# Scale jobs??



## Dorman Painting (May 2, 2006)

What are the opinions around here on scale jobs. I've never done one but was wondering what people's ideas or thoughts were about them. 

It seems very subjective to me, the whole idea of having a skilled person, a semi-skilled person and then an unskilled person. That's the way it was explained in the job notes. To me, a painter is truly skilled when he can brush, roll, spray, caulk, prep, problem solve, address picky customers etc. I could make up a whole list of attributes I think make up a skilled painter.

Anyway, I'll instinctively bid this job higher because of the whole idea here. Do these types of jobs create more headaches than they're worth?


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## ProWallGuy (Oct 17, 2003)

Do you mean 'prevailing wages'?


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## JustaFramer (Jan 21, 2005)

Sounds Union to me.


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## Dorman Painting (May 2, 2006)

Yeah, that's what I meant. What are the main differences on these jobs besides the fact I'm supposed to be paying my people more money?


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## JustaFramer (Jan 21, 2005)

Dorman Painting said:


> Yeah, that's what I meant. What are the main differences on these jobs besides the fact I'm supposed to be paying my people more money?



The pay scale is required by law. Which mean you actually make more money if you bid it right. Basicly you have a Journeyman, a skilled apprentice and 1 year apprentice. This means the JM has to teach the apprentice which take more time which you bid into the job.


Welcome to the big leagues if you get the job.


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## Brushslingers (Jul 28, 2006)

Scale is basically junior union. You can make a great deal if your bid is on time, just watch your project schedule, you get ahead you WILL be paying for the third touchup yourself.


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## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

Scale, Prevailing Wage, Bacon-Davis, all mean basically the same thing. You pretty much bid the same as any other job, except your labor figures are different. The timetable is often dictated to you too, so you might have to speed up (hire extra guys) or slow down (be prepared to have fill in work ready for the guys) to accomodate the job schedule that is with the contract documents. Consider this also when you prepare your bid.


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## K2 (Jul 8, 2005)

I found that the scale was set differently for every contract and things like base housing, (detached residences), the wage could be less than half of what another contract paid.


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## lmcgrew79 (Apr 25, 2005)

We do about 70 percent prevailing wage work. The ideas behind prevailed wage is to make a fair market, union & non union, for the tax payers money to get a good finished product. The Scale here in WV is basically set by the union crafts, although there are many non union GC's that bid on the projects, its is pretty much fair play. Usally the profit margin is lower i would say for most. We usually are around 10-20 percent profit margin. Hard to say what everyone else is considering different overhead factors of different companies. I wouldn't say you would make more money if you bid it right determining the factors, that competion is usually very heavy, there have been a few time we were the only contractors bidding, but you never actually know when that is. I have no idea what residental profits are but if there between 30-50 percent profit i would stay there as these are two different worlds. Here in the state of WV a painter on prevailed wage makes 31.23 an hour.


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