How to Price Flooring Jobs

Is the price right?

Pricing flooring jobs can be a big headache for flooring contractors.

How do you set a price that’s profitable and fair to the customer at the same time? It’s a delicate balancing act between profitability and competitiveness.

On top of that, there are a bunch of other variables to think about. For starters, the final quote should cover material, labor, complexity, and quality costs. And these variables can fluctuate wildly over the course of a flooring project.

So, how do you quote flooring jobs accurately?

This article will guide you on how to price flooring jobs. It covers what goes into flooring job estimates. We’ll also discuss pricing fluidity and tips for pricing successful flooring projects.

Let’s get started.

How to Estimate the Cost of a Flooring Job

How do you estimate how much a flooring job should cost?

Well, there’s a method to estimating job costs—you can’t just eyeball it. A flooring job estimate should make perfect sense to both your business and the client.

First, you should know exactly what you’re charging the customer for. That means breaking down the job quote into its constituent cost items. A typical flooring job cost estimate should include the following factors:

Material Costs

The cost of materials makes up the bulk of most flooring budgets. So, that’s a critical costing item you must get right.

To calculate the cost of materials, you need to answer these four questions:

What materials are required?
How much material is needed?
What’s the price per unit of the various materials?
Where will the materials be sourced, and how will they get to the job site?

Quantifying flooring materials is a whole process on its own. You must understand the project fully to determine the kind and quantity of materials needed.

It generally comes down to the type of floor you are working on and its square footage. Material costs will also depend on what sort of job it is. A new floor installation or overhaul will obviously take up more materials than a repair job.

FROM ONE OF OUR PARTNERS: How to Price Jobs as a General Contractor

Labor Costs

The cost of labor is the next big thing in a flooring job quotation. You obviously have to pay yourself and your crew to complete a job.

Labor costs depend on three crucial factors:

1. The scale of the project 

A larger project takes longer to complete and hence costs more in labor. The trick is figuring out exactly how big a project is. This is where a bit of experience in the flooring business comes in handy.

Estimate how many work hours it would take to complete a particular job. With that, determine how big a crew you’ll need to meet the client’s deadline.

2. Your payroll structure

How do you pay your crew? Is it a fixed salary or an hourly rate? A construction worker in the US earns between $36,143 and $45,159 per year in salaries. Meanwhile, the average hourly wage for construction workers is $20.

Clearly, your payroll structure can have a massive impact on how you price flooring jobs.

For simplicity, standardize your labor costs into easily manageable units. Ideally, work out how much each work hour costs. Then, factor that into each project.

3. The project’s complexity

The more complex a flooring project, the more it’ll cost in terms of labor. Complexity determines the skill level, work hours, and speed required for a project. In turn, all these factors heavily impact labor costs.

Business Overheads

Besides materials and labor, how much will the project cost your business? Generally, business overheads cover logistical expenses such as:

Permits and licenses
Transport
Utilities
Supplies, tools, and equipment
Crew upkeep

Discounts

Discounts are another costing factor worth considering. Many contractors offer discounts to attract customers—and it works. Offering competitive discounts on supplies or certain jobs/services does bring in new clients and projects.

Just be sure to factor in any discounts when pricing flooring projects.

Bringing It All Together

There’s quite a lot that goes into a flooring job estimate. Bringing all these variables together can be challenging—more so when doing it on paper.

But why do all those tedious calculations manually? A cost-estimating software such as Joist can do all the heavy lifting for you. Apps like Joist can help you create accurate, comprehensive, professional-looking estimates quickly and effortlessly.

How Fluid Are Prices in Specific Types of Flooring?

Flooring prices are not set in stone. Simply measuring the floor area and factoring costs won’t give you an accurate quote every time. This is mainly because the market prices for flooring materials fluctuate.

Changes in supply chains and demand are responsible for varying material prices. The slightest supply-and-demand mismatch causes materials shortages and inevitable price hikes.

A good example of this is the 2021 lumber crisis. For a brief period in mid-2021, lumber prices hit record-high prices of over $1,500 per 1,000 board feet. As you can imagine, laying wooden floorboards became prohibitively expensive.

More recently, there has been talk of a looming cement shortage. Cement prices have been rising steadily year over year. And suppliers are just barely keeping up with the country’s demand for concrete.

Market prices for crucial flooring materials can change in an instant. The price change can be so drastic that it derails or halts ongoing projects.

For this reason, you have to stay up to date with the latest prices when estimating flooring jobs. Not only that, but you should also predict expected material costs within a project’s duration. Keep your eye on the prevailing market and supply trends.

That way, material shortages and price hikes won’t come as a surprise. Plus, you can leave enough wiggle room in estimates to accommodate future price fluctuations.

What Are Some Common Hidden Costs When Installing Flooring?

Most flooring projects run into unexpected or unique costs. These are commonly referred to as “hidden costs” in the contracting business.

