Hi WCR fans, I Just got a call from a General Contractor who is wanting a bid for a post construction outside only window clean up of new 3 story bldg in Dayton, Ohio, about 20 minutes from my home. He said it is a Prevailing wage job and taxable. I do not have a clue how this works or what a prevailing wage $$ amount would be. Does window count even matter if it is based on time? When I asked him for an address so I could go see the job (my usual habit), He said "we have not broke ground for it yet! This did not help me either, so he said I will e-mail you the plans and that it was 14,400 square feet of glass! then he said he wants to get a clue how much to budget for the job, but I have to get a clue how to bid it, or not!
Here is a copy of the e-mail attachments that he sent and his message.
Thanks to anyone who can advise me on this, as it is new territory for me.
Matt Perry
Perry Window Cleaning
Matt - Attached are the plans for an upcoming project I am trying to do a budget for. The project is called “TechTown Building G” and is located in downtown Dayton. I was wondering if you could give me a budget cost to do the exterior window cleaning. The project has approximately 14,400sf of exterior glass. The project would also be prevailing wage and taxable. Give me a ring if you have any questions.
You can check with your county Department of Labor for the current prevailing wage of a specific job (they vary) – probably in the $35-45 per hour range.
The most important part would be that you would need to commit that your employees and/or subs would be paid at least that amount by you.
I spent 23 years as a contractor and 35% of my business was prevailing wage. Let me see if I can help…
You bid will solely come down to how much time you think it will take you to complete the job. You need to figure how many guys it will take and how many days to come up with the total man hours for the job. Next, go to the Labor Boards website in your state to find the prevailing wage rate. There will be several rates depending on working heights and weather the individual is a journeyman or apprentice. If you are not sure about that part, make one guy a journeyman and all the other an apprentice.
When you are looking at the pay charts, make sure to include in your estimate the cost of mandatory benefits and pay to the apprenticeship program. Once you have done all of that, make sure that you add about 10% to your bid for any unforeseen problems. Then markup that number to cover your overhead and profit.
If you get the job, you will have to fill out a certified payroll form and submit it to the general contractor with your billing invoice. This form shows a breakdown of all the wages, benefits and apprenticeship monies. If you have never done this before, I would recommend using a payroll service with experience in this field as the penalties for not doing it correctly are steep and failure to complete these forms in a timely manner will cause a delay in your payments.
Also make sure you are familiar with filing preliminary lien notices and progressive lien releases.
Matt, I know this may all sound overwhelming, but it’s not. Just take it one step at a time and you can get through this.
If you have any questions, I would be more than happy to help you out.
Wow, this is the answer I was looking for and it does sound like alot, but 14,400 sq ft of glass post construction could be 140 to 180 hours labor, as a rough guess that plus the lift rental, acountant/ payroll services could be a big undrer taking for my 2 to 3 person crew. but this guy thinks it will complete in the fall and that could be a nice job before winter.
Thank You for your reply.
Matt Perry
Someone give me an excedrin!! That just hurt my head reading that. Filing liens? All that for a 14,000 sq ft job, even if it was all glass unless it was gonna be a regular thing dont sound too fun.
