# Pricing a Hopper Job



## redfish1 (Mar 20, 2005)

I need some help in pricing a hopper job. I have just finished a drywall installation and the customer wants me to texture it. Can someone give me some advise on how I should price?

Thanks


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## jproffer (Feb 19, 2005)

I'm sure I'm not the only one that will answer this way, but here goes.

How many hours do you think it will take, start to finish, setup, cleanup, everything?? How much do you think your work is worth per hour??

If you could answer both of those questions accurately, well you'd be the first contractor I've met that can. (I said ACCURATELY guys :cheesygri )

Basically, take a SWAG (scientific wild a$$ guess), it's not rocket science, if you lose money on this job, raise your price. If you don't get the job, you were too high: lower your price. Whether you're too high or not, make sure you get what you feel your time is worth. Adjust accordingly over a few jobs, then setup a price per square foot. Then when you get faster, your hourly goes up, and rightly so, you've become more skilled, hence faster.  

MHO...HTH


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## jproffer (Feb 19, 2005)

Looking back 5 minutes, I think that may have came out wrong. Obviously you won't just want to guess and hope for the best (that part was more joking than not). The first part of my post was the part I intended to be serious, hours x hourly = bid....or....hours x hourly + a little padding just in case = bid.

The guess part was more for the hours to do the job, but that's not really a guess either, your experience will help you with that one. Sorry if what I said sounded smart a$$y, it wasn't intended :cheesygri


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## redfish1 (Mar 20, 2005)

*quote*



jproffer said:


> Looking back 5 minutes, I think that may have came out wrong. Obviously you won't just want to guess and hope for the best (that part was more joking than not). The first part of my post was the part I intended to be serious, hours x hourly = bid....or....hours x hourly + a little padding just in case = bid.
> 
> The guess part was more for the hours to do the job, but that's not really a guess either, your experience will help you with that one. Sorry if what I said sounded smart a$$y, it wasn't intended :cheesygri


Thanks for the info. I will try that method. Did not take you as a smart a$$.


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## Dale (Aug 26, 2004)

jproffer said:


> I'm sure I'm not the only one that will answer this way, but here goes.
> 
> How many hours do you think it will take, start to finish, setup, cleanup, everything?? How much do you think your work is worth per hour??
> 
> ...



Soooo....how much do you charge on "average" per sq.ft. for a knockdown or splatter or orangepeel? :cheesygri :cheesygri


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## jproffer (Feb 19, 2005)

I have no idea, I'm not a drywaller :cheesygri , but the basic structure for setting charges is the same, how many man hours, how much per man hour...etc


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## Dale (Aug 26, 2004)

I agree..I couldn't resist asking tho'. :cheesygri


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## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

Since you have a working relationship with this customer already, would he/she bit on a time and materials thing for this hopper job? This way you can't lose money, and it would help you gather data for when you must bid a job like this. Just a thought...


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## housedocs (Jan 10, 2005)

> I need some help in pricing a hopper job. I have just finished a drywall installation and the customer wants me to texture it. Can someone give me some advise on how I should price?


9' lids or less I add .05¢ a s/f for texture to the finishing end, high work you gotta charge more, I add another .03¢ s/f for every 10' of lid height. Now this is for new work and we know we're texturing before we start taping. Keep in mind I'm in a rural area of the midwest so my prices are low compared to alot of areas of the country.

Patch jobs where you're matching existing texture, I bid by the project depending upon complexity, some stuff is easier to match than others and use the hours x hrly rate, like was posted.

As far as material, figure like one box of light or topping per 1000 s/f of board to be textured. 

Hope that helps a bit.


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## redfish1 (Mar 20, 2005)

*Hopper Pricing*



housedocs said:


> 9' lids or less I add .05¢ a s/f for texture to the finishing end, high work you gotta charge more, I add another .03¢ s/f for every 10' of lid height. Now this is for new work and we know we're texturing before we start taping. Keep in mind I'm in a rural area of the midwest so my prices are low compared to alot of areas of the country.
> 
> Patch jobs where you're matching existing texture, I bid by the project depending upon complexity, some stuff is easier to match than others and use the hours x hrly rate, like was posted.
> 
> ...


Do you charge a separate finishing rate from the installation rate? I charged them 0.79 per s/f for install and finish. Should I add the .08 to the .79?


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## housedocs (Jan 10, 2005)

Was that .79¢ for labor and materials? That's about the average that the big guns in the field are charging in my neck of the woods. If you've already give them a set fee based on a s/f rate, I would not recommend raising the price now, unless the texture is a change order from the original contract. One bad word about your company can wipe out 10 good references. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and finish the job even if you don't quite make your profit margin. We charge .25¢ s/f for hanging and the same for smooth finish, we add for texturing as I stated in the previous post. This is in addition to material costs, which I pass along to the client at my cost. I run a service operation and don't add mark-up on materials. This is a point that I stress to customers, alot of places add a mark-up on materials, I don't. But I do charge more than most contractors do in this area for our services. I don't chase down alot of work for GC's, except for custom home builders, where they look more at the quality of the job rather than the price, most track home builders are working on the other end of the spectrum, the bottom line wins out over quality work.


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