Dvoigt

So I have been doing some thinking about pricing work and have a question when it comes to lumber pricing for a project. I'm new at this and want to get some advice from those that have been around the block.

First off how do you price your lumber. I'm assuming alot of people buy in rough and then surface it. How much can one really save doing this after labor and all? As an example say I need to build something that is going to be require 10 bdft. If I can buy S2S cherry for $7/bdft and rough cherry for $4/bdft (estimating), I've saved $30 on wood by going with rough. How much time would it take to surface that to final dimension? 1 hour, 4 hours? If you have a jointer and planer, does it ever make sense to buy surfaced wood (expect for time saving)?

Secondly, how do you base your pricing. Do you buy lumber rough but charge your customers the price of what S2S would be to take into account your time for prepping the wood and waste? The 10bdft project would cost $70 in S2S wood, that would seem to me to end up being a $200 final project. Also, if you get a killer deal on wood, say a small amount S2S cherry for $2/bdft. Would you pass that savings to your customer, or just call it a good deal for you. My thought in cases like this is to charge "replacement" cost for the wood.

I'm just putting though into this for future things, to make sure I don't under price.

Thanks for the input!

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Mike Gager

you are going to have to do some surfacing work on S2S stock anyways might as well get the rough stuff and charge the client extra for the time

GeorgeC

Why are "you are going to have to do some surfacing work on S2S stock anyways" other than surface sanding and possible/probably jointing one or both edges?

George

supershingler

i think you have to figure your wood costs at s4s prices and dont forget to add waste in the the bid.

if you can find a deal on some wood put the money in your pocket. if someone is looking for a bid on something and you just happen to have gotten a deal on the wood and bid it low they may come back to you after a couple of months and decided to take your bid. all of sudden cheap wood is no longer available and you have to rebid and look like you tr ying to make a fast buck by charging market price at the time.

when you do a project you deliver wood that is s4s although it may not have started out that way. i allways think replacement costs when i bid something.

if you get everything you bid your prices are too low. if you dont get anything you bid then you have to look at your pricesl

just my thoughts

kendall

rrich

Some time back in the Ancient History era, I saw a TV show about home building and costs. The only thing that stuck with me was one third / two thirds rule.

Simply stated, for every dollar in materials assume two dollars in labor costs when building a house. (KEY WORDS - building a house)

So for $70 of lumber, $60 of hardware, $20 of finishing supplies and another $20 for wear and tear on the equipment you are looking at about $500 for the job.

Now, if it is a friend or neighbor the question is how good of a friend or neighbor. For one of LOML's friends the charge would be $750. For the neighbor across the street, the charge would be $200. There is something to be said for love or hate relationships.

The above is assuming that you WANT to do the job. If you don't want to do the job, then the charge should be $1000 to $1500.

There is one other thing that you need to consider with purchasing hardwood lumber. If the project requires 10 board feet, assume that you will be buying 15 to 20 board feet. Regardless of how careful you are when selecting your lumber you will need at least 50% overage.

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Use the right tool for the job.

Rich (Tilting right)
Huntington Beach, California
Remember that when we have the "BIG ONE" everything east of the Rockies falls into the ocean.

GeorgeC

"For one of LOML's friends the charge would be $750. For the neighbor across the street, the charge would be $200. There is something to be said for love or hate relationships."

What is a "LOML's friends?"

G

Julian the woodnut

Love of my life's friend

Mike Gager

im not understanding your question? the jointing the edge and surface sanding are the "some surfacing work" i was talking about

GeorgeC

Big, Big difference between that and having to surface rough lumber.

G

Boardman

I always use rough sawn and charge for the finishing work. First of all, I can't expect S2S to be straight, flat, and be surfaced to a "ready to use" condition. Then, if it needs to be face jointed, you lose thickness and the project begins to look and feel flimsy.

My source for most of the RS allows me to search thru the pile to find the boards which will give me the best yield, thus bringing waste down to a minimum. And I'm able to finish the lumber to thicknesses around .875 or so. The extra thickness comes into play when building shelves for instance. More thickness = more weight bearing capacity.

Plus, I've got more time than money, so being paid to surface RS is fine with me.

toolman Steve

DVOIGT.
I don't know how big your shop is , you may need to figure out how much to charge per shop hour & man hour plus the profit margin you want. there are books & programs out there to do this , I cant remember if it was(Lowe's or Home depot) that had one thu there site it used the natanal billing standerds to set prices .
It might be a place to start.

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Steve M.

Mike Gager

if you say so then i guess its so

rrich

I used the one from the old HD "Pro Book" software. It was designed to take an order for materials and produce a proposal of sorts. I assume that it worked well for construction but I found it difficult for woodworking.

HD has discontinued the "Pro Book" because the user would download all the HD current prices to their computer every time they logged in. This was a HUGE advantage to working off line and to any competitor who installed the HD software.

__________________
Use the right tool for the job.

Rich (Tilting right)
Huntington Beach, California
Remember that when we have the "BIG ONE" everything east of the Rockies falls into the ocean.

Dvoigt

So base my pricing off of what I could buy the wood for locally.

If S2S Zebrawood cost $15/bdft locally, then charge that amount + 25-50% additional for scrap, strictly for wood.

Then add labor and supplies... which is a whole different thread.

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