How Would You Bid a Large Gutter Job?

Hello all,

For all of you who do gutter cleaning, I was wondering how you would go about bidding on this possible contract I am looking at. I do a lot of complexes and HOA’s already, but this one is quite a bid bigger than any of those. It’s 1,368 2-story homes. Even with my usual commercial rates (lower than residential by about 20-25%) its coming out to be in the $150K-$200K range.

I’m wondering if I any of you would consider going lower than normal commercial rates to get such a big job? Or just bid it normal and don’t worry about getting it.

The ladder approach is what I normally do, as work is plentiful where I live and I would usually rather error on the side of not getting a job, rather than being stuck with work that doesn’t pay very well.

Any thoughts/advice welcome.

Cheers,

B

Depending on pitch/accessibilty and how you plan to access them.

Old or new neighborhood co contributes to how mature the trees are in the area to get an idea of how full they are too.

With this volume its valuable to see if some really have much to remove. For example a given house typically has some sides with xero or minimal debris while others are clogged.

Something that size all in one location has got to be worth a discounted rate.

Thanks for the input.

Its one large neighborhood and then two smaller ones a little farther into town. Drove through most of the streets today. Mostly minimal tree debris, although a few have heavier debris. All walkable pitch. No underground drains that I can see. Normal commercial rates for us would be around $150-$175 per unit for two story and $100-$125 per unit for one story. Was thinking of going doing $110 and $75 for two and one story respectivly. It still comes out to quite a big number. Would probably take a crew of four 8-10 weeks. We would defiantly have to schedule and bill it in sections.

I would price per unit rather than one big total, even if it was a bid for all of them.
I wouldn’t want the total price contingent on finishing that many houses in case something unforeseen happened that prevented me from finishing them all. It would make it easy to structure draws on the money too, based on units completed within a given time frame. Also, in my state you would need a class-a contractors license for a contract that big in total price.

I agree with Jhans about it being worth a discounted rate. I would give a nice discount for this too, and also do my best work, so that I could get the repeat business, This is a sweet gig.

I can only imagine how many helpers you are going to need though, so I hope you have a good crew, because that is a lot of work to do in a short matter of time.

Super sweet opportunity, so good luck on getting this one.

That seems to be enough discount to me.
I would just explain that normally these houses would fall under the higher residential rate, but for this volume I will give you the lower commercial rate. I would not want to go much lower than the 20-25% under the residential. So the commercial rate seems to be a fair discount to me.

WOW that is too much of a discount IMO.
If your normal residential rates are 20-25% higher than the $150 to $175 per unit for two story and $100-$125 per unit for one story commercials, then your normal residential rates are averaging around $200 and $140. So, $110 - $75 would be almost half price of the normal residential rate.

Stick to the commercial rate then.

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I like to include that we also visiably inspect as we go. You can always tell where large accumultion is found if caused from unleveled gutters or gutters not draining to downspouts.

Even though you may not repair this it gives customer security that your watching out for the ares they dont see. Never hurts to try and add more value from the next guy.

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Just a thought. Have you thought about investing in a gutter vac with a camera? There are some pretty sweet gutter cleaning rigs in the UK.

:grinning:

Nothing to me is worse than doing a job at a discounted rate, especially a deep discounted rate. Personally I would price homes individually unless the HOA is requiring participation. I certainly would not go lower than commercial rates.

Individually is different they all wouldn’t go.

In this case its been said its the HOA so all are in included.

not more than 5% or so

I just read a post on one of the face book groups where a company was fined $149k for failing to train their employees or provide adequate fall prevention.
On jobs your only on for a few hours you probably wont get caught, but where your in plain view for 2months + expect to get several visits from an OHSA inspector, make sure you are factoring the price and time to do it as regulated.

If you have employees this is reality.

Sole proprietor with no employees cant be violated either but if a subcontractor the main contractor or building owner can be given the violation for allowing the violation on their site.

The average company doing residential likely not going to be observed performing tasks while walking roofs without meeting guidelines.

People who promote safety here are schrugged off because time is saved by other methods but there is a bigger picture.

View it like taxes, if neglected how long can you go before it catches up to you.

sounds silly, if you don’t have employees you can flaunt the safety protocols?

Here everyone is subject to the same rules solo or groups.

In the states OSHA is to protect employees. Yes stupid