# Patch job pricing?



## vhcconstruction (Nov 11, 2008)

So I gave a bid for 2560.00 to do a basement tape and patching of the rest of a small rambler, very beat up flip house. They had a friend bid it for 1000.00, He came in with water glue tape and 5 boxes of green bucket joint compound. put his lick and stick tape on, no pre-fill, and one coated some areas. Left the job after two days nothing near a second coat with about 500 ft of tape to go. I get called in to finish, my time has come to 2047 plus materials, (should be more then my first bid though) to prefill on a tuesday evening and sand on Friday. It needed one more day but had to get it done, mean while my father is in the hospital 5 hours away from a minor stroke. Am I wrong or should I be charging more? Two man crew, redoing almost everything but down before me?


----------



## 2buckcanuck (Jul 9, 2010)

vhcconstruction said:


> So I gave a bid for 2560.00 to do a basement tape and patching of the rest of a small rambler, very beat up flip house. They had a friend bid it for 1000.00, He came in with water glue tape and 5 boxes of green bucket joint compound. put his lick and stick tape on, no pre-fill, and one coated some areas. Left the job after two days nothing near a second coat with about 500 ft of tape to go. I get called in to finish, my time has come to 2047 plus materials, (should be more then my first bid though) to prefill on a tuesday evening and sand on Friday. It needed one more day but had to get it done, mean while my father is in the hospital 5 hours away from a minor stroke. Am I wrong or should I be charging more? Two man crew, redoing almost everything but down before me?


you were the 2nd man of their choice, after their buddy, and now your fixing his mess. Screw them, don't be nice, tac on some more money for them being too pushy 

Explain to them if they want good service and cheap, it won't be fast

if they want good service and fast, it won't be cheap

if they want fast service and cheap, it won't be good........ pick one:whistling2:

And go visit your father right now:furious:


----------



## fr8train (Jan 20, 2008)

vhcconstruction said:


> It needed one more day but had to get it done, mean while my father is in the hospital 5 hours away from a minor stroke. Am I wrong or should I be charging more?


No amount of money is worth not being there when your family needs you. You only have one father. Be there for him when he needs you. 

My father passed away last week unexpectedly. Before then, I felt like an ass, because my wife and I have been living with my parents while our house is in the middle of a drawn out gut-remodel. Now, I'm so glad that I got to spend the past 8 months living here, getting to see him everyday.


----------



## vhcconstruction (Nov 11, 2008)

fr8train....
Thanks, i now have tears running down my face. I am sorry for your loss. It is a catch 22 no matter what we do, get the job to pay the bills or be with a family member. the choices we have to make. So I left the painter a note telling him I was sorry if I missed some spots and told him I had to go be with the family, the assh*&& walked on the job because I missed two patches. But then again he is doing it on the side.. he had nothing to loose. Lets just say now after talking with the investors I will hopefully be running all there jobs from now on.


----------



## Kiwiman (Jun 14, 2008)

fr8train said:


> No amount of money is worth not being there when your family needs you. You only have one father. Be there for him when he needs you.
> 
> My father passed away last week unexpectedly. Before then, I felt like an ass, because my wife and I have been living with my parents while our house is in the middle of a drawn out gut-remodel. Now, I'm so glad that I got to spend the past 8 months living here, getting to see him everyday.


Sorry to hear that Fr8, you have our sympathy.


----------



## fr8train (Jan 20, 2008)

vhcconstruction said:


> fr8train....
> Thanks, i now have tears running down my face. I am sorry for your loss. It is a catch 22 no matter what we do, get the job to pay the bills or be with a family member. the choices we have to make. So I left the painter a note telling him I was sorry if I missed some spots and told him I had to go be with the family, the assh*&& walked on the job because I missed two patches. But then again he is doing it on the side.. he had nothing to loose. Lets just say now after talking with the investors I will hopefully be running all there jobs from now on.


Didn't mean to guilt trip you. I was raised that family comes first. Money can be made and lost. But you only have one family. If I had to choose between being well of financially but having a bad family life, or fielding calls from debt collectors and having a great rapport with my family. I'll deal with the debt collectors. When my time comes, I'd rather go broke but loved.

Also, I apoligize for hijacking the thread!


----------



## vhcconstruction (Nov 11, 2008)

I agree with you, He has been battling cancer and the stroke was a side effect of the kemo. My mom kept telling me just come down this weekend and everything would be fine, luckily it was. Just that gamble I guess.


----------



## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

vhcconstruction,

I'm sorry to hear about your father....do what your heart tells you.

And, as for the charging....I've been finding lately that if I'm wondering whether I should be charging more.....then I should be charging more. It's better to lose sh!tty bids and make money where you can. I'm marketing myself as a "specialty" guy, tricky stuff and high quality....it's great too....everybody knows they have to pay me more, and they are willing to do so when it's not some cracker-jack BS.


----------



## vhcconstruction (Nov 11, 2008)

I am the same, I usually only do my own jobs but I have a couple companies that hire me for the weird stuff. If I could figure out how to post a pic I would show some.


----------



## 2buckcanuck (Jul 9, 2010)

fr8train said:


> No amount of money is worth not being there when your family needs you. You only have one father. Be there for him when he needs you.
> 
> My father passed away last week unexpectedly. Before then, I felt like an ass, because my wife and I have been living with my parents while our house is in the middle of a drawn out gut-remodel. Now, I'm so glad that I got to spend the past 8 months living here, getting to see him everyday.


