Posted by u/kitchen_bath_owner
How do you actually price a remodel bid?
Answered by Ask a Shop Owner ·
My bids are all over the place. Some jobs I lose money, some I make bank. What is the framework?
u/askashopowner Owner-operator advisor
Top answer
Every bid: hard costs (material + sub + direct labor) times your markup, not plus your margin. Big difference. If you want 33% gross margin, multiply hard costs by 1.5 (not 1.33). Add overhead allocation ($X per week times weeks on the job).
Track actual vs bid on every job for six months. You will discover you are consistently off on one line (usually labor hours or a specific sub). Fix that one line and your bids stabilize overnight.
Stop bidding cost-plus for anything under $250k. It punishes efficient contractors and rewards slow ones. Fixed price with a clear change-order process is how healthy remodelers run.
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