Here are four hidden costs you’ll want to consider when estimating flooring prices:

Preparation Costs

There’s usually a lot of prepping work in flooring projects. You can’t just come in with your tiles, floorboards, or concrete on day one. You have to prepare the floor area first, which takes time and work.

The amount of prepping will depend on the site’s condition and the nature of the job. You may have to do some of the following things before laying a new floor or renovating an existing floor space:

Relocate furniture or other items sitting on the floor
Remove and dispose of the existing floor
Repair or install new subfloors and baseboards
Install underlayment
Subcontract additional work such as drywalling and electrical wiring

RELATED ARTICLE: How to Price a Drywall Job

Logistical Overheads

The logistical costs of carrying out a flooring job can really add up. These costs include miscellaneous expenses such as:

Transportation of crew, materials, and equipment
Hiring or buying specialized tools, equipment, and machinery
Preliminary site visits
Site inspections and quality checks

These costs will depend on the nature of the project and whatever it’ll take to complete the job. For instance, the site’s location, planning, and the required machinery all contribute to logistical overheads.

Paperwork Costs

It may not seem like it, but flooring jobs involve a fair bit of paperwork.

For one, you must have the right permits and licenses to work on residential or commercial floors. Two, flooring work may fall under specific local zoning laws and ordinances. This means you may have to involve local authorities in the project.

Taking care of all this costs money.

Also, it’s good practice to insure your assets when out on flooring jobs. Contractor insurance covers your crew, equipment, vehicles, and tools. It also protects your company from work-related legal liabilities. Most states and local governments require contractors to be bonded too.

Insurance and bonding can add significant costs to flooring operations.

Job Complexity

As we mentioned earlier, job complexity greatly affects costs. Run a thorough complexity assessment when estimating a project’s price.

But what exactly does complexity mean?

Well, anything that complicates or lengthens a task counts as complexity. In the flooring business, complexities come in the following forms:

The presence of steps/stairs or other features
Irregularly shaped floor area
Working with hazardous materials such as strong adhesives and polishes
Installing aesthetic features
Working with exotic, brittle, or heavy materials
Using highly specialized tools
Working at a high level of precision
Flooring under strict schedule, budget, and quality constraints

Finishing Costs

Sometimes, the job is not necessarily finished after laying the floor. You may need to prepare the floor for dwelling or other purposes afterward. Think of it as post-installation care or services.

For instance, wood floors need staining to protect the surface and give it a nice shine. Ceramic tile floors should be dampened and cleaned for the first few days after installation.

Ensure you add finishing costs (if any) to all your estimates.

5 Things You Must Consider When Quoting a Flooring Job

A flooring job budget has lots of moving parts. But getting the final figure right is often more of a planning problem than a math problem. So, don’t fixate on just the numbers—consider these additional factors too:

Operational Challenges

You’ll agree that every flooring job has its own set of pricy challenges. For example, organizing transport, disposing of waste, managing noise, and adhering to local guidelines can prove costly. Evaluate each project’s potential risks and challenges and plan for them financially.

Your Profit Margins

How much do you want to make off flooring jobs? Your profit margins are a big part of job quotes.

Profit margins in the construction industry typically hover around 20%-30%. That’s an ideal profitability range. But really, any figure will do as long as the customer is willing to pay.

Customer Guarantees

Be careful when making promises to your customers. Guaranteeing premium materials or exceptional work practices can be costly.

Don’t get it wrong; it’s great to guarantee customer satisfaction. It shows you’re willing to stand by your word. Just make sure those guarantees are reflected in the final quote.

Timelines

Scheduling and budgeting always go hand in hand. So, you must consider a project’s timeline when estimating its price.

When working with tight deadlines, you’ll need a larger crew to fast-track operations. A larger crew will cost more. Time constraints could also mean purchasing materials at higher prices.

Customer Expectations

This is where project pricing becomes a marketing problem. A very high price tag will likely deter potential clients, even when backed by solid facts and figures.

Find out how much your target customers expect to pay for various flooring jobs. Ensure your cost is not too far off from the market standard. If it is, you might want to look into viable cost-saving strategies. Try lowering your overheads and markup, switching suppliers, or optimizing your crew.

FROM ONE OF OUR PARTNERS: 7 Marketing Strategies for Contractors That Actually Work

6 Tips to Price Your Flooring Project for Success

A good flooring job estimate must be accurate, reasonable, and profitable. That means considering and including all the various costing factors. Additionally, here’s a list of essential best practices for preparing flooring job estimates:

Provide a clear breakdown of costs when presenting a quote to your customer.
Present the estimate on a branded, professional-looking quotation template.
Make it clear that some of the costs are subject to change.
Make a scalable estimate for large jobs.
Include as many options in the quotation as possible.
Make accurate flooring quotes with cost-estimating software such as Joist.

Ready to create a professional estimate for electrical work? Joist can help.

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