Help With Large Tile and Grout Bid

[Goldenboy]

I am putting together a bid for a car dealership. Square footage for the tile is 8,382 square feet. The grout is dirty it will need to be scrubbed with one of those small grout brushes on a stick. They want an estimate. Two months ago I did the owners house fro 600 bucks. Last weekend I did their carpets at the dealership for a 949 bucks. My point is they usually use me but this is a big bid for me. Help me with this bid.

Golden Boy

 

[TimP]

Break it down hourly. How quick can you clean the tile. How large are the rooms, what does your help cost you etc. What do you usually bring in an hour. Try to make sure you bring in at least what you want. Don't short change yourself just because it's big. Yeah it deserves a discount but not cause of the job but because you should be able to do it faster and not have to set up and break down much. I'd say about a 10-20% discount depending on your production rate. Also since the person has used you in the past they are sold on you and trust you. Just do them right and they will keep you for ever.

 

[Kevin B]

My only question would be, why scrub it with a brush on a stick?

There are so many variables, and I'm just getting into grout and tile myself.

 

[A. wilson]

Make an educated guess on how long it will take you, add how much gas you'll burn and supplies you will use. Now figure a fair price and present the bid to them. If they like it, schedule then do the job.

If you want more, I will drive up there and do it, then give you 10%.

 

[Goldenboy]

I was thinking about 4 G's.


Golden Boy

 

[Jim Martin]

I have tried different heads on the rx and different types of machines and the old brush on the stick seems to be the best..........
It is really the only thing I have found that gets down into the grout lines...everything else seemed to just glide over them..............

as far as the price.............


do they want it sealed as well or just cleaned........

 

[Goldenboy]

Just cleaned. Did not bring up sealing it.

Golden Boy

 

[Blue Monarch]

I'd hack it out for $3k. Assuming I'd have the turbo, 1000 psi and Oxyblaster.

 

[Dolly]

$3600.00

 

[alazo1]

My only question would be, why scrub it with a brush on a stick?

What would you use Kevin?, is there a rotary brush that gets to the grout lines? Or maybe...Waldo, don't you have a hot tm?. Maybe nuke it, dwell and and rinse with your tm. Have you tried a test area?

Albert

 

[The Cleaning Artist]

How much furniture needs to be moved? How much to clean around? Here that job would go for about 1200. I wouldn't do it for that but many will do a poor job for that little.


I have done some dealerships. They were all very soiled and the tile had been waxed by the janitorial company. The soil was so bad, I didn't detect the wax until the tile started to dry. Make sure before you bid there is no wax on the floor.

If the tile is dirty, I have the chems that will make short work of it.

 

[Sticky]

Test Area

Golden Boy,
I think your best bet is to do a demo area. This will benefit both you and the customer. These are some benefits:
A) The customer will know what to expect from your cleaning
B) You will know how long the job will take (to figure out your labor cost)
C) You will know what chemicals you need to use (if it turns out that you need to use viper renew instead of viper venom the cost of chemicals could be a lot more expensive.

I've worked with a bunch of different car dealerships over the past and I have found this to work best. Car dealership tile can sometimes be extremely difficult to clean. Sometimes its a breeze. That's why I would suggest doing a test area.

Good Luck on your bid I hope you get it!

 

[Johnnyone]

OK, 8382 SF is a lot of tile and you said it is dirty.

If you could clean it at 1000 SF a hr that's 8.5 hrs if things go right but

don't count on that. It will be after hrs work that's a given. So figure in

2 people lots of chemical and agitation, dwell, Oh don't forget the water

source you will use a lot of it and where will you dump it.

Duh, you forgot to add the sealer too $$$ That what,s going to keep it

clean make some profit and low maintenance for janitorial

The artist said it right, re read the post

3 nite 5-6 hrs 2 people 2 cases of solvent sealer

dollar a square and that is a deal if you don't have to strip any wax

 

[RickL]

Good Estimate

Waldo I do mostly tile and grout and for that large an open area your right in the ballpark. I would be right at $.50 a sq ft. You should do a test
first to make certain there isn't anything on the floor that will have to be stripped off. Also I agree with you and Jim in tough commercial settings
you have to hit it with the grout brush although I do hit it first with a t&g brush on my rotary. If you want to discuss feel free to give me a call anytime. TEST IS REAL IMPORTANT I've gotten burned before and it took me twice as long as I planned for.
678-350-3402

 

[Gary T]

Really follow the advice of a demo. You have no idea of what might be on there and neither do they. I demo EVERY commercial job, except the 1 I got burned on, just for that reason. Just a small area right by the entrance.

