How to bid framing jobs

Unfortunately framing is bid by the general contractor telling you "I have a guy who will do it for $X, how much cheaper can you go?" I think it's a pathetic way to conduct business.

more to follow...

Reclaimed Lumber Install

 Reclaimed lumber is in right now. People are paying big money for old wood that has been planed down, sorta like an aged piece of beef. It looks nice once it's in, but it can be tricky to work with. Here are a couple areas which are going to have these old railroad ties wrapping around the window. A pilot hole must be drilled through the exterior was framing and into the timber. Then a 12" Ollie Log mini lag bolt is drive in through the back side of the wall.

Labor price to install each piece:
$30    Top
$25     Bottom
$20     Side

Full Home Remodel - 1600 sf addition

This remodel consists of a 24'x22' addition that will provide 528 sf of finished basement square footage. Above, the main level will house the new kitchen and family room. The second story level will have 2 more bedrooms and another bathroom. Finally there will be an 11'x 22' cold storage, concrete porch cap, and deck above which will total an extra 726 sf of finished   sf.

Total square footage: 1590 square feet
530 bsmt
530 main level
530 2nd level

 The interior of the existing structure will be overhauled while the addition is being built. Breaking all of the trades down will take about 12 posts.

Why I Hate Floor Trusses

Answer-  I have  rarely had a positive experience using a pre-fabricated floor truss system. The product itself isn't the problem, it's the idiots who make them. If the designer doesn't get it perfect it will either be too short or long. These trusses are usually made (ordered) right when they strip the concrete forms and there are no lines on the concrete to go off of. The designer/salesman will come out and measure the foundation and subtract a 1/2"(plywood sheathing) for each side and just call it good. Never mind worrying if the foundation is square or even parallel. So, they arrive on the job a couple days late and then somebody on the crew does something stupid like install half of them backwards. This often happens because there is a duct chase which will often runs down the middle, not necessarily center, of the truss and now it doesn't line up. Just a bunch of crap like the have caused me to hate them. Also, they are made to support a lot of weight so the ususally are located 24" on center. Floors need to be 16" oc, END OF STORY!

Basement Framing- 380 square feet

Small jobs will often have a higher labor rate because they require the same overhead-type things as a larger job and must be allocated amongst a smaller overall amount. Typically and 8' basement would pay in the $1-1.20/sf range. Since this is such a small area the labor price is 1.50/sf.

378 sf x $1.5=$567

Framing Labor- Medium Difficulty

 In this scenario we will analyze the labor component of a medium sized semi-custom home. Preliminary checks revealed that there were conditions differing from the plans from which the bid was provided. The walkout basement was 40% larger than shown, and the bsmt height was 9' instead of 8'. While this may not affect the labor too much, it will mean the materials will run short and the studs will be too short. The walk out basement wall are always built out of 2x6 material and require a fair amount of time to construct. Labor required to frame/sheath walkout bsmt walls: 15-20 minutes/lineal foot ~3-4 ln ft/hr ~ $7-9/ln ft

Update

I've been busy an obviously neglected this blog. Over the past 4 months I have taken 1000's of pics and have tons of new information to share. In the near future a new format will be used to give readers more current and relevant cost data. Stay tuned for more first-hand example of jobs I have done.

Any suggestions or comments are welcome and will be appreciated.

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Custom Home Framing

Framing prices have fluctuated over the past 3 years as the demand has plummeted. There is and always will be the need for carpentry services. One problem many contractors are facing is the drop in revenue overall, as well as square footage unit prices. Right now 1/20/2011 in the southwestern united states a 1950 sf home with 3 car garage and 1800 sf finished basement pays:
$3.75/sf main level x 1950=7300
$1.20/sf finished bsmt x 1800 sf=$2160
garages and porches don't pay and are included.

Brick ledge retro-fit

When there is too small of a ledge, or the foundation is crooked as well as other problem with the starting point of the masonry, it must be fixed. The accepted fix for these apartments is to bolt this 4"x4" angle iron along the top of the foundation. There are holes drilled in the iron every 4". The self-tapping grade 5 steel, galvanized, mini-lagbolts are driven through the pre-drilled holes and into the bottom plate of the exterior wall. The iron is cut with a 14" cut-off saw. A 4-1/2" grinder with a cut-off blade is what I use if there are only a few cuts. Labor to install is between $4-7 per lineal foot.

brick ledge

Roofing Labor

A water-tight, quality roof is important because it is a structures first line of defense when it comes to precipitation. While there are many types of roofing, most homes use asphalt shingles. This home is about 18 years old and has had the roof replaced twice. The shingle are curling up and flaking off. This is because there no roof vents, besides the lousy gable vents. The attic heats up to a ridiculous temperature in the summer and the heat is unable to escape. This "cooks" the shingles and they will need replacing after as little as 5 years. Some of this roof is being completely torn off since it's flaking apart and too uneven to install another layer on top. The roofs are is 2200 sf and has a pitch of 6/12. One third needs to be torn off, new pipe flashing and some drip edge replaced and (6) new vents installed. The materials totaled $2,500 and include the nice high-profile hip/ridge.

Labor is $80/square tear off x 8= $640
Swapping pipe flashing $25/ea= $150
New vents $30/ea x 6= $180
Shingle labor 22 square x $70/square= $1540
Hip/ridge labor 150 lnft x $1.25/lnft= $188
$2,700 labor + $2,500 material= $5200 total

avoidable problems

This is a random shot of a house I framed in April 2010. This pic is from me standing in the garage door opening. The problem is that the 2x10 wrap is too wide, which left the edges of the garage door exposed. When the framers make these openings they typically frame the walls to the exact rough opening like 16 feet. When the wrap is installed it will drop the height 1-1/2" and the width 3". During the wall building phase of construction these walls were simply built to the edge of the buck-out in the concrete foundation. One mistake cost (2) 2x10x8', 3 hrs drive time, $200 to re-wrap the sides once new 2x10's were installed on the sides.

Prefabbed walls

 Prefabricated walls are built on-site and stored until ready for installation. This insures quality and most efficient use of materials. These buildings are framed exactly to the dimensions shown in the plans.

Hippy-mountainman

This dude lives up a canyon right next to a sweet ass creek. He has about 14 acres or so and has rigged huts and crap all over. I learned a lot from him with regard to tool repair and fixing stuff in general.

Apartment framing yard

 Since these are built exactly to the plans, the walls are built on platforms using dimensions from the CAD program. Stacks of both exterior and partition walls are made by building them in order one on top of the next. They are labeled and a forklift will take them to a staging area where they will sit until needed. This is the "yard" setup. Lumber is usually delivered right into this area, this minimizes theft and waste.