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Installation Pricing

C

commercial press

New Member
I have been asked to print and install a large wall graphic 8' high x 60' long. I would be printing this in 52" x 8' tiles with 1/2" overlap. My question is what to charge for installation, I have never done one this big, do i discount my normal rate of $5.00 sq/ft? Most of the work we have done with walls has been small. This would also be a 2 person job. I feel I should discount, just curious as to what others have done.
I have travel time already figured separately
TIA
David
 
jfiscus

jfiscus

Rap Master
What material, what type of wall?
Have you tested the paint for adhesion?
Putting 480 on a painted cinderblock wall is going to take all day (or longer) with 2 installers and putting phototex onto painted drywall is going to take 1/2 day with 1 guy.
 
ams

ams

New Member
$5/sq. ft. is way too cheap, we charge $8/sq. ft and win 9 out of 10 jobs. Our vinyl labor rate for two people is $80/hour which is about standard.
 
ams

ams

New Member
$55 an hour for a single person for vinyl, sometimes $60. However bucket truck and electrical work is $95 flat. I can't speak for everyone, just my area.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
ams said:
$55 an hour for a single person for vinyl, sometimes $60. However bucket truck and electrical work is $95 flat. I can't speak for everyone, just my area.
Click to expand...

But..... that's not what you said. You first insinuated 2 guys is $80 combined while working on vinyl. So the more tedious and longer the job takes, your prices go down from $60 or $55 an hour to $40 ?? Bucket truck has nothing to do with vinyl costs. Welding has nothing to do with it, Riding the roller coaster at the park has nothing to do with it. Please try to stay with what you said. Your area or anywhere USofA..... no professional is gonna charge out at $40 an hour per man. Unless you're hard up. No wonder you get 90% of your bids. You do realize that once you go much past 50% of your bids, you are working too cheap..... or too stupid.
 
S

solo

New Member
If it's a hoarding wall (like coming soon in a mall) $5/foot is way too much. The barricade company (Boston Barricade, who has a large connection to Simon malls) will offer their package at less than that. We'd be a $6/sq foot installed with 3M ij-35 laminated here in Arizona. A good two man crew doing a full-pull panel install can do a 10x300 foot barricade wall in a day.
 

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ams

ams

New Member
Gino said:
But..... that's not what you said. You first insinuated 2 guys is $80 combined while working on vinyl. So the more tedious and longer the job takes, your prices go down from $60 or $55 an hour to $40 ?? Bucket truck has nothing to do with vinyl costs. Welding has nothing to do with it, Riding the roller coaster at the park has nothing to do with it. Please try to stay with what you said. Your area or anywhere USofA..... no professional is gonna charge out at $40 an hour per man. Unless you're hard up. No wonder you get 90% of your bids. You do realize that once you go much past 50% of your bids, you are working too cheap..... or too stupid.
Click to expand...

Stop being an idiot Gino.
 
Signature Graphix

Signature Graphix

Wide Format Printing - Signage - Vehicle Wraps
We charge $79.99/HR installation all day. Ive never done it by the sqft, but its an interesting idea. We are 3M certified and honestly Ive felt $79.99 an hour is on the cheaper side.
 
10sacer

10sacer

New Member
commercial press said:
I have been asked to print and install a large wall graphic 8' high x 60' long. I would be printing this in 52" x 8' tiles with 1/2" overlap. My question is what to charge for installation, I have never done one this big, do i discount my normal rate of $5.00 sq/ft? Most of the work we have done with walls has been small. This would also be a 2 person job. I feel I should discount, just curious as to what others have done.
I have travel time already figured separately
TIA
David
Click to expand...
We charge $400 per hour + travel costs for simple vinyl install. A mid-level installer can basically do 60 square feet an hour if he's installing and finishing correctly. This is, of course, after doing adhesion tests to choose best material to use on their paint. So, that's basically $6.66 per square foot. It gets way higher for heated and rolled install. We also charge a premium for doing anything on a lift. We cleared the $8 million threshold last year in sales and say "NO" to alot of requests that we just don't want to do or have installers available to do.
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
Your pricing seems good. I charge $100 for the first hour and $80-100 after that depending on the PITA level. If I have to hire a helper I charge $60-80hr depending on the job and the helper. My one son can do it by himself so I charge $80 for him, my other son...he's just a set of hands, so I'll charge a little less because I know it's going to take longer. $3-5 is where I'm at also depending on the season, customer and job.

I don't do a lot of walls, most of my customers are small businesses with trucks/trailers but not a lot of cash. Lots of questions about price. I typically tell them to figure $13-15 sq ft installed including vinyl, not including artwork. That allows them to do some measuring and calculating on their own. When they come back in, 9/10 have a very solid idea of what they want which makes the process easier. I find many people's eyes are larger than their budgets. I had a couple guys in the past who wanted trailer wraps and I wasted my time estimating and they were just embarrassed in the end because they could not afford it. I don't like that. This process works well for me.
 
JBurton

JBurton

Signtologist
A great question for a prospective local customer: how much would you like to spend?
A fair question for anyone subbing work to you: how much have you budgeted for this?
Both are fair questions, if either elicits a negative response, that's a red flag. Either jimbo hasn't thought twice about what he'd like to spend, which is irresponsible to put a load on a quoting company when you have no clue if you can afford it, or chad behind the desk hasn't bothered to quote the work, and he's hoping to get you to do his job for him, while also likely gearing up to beat your price down because 'that seems high.'
 
Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
JBurton said:
A great question for a prospective local customer: how much would you like to spend?
A fair question for anyone subbing work to you: how much have you budgeted for this?
Both are fair questions, if either elicits a negative response, that's a red flag. Either jimbo hasn't thought twice about what he'd like to spend, which is irresponsible to put a load on a quoting company when you have no clue if you can afford it, or chad behind the desk hasn't bothered to quote the work, and he's hoping to get you to do his job for him, while also likely gearing up to beat your price down because 'that seems high.'
Click to expand...
Yes! Jimbo is usually 27 years old and irresponsible LOL Almost every new business in town has had me letter their first pick-up truck/van. A couple months later they buy a used trailer and they have zero idea about the cost. The smart business guys usually start with something conservative and then they come back with truck/trailer/employee #2 and they get an upgrade on the graphics. Unfortunately, I end up removing a lot of my own work within a couple years be it a new business or the bank. It might be terrible business on my part, but I always tell new guys if they can't afford the fancy lettering on the first truck/trailer, that's fine, we will do it on the second one. And many of them do and at that point they don't even ask for a price, they just pay the bill. Small town, I guess...?
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Not an update, but rather something I don't quite understand.

Regardless of your hourly shop rate.... $40 per hour, $90 per hour or $185 per hour.... Why do some people think because some employee(s) are worth more than others and charge accordingly ?? With this thinking one day your best employee goes with ya and ya charge $140 an hour, but ya need to come back 2 days later to finish the job and you take Elmer Fudd with you..... so that day you only charge $115 an hour. Our rates for doing anything on site automatically go higher, to cover the additional costs and whatnot, but we charge $XX of dollars regardless of who goes out. Now, if we're talking about taking an electrician, that's already figured in the costs.
 
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