[Peter Lynch]

Hi Guys ,

I have just joined the forum and this is my first post..
I am looking for some advice on pricing a hard floor cleaning job.
It is a concrete factory floor that has been coated with what looks like an anti slip paint. The premises is being used by a car dealership, so there are oils spills and rubber marks to be removed, followed by a polishing. I would also like to hear about some products for best results.
I am thinking of hiring a ride-on scrubber.
It is approx 2300sq meters.
Thanks in advance for the help..

Peter

[Kev Martin]

Do a 2M2 test area on the worst contaminated part then work out your chemical cost and labour costs and multiply it by 1150

Kev Martin
Marblelife Ltd
Tiling Logistics

[Jamie Pearson]

Hi Peter,

Just noticed your message on our Facebook page. Sorry for not picking it up sooner. Tracey who manages the page is on holiday (lucky her).

I thought I would reply here for the benefit of others.

Depending on what you need to achieve with the floor a scrubber dryer may not be up to the job. If you need to remove the paint there is some really good tooling available for working on concrete with them but they are a considerable investment and I am not sure if anyone is hiring a machine with the system currently.

If you just need to clean the floor removing the truck marks etc this could be tricky just with a scrubber dryer. I recently did a resin floor covered in truck marks using a tyre mark remover from Resin Systems Limited that worked really well. http://www.resinsurfaces.co.uk/products/cleaning-products.htm

We also had one from an RPM Group company that cost £520 for 10 litres which was amazing stuff but just not practical if the floor manufacturer isnt paying.

If they need to retain the anti-slip of the paint/resin then soft grade pads or brushes are really your only option so decent chemistry will be required to decontaminate. We presprayed the contaminated areas. Did localised work with a rotary machine then used a scrubber dryer to pick up, rinse & clean the other areas.

As Kevin suggests you need to do a trial area (chargeable) and scale from that so no nasty surprises.

[Peter Lynch]

Hi Guys,

Thanks to Jamie and Kevin for the replies, sorry about the delay getting back.
@ Kevin . Why would I multiply by 1150 ? ( I'm tired, lol )

I searched about for information on how to approach this as it is my first larger scale commercial contract than what I would normally be doing. Anyways , I'm happy to report that my end quote was excepted and I have scheduled the work for next Monday. I will probably make a video for upload at some stage in the future.

I thought I would share an example of the formula I went with in the end for those who may find it useful , Here it is...

Costing Based Pricing Structure

1. Calculate the hourly labor cost for the job.If you estimate that it will take two workers approximately three hours to complete the job, then the total work hours on the job is six hours. Next, multiply the total number of work hours by the hourly cost per worker (assume £10 per hour). Therefore, the labor cost for the job will be £60.

2. Account for fixed cost per hour, known as overhead. Vehicle and business insurance are a set amount each month. Other fixed costs include loan payments, rent and utilities. If your fixed expenses equal £5,000 per month and you have two full-time employees operating approximately 320 hours per month, then you would divide the £5,000 expense by 320 work hours to have £15.63 per hour of expenses. Therefore, multiply the 6 work hours for the job by £15.63 of expenses to come up with £93.78.

3. Add the cost of chemicals and other expendable supplies to complete the job. Assume the cost is about £10 in actually used cleaning agents.

 4. Calculate the total cost of the job by adding your labor (£60), overhead cost (£93.78) and your variable cost (£10) to come up with your pre-profit figure of £163.78. Calculate in your profit by multiplying your mark-up rate, assume 25% by the pre-profit figure (£163.78) which is £40.95.  Add the £40.95 to the £163.78 to get a final price of £204.73

I found this to be extremely helpful as it forced me to expand my thinking in how I have been doing business up to this point. ( one small job to the next one ) 

And again, thanks Jamie and Kevin for your input.  a big help also.

[Graeme Smith]

Thats cheap

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

£10 per hour !
Be better off stacking shelves in a supermarket

[Kev Martin]

Hi Guys,

Thanks to Jamie and Kevin for the replies, sorry about the delay getting back.
@ Kevin . Why would I multiply by 1150 ? ( I'm tired, lol )

I searched about for information on how to approach this as it is my first larger scale commercial contract than what I would normally be doing. Anyways , I'm happy to report that my end quote was excepted and I have scheduled the work for next Monday. I will probably make a video for upload at some stage in the future.

I thought I would share an example of the formula I went with in the end for those who may find it useful , Here it is...

Costing Based Pricing Structure

1. Calculate the hourly labor cost for the job.If you estimate that it will take two workers approximately three hours to complete the job, then the total work hours on the job is six hours. Next, multiply the total number of work hours by the hourly cost per worker (assume £10 per hour). Therefore, the labor cost for the job will be £60.

2. Account for fixed cost per hour, known as overhead. Vehicle and business insurance are a set amount each month. Other fixed costs include loan payments, rent and utilities. If your fixed expenses equal £5,000 per month and you have two full-time employees operating approximately 320 hours per month, then you would divide the £5,000 expense by 320 work hours to have £15.63 per hour of expenses. Therefore, multiply the 6 work hours for the job by £15.63 of expenses to come up with £93.78.

3. Add the cost of chemicals and other expendable supplies to complete the job. Assume the cost is about £10 in actually used cleaning agents.

