How to bid 2 story roofs....

S

Scott D.

Member
Guys, I am having a debate with my wife on how to bid 2 stories. Do you:

1. Measure the outside of the house to get the exact square footage of the roof, or...

2. Use the entire square footage of the house?
 
go on your local appraiser web site for the location of the home and look it up. It will break it down for you on sq ft, just add up the roof and garage and you wil have total sq ft area of roof.
 
I know how I measure roofs, and I use the appraisers website for it. This is what im wondering...

3000sqft 2 story house. Its a big square, so if you measure the bottom floor and top floor, each would be 1500sqft so the roof if it was flat would be around 1500 sqft.

So do you take 1500 and multiply it by 1.3 for the pitch or do you use the entire 3000sqft and multiply that by the pitch?
 
Same here as Nick. I check the Pa's and get the sq footage. The tough part sometimes can be when they have a much larger area on the first level and smaller on the top. I normally just use the sq footage from the 1st level and then add an extra pita $ amount in for the 2nd level.
Tile Roof Palm Harbor (Small) (Medium).jpg

Tile Roof Cleaning Largo Florida 022 (Medium).jpg
Just examples!
 
On a 3000 sq. ft. house, the 1st and 2nd floor being the same I take 1500 x 1.3 for a 5/12 or 6/12 pitch. For steeper pitch 1500 x 1.5.
 
For a year and a half we have charged for the entire square footage of the house. So the full 3000 sqft x pitch multiplier of 1.2 1.3 or 1.4. Our competitor charges by the size of the roof only. Celeste has been noticing lately (because of the economy I guess) that we have been losing more and more jobs to them. So i think we are going to switch our pricing to the roof sqft only instead of the entire house sqft.
 
Kory, I've thought about charging for pitch for a long time but when I run the #'s for them I know darn well whats gonna happen. Hello,,,Hello,,,are you still there? HELLO!!!. Darn,,,they hung up on me. :(
 
Wow they dont even charge for the pitch?!??! I have been kicking myself for having to charge for only the foot print of the house. God, that is really going to suck when Houston gets that bad.
 
Why would you charge for the entire sq ft? That is ridiculous...of course there are exceptions. If the house is a square two story and you are charging for 3000 sq ft then you are charging for double what it should be. Hell I'd never get homes doing that. If you go by the footprint of the house, you cannot go wrong. Measure the outside of the house, or go by the first floor sq ft....if it's a real messed up roof go by the outside of the house.
 
We do same as Larry add up sqft an add in the PITA Factor for climb ladder
 
Kyleb15 said:
Why would you charge for the entire sq ft? That is ridiculous...of course there are exceptions. If the house is a square two story and you are charging for 3000 sq ft then you are charging for double what it should be. Hell I'd never get homes doing that. If you go by the footprint of the house, you cannot go wrong. Measure the outside of the house, or go by the first floor sq ft....if it's a real messed up roof go by the outside of the house.
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Do you work less or harder on a 2 story? Much harder, especially if it is a steep roof, climbing up and down a ladder, moving the ladder, etc...2 stories are alot more work, and alot more dangerous. Thats why. And up until recently, we have not have not had a complaint, and we've been doing it for a year and a half... Only recently have we started seeing a resistance to it.
 
Scott D. said:
Do you work less or harder on a 2 story? Much harder, especially if it is a steep roof, climbing up and down a ladder, moving the ladder, etc...2 stories are alot more work, and alot more dangerous. Thats why. And up until recently, we have not have not had a complaint, and we've been doing it for a year and a half... Only recently have we started seeing a resistance to it.
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You're 100% right about the PITA factor and why it should cost more.
Do you tell the HO that it is X per square foot and that you're charging by the square foot or just tell them "This is the cost"?
 
Thad said:
You're 100% right about the PITA factor and why it should cost more.
Do you tell the HO that it is X per square foot and that you're charging by the square foot or just tell them "This is the cost"?
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We tell them it is X per square foot. very few people calculate it out, but I dont try and hide it when they do ask. We are very honest about it.

We focus mainly on high end residential. The good thing about them, is they seek out companies who are experts on their type/size homes, and very rarely question the prices. They want a good, safe job even if it costs them a few more pennies. Thats why our largest residential roof cleaning to date was close to $5k. If we would have taken the foot print, it would have been closer to $2500 - $3k.

And it isnt them who is complaining now, it is the middle income folks, so we are going to adjust accordingly.
 
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