 

[Goldenboy]

When I was cleaning the carpets I hit a section with my pre-spray used my grout stick brush and rinsed with my T-Wand/Greenglide. The grout came clean its was black before I scrubbed it. White after I rinsed it. To do the job right I think I am going to have to use the stick brush. The tile itself will be gravy to clean its the fookin grout.

Golden Boy

 

[Gary T]

The brush on the stick does work the best. I've tried many a rotary brush, some are better than others, but none are better than the brush on a stick.

 

[boazcan]

8000 sq ft of tile would mean roughly 25000 linear ft of grout.

That is a bunch of scrubbing. CRB, Cimex with brushes, or Icapsol will do the trick and take about a quarter of the time. One guy leads with the scrubber and you follow behind with the turbo.

Hand scrubbing is not an option unless you want to take your time.

Bryan

 

[Guest]

What did pops tell ya?

 

[diamond brian]

20 Man Hrs = $400
1 case of Chems = $100
2 brushes on a stick = $40
Gasoline = $60

Total Job Costs $600 + You

What do you want to make? I'm thinking that myself and 2 experienced helpers could do the job in a 10 hour night. Although $.50 per sq sounds pretty good, $2600 would be nothing to sneeze at.

 

[Goldenboy]

Just got a private message from Pops. $16,764.00

Golden Boy

 

[Guest]

But will they pay that in Dez Moinez???

 

[Blue Monarch]

More than likely not.

 

[Pmatte]

Bryan is correct about the need for a pre-scrub.Call or email as soon as you can,I'll give you my recipe....too many lurkers,here,from my area.
Patrick

 

[Jim Bethel]

The grout is dirty it will need to be scrubbed with one of those small grout brushes on a stick.
Golden Boy

While I can't comment on the pricing because I am in a different country, I would like to make a suggestion as to the above statement though.

Are you serious you are going to scrub it manually with a grout brush??

We did that years ago over here, than most went mechanical. Rotary's and OP's are ok for scrubbing tile and grout, but the grout brush worked better most of the time, so I will agree with everyone there.

Over here in Australia, a lot of guys are using a twin cylindrical scrubbers such as a GLS or something like that. We use Rotowash over here quite extensively, but most change out the standard scrub brushes that come with the machines, and replace them with a tile/hard surface brush.

This gets into grout lines better than anything in our opinion!

Jim

 

[Kevin B]

I'd put a nylon brush on an electric weed eater before I'd scrub 25000LF of grout lines with a brush on a stick.

 

[floorguy]

I have a cafeteria thats about that size...and a fookin lot of tables and chairs to move...

now its a brown grout and we get it pretty clean, but some is chipping and I dont want to be replacing anything, so we dont scrub the grout lines. But i hit it with the oxyblaster let dwell and let the chimpy run the wand and I move everything and keep it organized...

I charge .20 a ft, which comes out to $1700...takes us about 6-7 hrs of moving right along...

now I dunno about you guys, but to me the $250 an hr range aint to bad..

course i live on the cup-o-noodles and not the mac and cheese

 

[Jim Martin]

Pricing is going to vary from different locations............

what one guy may get .there may be no way another will.....

some guy,.... .lets say,..... in Chicago....... may charge .60 a sqft
give you his price and you may loose the job because your market may not bare that much...............

only you know what your market will handle...........

 

[J Scott W]

Waldo, I suggest you bid it at $100. I'm pretty sure you'll get the job.

Scott Warrington

P.S. This advice for for Waldo only.

 

[Mikey P]

Try that Host machine on the grout when you do your demo/test.

Very often if you get the brush roll right over the grout line it works almost as good at the poll brush and very often good enough.


.50 sounds good.


But push them on sealing it with Dry Treat. A five gallon buck at my cost to you $1000 could be sold to them (applied) for atleast $5000 grand, but I'd start at a buck a foot.

Sell them on it's permanence.

Log on to www.drytreat.com to get your spiel down pat.