 4. Calculate the total cost of the job by adding your labor (£60), overhead cost (£93.78) and your variable cost (£10) to come up with your pre-profit figure of £163.78. Calculate in your profit by multiplying your mark-up rate, assume 25% by the pre-profit figure (£163.78) which is £40.95.  Add the £40.95 to the £163.78 to get a final price of £204.73

I found this to be extremely helpful as it forced me to expand my thinking in how I have been doing business up to this point. ( one small job to the next one )  

And again, thanks Jamie and Kevin for your input.  a big help also.

2M2 test area divided into 2300M2 therefore whatever time and cost is involved in the 2M2 area you divide it into the total area and multiply by the factor so in your case

2300 /2 = 1150 x cost of 2M2 area = Total Price.  So if the 2M2 area cost you a £1 and took 2 minutes it is going to cost £1150 and take around 38 hours

Kev Martin
Marblelife Ltd
Tiling Logistics

[Peter Lynch]

Thanks Kev,

I signed back in this morn to answer my own query after a good nights sleep..
Cheers

@ Steve  What do you think is a fair wage to pay your operators ?

Peter Lynch
Arctic Cleaning

[Neil Jones]

You wouldn't get £10 per hour stacking shelves in a supermarket, and if you could why would you choose to do that job over this one, I know I wouldn't. I think that is a fair wage to pay your employee's.

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

My mistake - I didn't realise you were employing people to do the work, I thought you were proposing to do it yourself @ £10 per hour.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

My mate gets more than £10 an hour filling shelves at wait rose evening work though.

Shaun

[Neil Jones]

I thought you had Steve tbh.

Waitrose and night work, high end supermarket and unsociable hours, to be expected. I used to get £9.00 odd on a Sunday working at Tesco (college job) but would I ever want to do that again....no! The most mind numbing thing I have ever done!

[Kev Martin]

I thought you had Steve tbh.

Waitrose and night work, high end supermarket and unsociable hours, to be expected. I used to get £9.00 odd on a Sunday working at Tesco (college job) but would I ever want to do that again....no! The most mind numbing thing I have ever done!

Neil

If you think that was mind numbing try this:

When I was an apprentice Fitter & Turner I had 10,000 end plates stuck by the left hand side of my machine in 20 metal boxes (500 in each) and was told to fit each one into a jig and drill a hole in to them.  It took me nearly three months and became so bad I used to have nightmares about them.  Slowly the pile of boxes on the left of the machine were moved to the right as they were completed.  Finally I was on the last box and completed it at about 3pm on a Friday.  I went home elated and got Pi**ed to celebrate.
I went in on the Monday morning thinking "Great" a new job!  My heart sank when I saw the mountain of 20 boxes back on the left of the machine!  The foreman then came up to me and said now I will show you how to Tap them

Kev Martin
Marblelife Ltd
Tiling Logistics

[Peter Lynch]

Haha, I would have just walked away...which I have done on too many jobs to mention when I was younger..
Cleaning up after bakers was one such episode when I was 16... Scraping the dough from the grooves in the stair tiles every evening at 5.30pm. It was the last job before heading home and took about an hour, so demoralizing. Self employment was always on the cards for me !

[B Bailey]

Peter did you factor in the additional staff costs like NI, holiday pay etc.
Min amount I would factor on their rate is £5 per hour.

[Peter Lynch]

B Bailey..
Yep , that would be deduced from weekly pays...along with the turkey and ham subs 

[Max Campbell]

Guess Estimate what the competition will quote, then quote either a bit more or a bit less, depending on whether you rate them or not.

[Peter Lynch]

Max  Yeah, I used to do things that way on some jobs, but found out to my detriment that it is a sprint to bottom. I can stand over the price I now quote in the domestic and commercial market, as it is a professional service I provide.  As someone has said,
1. "I can not beat the competitions cheap prices, but they can not beat my quality workmanship." and
2. "If you are only prepared to pay peanuts, it will only buy you monkeys"
I am not out to make an easy fast dollar, I want the life time value of every client I work for. I am honest and hard working, and always spend the appropriate time and labour on a job to ensure it's completed to  my standards and that the client is 100% satisfied. (I hate callbacks)
It was the Industrial  market pricing question that I needed help with here as I didn't think that I had adequate comprehension to make the call. But now I do    Cheers...

[B Bailey]

Max  Yeah, I used to do things that way on some jobs, but found out to my detriment that it is a sprint to bottom. I can stand over the price I now quote in the domestic and commercial market, as it is a professional service I provide.  As someone has said,
1. "I can not beat the competitions cheap prices, but they can not beat my quality workmanship." and
2. "If you are only prepared to pay peanuts, it will only buy you monkeys"
I am not out to make an easy fast dollar, I want the life time value of every client I work for. I am honest and hard working, and always spend the appropriate time and labour on a job to ensure it's completed to  my standards and that the client is 100% satisfied. (I hate callbacks).
It was the Industrial  market pricing question that I needed help with here as I didn't think that I had adequate comprehension to make the call. But now I do    Cheers...

great post

[Dave_Lee]

Am I missing something here. Peter, you are not really only going to charge £204.73p are you ?!