Need Advice ASAP

[reodry]

I own a property preservation company. 3 offices and about 135 employees. My main customer wants me to come up with a better way to deal with there flooded properties nationwide. They tell me it averages about 100 per week. Sump pump issues or pipe breaks. Currently our industry Just rips out anything wet. So I can sub it out to you guys. But now for the hard part, they want a flat fee per job. They dont like it when you go back and tell them you NEED more because... We can go back after its dry and put in a bid repair any damages or discoloration (thats what we call it LOL) What do you think a fair flat fee should be? Also my list of upcharges are as follows:
1. Utilities not operational
2. Crawl space
3. Raw sewage or contaminated water
4. debri or personals present
Did i miss anything big and what should i do about priceing. with the debri we dont need to set a rice for that. They have a system for that already

[mfranz]

I'm assuming you mean a flat sq. ft. price rather than the I need all this equipment and it might take 3 days or it might take 10.

Reading other comments on that topic in this forum and just kicking around my own #'s I would say $3.50 a sq. ft. to dry out C&P, drywall, etc, providing the property hasn't been sitting for 2 weeks stinking and growing discoloration would be a fair #.

Even if it is a class 3 from ceiling to floor that # should work since the law of averages should work it out.

At least with sq. ft. pricing you can give them a set price once you established how much area is wet and if it took 2 days or 10 they know it's a set price.

This pay per equipment per day stuff is a pet pev of mine anyways. I dry stuff out in 2 days where my competition takes 3-4 even after pulling pad and they get paid more than me doesn't sit well or make sense for that matter.

If a company approached me and said they would give me all water losses withing a 50 mile radius @ $3.50 sq. ft. min 100 sq. ft and I knew I was going to get paid in a timely manner (30 days or less) I would probably jump at it.

[reodry]

Thanks for the info. What if you needed to run a generator and add heat.

Also would you say that the average job bills out at 1500 to 2000 I would say that if you have better equipment and systems and can do the job in less time and get paid less is a recipe for all kinds of fraud. Maybee it's time for your industry to look at per sf pricing

[mfranz]

I already use heat drying so that is not a problem. I can heat a 2000 sq. ft. building on 9 amps. As far as a generator, again it all comes out in the wash. Sometimes you'll need one, most times you won't hopefully.

As far as the fraud thing, your absolutely right. I've heard horror stories of companies renting equipment to put on jobs and when the rental company gets them back, the hour usage is the same. They never even turned them on but I'm sure they billed for the time.

As the industry as a whole going to sq. ft. pricing, the powers that be must be a lot smarter than we are. You know, I use to install carpet. I would much rather have been paid by renting the tools out that I used to stretch and cut carpet in by the day instead of by the yard or sq. ft. A 70 yard 1 bedroom apartment would have taken me a week instead of 4 hours. Less wear and tear on my body and I'd be banking. I'd probably still be installing instead of cleaning up sewage.