VCT quote

[glenboy]

I am doing an estimate for a big co in waterford Mi and they want me to strip & wax 4,100 sq ft of VCT tile the tile is only 3 years old and the installer only put 2 coats of wax on,the job entails a secratary area 2 long halls, 2 bathrooms adjoined 24 x 24 , 1 break room 12 x 20, 1 lunch room 30 x 30. the place is kept well and very new.i have always done basements and kitchens and only a couple commercial strip-wax jobs.This job is mine because i am highly referred by my neighbors dad who is their 25 year cleaning guy and their grand father,they told me they were'nt quoting.so i am wondering if someone out there can help me with some SQ FT price or otherwise,i am kinda lost,i know i am gonna need at least 10 gals of stripper and 10 gals of wax at least 5 black floor pads and a box of doodle pads mop heads and so on and that is already 300 bucks.this is a big job for 2 guys and a 19 inch mercury floor scrubber but they want it done yearly because of the fine soil that their product is packed in.so i need to make money and impress them

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Not going to be much finish to strip off.

5 gal stripper (if you use good stuff) 2 strip pads (won't likely need second one).

8 gal finish for 5 coats.

New squeegee, gallon white vinegar for rinse.

Borrow a 1500 rpm buffer to make it pop if you have time.

 

[glenboy]

i need help with price

 

[Lee Stockwell]

I'd get just south of $2k in rather rural western Kentucky. You probably need more.

It would take me 8 hours or so.

 

[FLYERMAN]

I would think somewhere between $1,750 and $,2,750 depending on your cost of doing business. Figure the cost of materials. You say $300 I think less. Add the cost of travel there (maybe zero if it's within a half hour from home). Add how much you need to make per hour, usually somewhere between $50 and $100 an hour. So say you're not real fast at floors (I am only guessing that because you are here asking questions that make me assume you're relatively new to this) and you'd like to make $100 an hour. You need $300 for chems, 8 to 12 man hours and I always use the worst case scenario. So that makes $1,200 + $300 and you have $1,500 and two or three hundred profit and you're and the $1,750 mark I mentioned before. Or roughly 40 cents per square foot.

You'll need at most 5 gallons of stripper if what you say/think is accurate. I mean two coats of wax three years ago will peel away easily and is likely gone for the most part already. I wouldn't think you need more than 2 pads either. Better yet buy a Stratta Gritt brush, I did years ago and never went back to pads. If you lived near buy I'd sell you my pads for a $1 each. Floor finish is to dependent upon the "solids" content for me to guess how many gallons you'll need of your finish.

 

[RGH269]

Glen I have a church fellowship hall I do that is the same size. I get .35 SF for it and am happy with what I make on it. One thing I want to mention, the first time I did it they told me the person that had been doing it was stripping it 2 times a year and buffing every other month. It was someone who went to church there and he told them he was getting to old for that kind of work. Well he wasn't telling the truth, it took me FOUR 12 hr days to strip all the finish off that floor, all he had been doing was piling on coat after coat of finish. Had I known there was that much finish on the floor I would have charged more for the initial strip. But in the end they have turned into one of my very best customers with an ongoing contract on that floor, and cleaning all the carpet once a year, wold like to have more like them.

If possible take some stripper and do a small test area where there isn't much wear to prevent what happened to me. You should be able to that in one day alone (will be a long one) with a helper easy. If you have to move any furniture adjust the price up accordingly. The church moves everything for me so all I do is show up and go to stripping.

 

[Shane Deubell]

.35- .40 cents is about right, depends on how much furniture you need to move and how many edges are involved

 

[Doug Rice]

Add for doors also.

 

[handdi]

40 cents is a fair price for both of ya

 

[glenboy]

got the call and they are hiring me at .35 sq ft and 300 worth of tile grout cleaning.thank yous for the help 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

 

[Shane Deubell]

That is a good price for that size volume, i would be pretty happy.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

There is often a big difference between "doing" a floor like this, and doing it perfectly. The learning curve looks deceptively simple.

 

[hogjowl]

I just found this thread, so my response is just me thinking about how I would handle it and is in no way meant to second guess.

I guess I am really slooooow doing vct. Maybe I just don't do enough of it to be fast, or maybe you need more than one man, a 175 and a mop to do it right.

Factoring in everything, not just the actual time it takes me to strip and rinse the floor, but also the time it takes to apply the wax coats AND THE WAIT TIME BETWEEN COATS, my average is around 250 s.f. per hour. So it would take me around 16 hours to do that floor.

So, I'd need 60 cents a s.f. to feel good about doing it.

 

[floorguy]

while i get you HAVE TO wait around for the finish to dry.....really you need to make your $100 or what ever it is an hr watching the floor dry???

with that said...thinking about 1 of my jobs last night...

I made like $2 a ft for stripping 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

 

[hogjowl]

If I am not leaving to do another job while the wax is drying, then yeah, I want my hourly rate to watch it dry.

 

[Chris A]

Ya but if your doing 4000. Ft wouldn't you be able to start over as soon as you were done?

 

[glenboy]

no! i will do a perfect job and this is not my learning curve.and while i am watching coats of wax dry,i will be doing the tile&grout cleaning that i also quoted.and that will be paying for the drying of wax time hey Marty, blow me