Say you normally charge $5 for install sand and finish....What sq/ft of flooring is this good for?

Im bidding on a fairly large job 1700+ sq ft, and I was wondering if "other" contractors will be bidding a lower price because of the volume of the work?.

Is this a usual practice when bidding? If so...how much less do you go? Thanks for the help.

I would go down .50-1.00 depending on the layout. Figure how long it would take and make it worth your while.

honestly.....my price for install sand and finish is 3.50. I'm on the low side as it is. Im assuming others normal range is $5 and will bid around 4 at the lowest... what do you make of that?

I wouldn't even go as low as 3.50 unless it was wide open. It's going to take you at least couple of weeks if your by yourself plus supplies. Then if you throw in a helper. If your legit and paying taxes and insurance that should be the minimum.

Wow, I've been Installing and finishing for 3.00/sf. Cost of living is relatively low around here. If I charged 3.50 we wouldn't work much, 2.75 - 3.25/sf is pretty much the going rate around here. Just me and my partner, we've been working together for several years so we've gotten pretty fast. we make out ok, but if we hire help it'd have to be two guys, as we'd have to pretty much double the work load. WC really hits the wallet too, as soon as a helper sets foot on the job. We typically charge normal rates for anything up to 2000sf, over that we'll drop down to 2.75. Then there's wood sales, we try to make 25-50cents/sf when possible, can't always get that, especially when wood costs rise.

Did I understand it right, install sand and finish for $3 per foot?
How much do you pay your helper? do you provide the finish?
For sure you pay no taxes.

The average price would be about $2.5- $4 for the wide planks big open jobs and $4-$5 for refinishing, at today's economy it is pretty hard to get but doing this kind of jobs for $3 must be in a low cost living areas, i am talking about California and Hawaii if you charged this you could not efford paying for your house, food or gas.

One bedroom apartment $1400 a month
one galon $4

1700 sq.ft. job is not that big, you have to ask yourself if you want to lower your prices a lot and then get stuck, it is a lot of labor, a lot of sand paper, and finish, you can not rush on jobs like this because fixing 1700 feet is not an easy thing.

if it is a big house a lot of open big spaces, everyone will bid it lower, on the other hand a lof of clients will call up a bigger companies that have overhead and just can not afford coming down with the price.

Again, with today's economy a lot of wired things are happing, people save money left and right, everywhere they can think of they save, even rich clients would go with te cheapest guy, so if you really really want to get the job you have to find out who you compete with and be low.

good luck

That's right, 3.00 s.f for labor, finished, Oil finish included, taxes paid, workers comp, liability, etc. I'm in Tennessee. Probably the lowest cost of living in the U.S. Rent around here averages $500.00/mo. Got undersold on a job already this year.

We're not getting rich by any means, but we manage to do pretty well for ourselves, for poor old country boys.

Think I will stay put in PA. I charge my builders $3 to install and $4 to finish. I had that price for the last 7 years.
Oh look, I can put smiley faces here!

Considering before labour costs my costs with insurance, supplies, vehicles and everything else starts at 1.30 a sq foot. That is before the sander touches the floor.

Basically when we have large jobs we charge a little less. If your charging $5 for everything that's pretty cheap. In phx we charge, $2.50/ft install subfloor, $2.75/ft install wood flooring, then $2.75/ft to sand and finish. If it's a small job under 1,000 ft usually a little more. But larger jobs we charge a little less. Also you have to kind of judge the customer to see if they have money, if it's an easy job, lots of cutting in or not, how much profit with helpers you want to make, how busy your schedule is etc. Good Luck!!