Sorry about your loss fr8trian, but glad you got to spend time with your father near the end. And odd that this subject came up, my father passed on the 27th of October,2002. He had the cancer bug, you knew he was going to die but....... one day, a little VOICE inside my head was saying, go visit your father. (something I did not do too much). So I did. I was there to see him pass, and was also told to tell him to pass. He was a avid Deer hunter, Told him to think he was at peace in the woods, to move on, leave the pain, and to hunt for the BUCK that always got away from him, it hurt, and my father was the 1st person I ever seen die, but I was there for him..........

Your hearing what the voice on your head is saying vhcconstruction, go see your father


----------



## 2buckcanuck (Jul 9, 2010)

vhcconstruction said:


> I am the same, I usually only do my own jobs but I have a couple companies that hire me for the weird stuff. If I could figure out how to post a pic I would show some.


Open pic with windows paint, resize it to around 50, then save it as a jpeg, store it in a folder thats easy to find

Click on the paper clip in DWT to up load them:thumbsup: (in advance)


----------



## gazman (Apr 29, 2011)

Sorry for your loss Fr8train. 
Vhconstruction I hope all works out for you and your dad. And when you have to fix someone elses [email protected] charge like a wounded bull.:thumbsup:


----------



## cdwoodcox (Jan 3, 2011)

Sorry to hear about both your fathers.


----------



## moore (Dec 2, 2010)

SlimPickins said:


> vhcconstruction,
> 
> I'm sorry to hear about your father....do what your heart tells you.
> 
> And, as for the charging....I've been finding lately that if I'm wondering whether I should be charging more.....then I should be charging more. It's better to lose sh!tty bids and make money where you can. I'm marketing myself as a "specialty" guy, tricky stuff and high quality....it's great too....everybody knows they have to pay me more, and they are willing to do so when it's not some cracker-jack BS.


Cracker -jack BS can pay the bills ,,walk out of one then walk into another Do those ''specialty'' jobs come along once a week? What do ya mean by tricky stuff and high quality ?? A rich man gets a better finish because his home is ''high quality'' .but the first time home buyer gets the shaft cause they bought a cracker jack?? maybe I'm a little stuck on myself ,,,but I give all my clients a top notch job no matter how rich or poor they are..:tt2::tt2::tt2:


----------



## vhcconstruction (Nov 11, 2008)

I always give my clients the best as well, but when they only let you get two coats on and say that is good enough, well I have to second guess working with them. To many cheifs and non of them know whats going on, I think they are watching to much hgtv.


----------



## fr8train (Jan 20, 2008)

we only put 2 coats on, all we need.


----------



## fr8train (Jan 20, 2008)

double post


----------



## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

moore said:


> Cracker -jack BS can pay the bills ,,walk out of one then walk into another Do those ''specialty'' jobs come along once a week? What do ya mean by tricky stuff and high quality ?? A rich man gets a better finish because his home is ''high quality'' .but the first time home buyer gets the shaft cause they bought a cracker jack?? maybe I'm a little stuck on myself ,,,but I give all my clients a top notch job no matter how rich or poor they are..:tt2::tt2::tt2:


Sure, cracker jacks can pay the bills........barely. Those GCs whittle a guy down to next to nothing, and it's a "lowest bid " scenario. Every job I do gets quality workmanship, it's just that I try to stay away from bidding production work. Don't get me wrong, I'll work like a horse for low pay any time it's necessary, but I'm trying to make a better living for myself by specializing. Honestly, without auto tools I can't compete out there in production land. I can hang competitively in terms of time and footage, but people don't hire me for that anymore (and at $0.17/ft why would I want that?). I get hired to hang for reasons other than "makin' it white" and "looks good from my house" and "the taper will fix it"

Example: The builder on this current job said that my bid was "considerably higher than he wanted to pay". The next sentence was "I guess it is what it is, I don't want anyone else to do this job". THAT's the type of contractors I'm trying to tuck into my belt....I'm not unrealistic, sometimes a guy has to work competitively in a down market.....but on every job? No. thank. you. It's not an ego thing, it's an I'm-starting-to-feel-old-thing, and I want to paid for my "expertise", craftsmanship, flexibility, work ethic, and care/concern for the proper method.

Sorry for the rant.


----------



## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

fr8train said:


> we only put 2 coats on top of the tape or beads, all we need.


I see you only post twice to say the same thing too (or is that 'two') :jester:


----------



## fr8train (Jan 20, 2008)

lol, dang puter


----------



## moore (Dec 2, 2010)

It is what it is..In my area I am the highest priced ..
In fact,,I'm the base price ..And that's my favorite saying ..
'' It is what it is'' If ya can't wait a couple weeks get someone else ,If ya don't like my price get someone else. I can sit at home and lose money:yes:..But I rarely sit at home so I must be doing something right.


----------



## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

moore said:


> It is what it is..In my area I am the highest priced ..
> In fact,,I'm the base price ..And that's my favorite saying ..
> '' It is what it is'' If ya can't wait a couple weeks get someone else ,If ya don't like my price get someone else. I can sit at home and lose money:yes:..But I rarely sit at home so I must be doing something right.


:thumbsup:

Here's something about me that would be helpful to understanding where I'm coming from. I've worked for other people for the near entire span of my time in the trade. It's only been a year or two since I've been starting to branch out on my own. Rather than just go out and try to play along with the pricing beat-down, I've decided to give some thought to what I'm good at (and as I type this I realize that maybe I should also spend some time thinking about what I'm NOT good at too), what I like to do, and and the type of projects I would prefer to work on. There's nothing wrong with trying to find a line of work that you enjoy. I'll try to refrain from writing a mission statement here..... :laughing: I guess I have the luxury of taking my time to make this a good business, because I have a wide network of people who will pay me well to work on their projects when my own work isn't going on.


----------

