Pricing commecial work

I’ve newer price bigger commercial stuff before. Painting company asked me to estimate entire storage facility to wash. Its 368 units and main building (about 2000sf). Main building is 2 stories, everything else in one story maybe 8ft tall.
There’s only one access to the water, and it’s right by front gate, place is 400-500ft long. I only have a 150g tank with 5.5g unit. How you guys usually go around with something like that? How to price job like this?

wow good luck man, i’m in the same boat with mostly resi or smaller jobs but it seems like thats where the money is in multi-unit property cleaning. I read somewhere about how some guys bid these I cant remember exactly but it was a per unit cost I want to say around 150 for like 130ish units or something, my mind is a little hazy and cant recall the exact numbers from the thread. Would love to hear some experienced guys respond to the thread, i’m curious about the water supply as well.

Pricing larger projects depends on several factors, unless its a house or apartment building it’s really hard (For Me) to get a grip on the scope of your project. Many here (Including myself) don’t really like to talk about pricing on a public forum. As you did, many others watch this forum, some from my area I’m sure.

Even if I was to give you a price, more than likely you wouldn’t get the job and/or you wouldn’t make any profit, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. What it costs me to operate is different than your costs. Our equipment is different than your equipment, and What we can sell all goes into the equation.

It’s really like pricing any other job…Time & Materials + Profit = Bid

The only way to learn this is to go out and do the jobs…trial & error. It’s how I started.

Hope this helps

Well I hate to say it but you probably need a bigger tank, other wise you are going to be refilling every 27 mins. If I was in your position I would bid the job. If you land it get on Craigslist and purchase a larger used tank or a square tank. The 325 gallon square toting tanks go for $60 out here easy. Then when you get paid buy a 325 w legs. But you can plumb that square tank in for temporary usage easy.

As far as the job goes I have done lots of storage unit cleanings before. But never paint prep for storage facility. Find out if the customer wants the paint stripped or just dirt and debris removed. If he wants it stripped you have to account for clean up time. I would try to demo the facility first, figure out how long it takes to clean 1 or 2 units so you can figure out how many days/hours its going take to complete. I would charge a flat rate for the building, or price per sq ft.

Good Luck!

Yep, you’ll need a bigger tank. Also, put a Y on the faucet. Run two supply hoses from the faucet to your tank. For long runs, you’d be surprised how much more water you can get using two hoses - if the faucet has a good enough GPM supply to start with. IF there’s an irrigation system, see if you can T into that. Usually you can.

Another tip, and this is a big one, bag each lock with a grocery back or something. If “house wash” mix gets inside the lock it can cause it to rust, and ruin it. With 300+ locks, that would be expensive repair.

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Thanks guys for all info. I didn’t expect anybody posting prices. I was just trying to get an idea how to go about something like that.
I know my tank is to small, I need to upgrade my entire setup. Now i have 5x8 enclosed trailer , I’m changing to 6x12 double axle open trailer as soon as I find one. Great tips with the locks and Y connector