# commercial Vs. residential



## 3Kings Plumbing (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm more of an residential plumber (Custom Homes mainly) I have done little commercial work (like replumbed an old warehouse and made it into an private school) I was an employee at this time for a company. Well to get to the point. I got an call on replumbing a suite (just relocate bath closer to front of the building) I never bidded an job like this. I need to saw cut the floor 36ft. (should I hire that out or do it myself? What do I charge for cutting?) Need to re work the main and backflow preventer (relocated against back wall of building). The whole building is less than an year old. They want to re used the toilet,sink,water heater, and floor drain. Do I just bid this like it's an house? or do you kick in a little more since it's commercial?? :notworthy


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## KillerToiletSpider (May 27, 2007)

3Kings Plumbing said:


> I'm more of an residential plumber (Custom Homes mainly) I have done little commercial work (like replumbed an old warehouse and made it into an private school) I was an employee at this time for a company. Well to get to the point. I got an call on replumbing a suite (just relocate bath closer to front of the building) I never bidded an job like this. I need to saw cut the floor 36ft. (should I hire that out or do it myself? What do I charge for cutting?) Need to re work the main and backflow preventer (relocated against back wall of building). The whole building is less than an year old. They want to re used the toilet,sink,water heater, and floor drain. Do I just bid this like it's an house? or do you kick in a little more since it's commercial?? :notworthy


All the work we do is residential, but quasi-commercial, since it is in high rise buildings. I would sub out the sawcutting, unless you own the equipment to do it in a day, put your normal markup on it, the rest is bid as you would bid anything else.


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## Pipewrench (Apr 27, 2008)

*Your bid.*

Commercial reworking is a little trickier than residential. God only knows what you will come across once the floor is open. Here in Maryland, a GC we have charges clients $100 per foot, and that's including the repour and finishing. However not including the plumbing work to be done. My company always tries to get jobs like that for T&M for the groundwork, or clause the contract, that unexpected situations will be T&M. Couple examples real life. Underneath one slab for adding a bathroom in a wherehouse I came across and telephone poll, no kidding, just beneath the slab. Took 2 hours, to cut and notch out the pole to run the sewer line. Another job, simple run a 2" line for laundry try 40'. They cut the floor back to a sewer main. We started digging. When the saw cut the floor, they cut into a 4" 90 just below the slab. I told my helper just cut out that 90, we have to fix it anyways. He cut the 90 out, and I looked down the riser to what kind or depth we had to the lateral sewer. Ironically I saw nothing but gravel. What turned into a simple tie in, turned into 5' x 5' of digging, cutting out a 6x4 cast iron combo that was completely broken, replacing the combo on a live sewer connection, and reworking the existing bathroom plumbing to fix the cut 90 beneath the slab. Wish I took pictures of that disaster. Just a few things to think about when doing commercial slab work, best of luck


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## plumber1a (Dec 30, 2008)

Didn't you guys know what the definition of a "contractor" is. It is a person who gambles without getting a chance to cut, deal or shuffle the cards.


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## Joemel (Feb 16, 2009)

There's a big difference between rates of residential and commercial plumbing, it is recommended to bid for the certain job, rate your price higher than residential rates, try to make a contract and include the price of the persons you will hire per head, show them that you are the man for the job, try to do a little sales talk. :thumbup:


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