’t answer my question but thanks for your input. I’ve had another business for 17 years. I firmly believe in “My price is my price.” However, pivoting to a new industry I’m just trying to find out what others charge so that every quote I get isn’t too low or too high. I want to be competitive. Once I have a reputation and some customers and reviews under my belt THEN I will charge whatever I feel like.
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My local competition doesn’t want to share their prices with me and I don’t blame them. That is like training their competition. Do you have a price sheet you can share with me?
That never works…in a repeat/referral business, you can’t just raise your prices once you’ve forged your place in the marketplace, without mostly re-growing your customer base. Anyone here that can send you a pricesheet will be doing you a great disservice, because those prices will have nothing to do with your business or market. Anyone that does send you one, isn’t helping you at all.
Get some friends to get quotes from your “competition” to analyze, if that’s how you’re really intent on proceeding…
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I think you’re looking at this wrong.
What do YOU need to make on it to few good with it. The contractor that charges price “x” may have five trucks with ten employees that they take extremely good care of. Another contractor may charge price “y” and they are just a father and son group making some extra extra cash for the kid’s first car.
And if we told you that we charge $0.11 per a linear foot on that type of work would you be okay with charging $0.11 or would you need $0.18 to break even?
I have trouble quoting a commercial job right now where there are many buildings and many different types of material ( brick, painted wood, steel, stucco, concrete, canexel, vinyl all mixed in random on each building) all mixed up and then they only want some parts washed here and there and up there and that section of roof and underneath this and at the end i just want a coffee and i have to go back and start over. I’ll have to just make something up.
Also it’s in rather bad shape in some areas which adds to the complexity.
Oh and i don’t trust that fake stone. Is it house wash mix safe?
No.
Clients will tell u how much they were quoted, lie, you get a feeling.
My prices are based on my costs and how much i feel charging.
Bootom line… charge what makes u confortable. Quote what is confortable to you; otherwise you wont be happy
If i feel the client to be a pain, is extra. If there is not enough room to pull my trailer, is extra. If your water pressure is low, is extra. If you have a well, is extra. If there are no stairs for the deck, is extra. If there are too msny mosquitos, is extra.
Never feel bad about charging… cause when they charge u at the store or mechanic you have no voice.
You sell a service not a product.
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Usually yes.
Ill take this into account my self. 
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I am new too man. The same answers you got, i got also. Its frustrating but theyre right. Go based on what you feel comfortable. Honestly i lost a motel owner who owned quite a few of them, it was rougly 16,000 sqft, i charged him .25 cents per sqft and i locked out an additional .5 cents plus 20% off because i was just starting off. I quoted him 3,200 around there and he went with the bid of 1,200. I mean you win some, and lose some. One of the guys in this thread said, if you are winning arounf 75 of your bids, then you are doing it wrong because obviously charging too cheap. I made 39 an hour at my job, i have to quote to at least where i am comfortable and match at least my minimum of what i made (39). Trust in your self. I got quotes from.different people and let me tell you some were high, med, and mostly cheap. Good luck brother. We will make it through
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you can be at 75% and be OK, more than that consistently, and you really need to up your pricing.
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I had a guy just yesterday talk to me about a quote and said his next door neighbor got his entire roof cleaned for 800$. It was pressurewashed not softwashed 
.It was shingle. This guy’s roof is metal. He wanted a quote from me. I told him my minimum was a fair bit more than that. He hemmed and hawed trying to get a better deal. I’m not a car dealership. I offer a premium service that’s low pressure and charge accordingly. I can do that job any day that I’m home where the competition is booked out months in advance. I cannot wait until I’m at that point but until then I won’t quit my day job.
Quoting is tough. I have very little info on competition and what they are charging. I take what I’m paying for materials into account and have a dollar amount of what I’d like to earn and make the quote reflect that as best I can. I’m still learning myself so get burned more often than not but still make more than my wages out at sea!
Did you mean $.40/linear ft or sq ft? I always measure fences by lf. So how much were you thinking for the job overall? Looks like it would be an all day job right? Do you think you could finish it in a day? Are you doing both sides? How much do you want/need to make pressure washing in one day.
I struggled with pricing alot when I was starting out and it just comes with experience. Now I know about how long a job should take and I know how much a crew needs to make in a day and if all my competition would do it for cheaper thats good for them but until I start loosing too many bids I don’t worry too much what they charge
