Pricing shower re-grouts

[alazo1]

Hey all,
I am bidding on close to 400 shower re-grouts and caulking. The bathrooms are very standard, 4x4 tiles, 3 sides at about 4.5 feet high. Unsanded.

They would be close proximity from one to the next.
Just wondering what you would charge since I know I'll be going up against a few more.

I know prices are different everywhere so even a percentage of a single residential price would be good if you don't want to disclose your price.

With some practice I was thinking it could take a bit over 2.5 hours to do one. I have the fein supercut and a dremel. About 60% would have a second bathtub on the same unit. Then go next door and repeat.

thanks,
Albert

[Daron Farrar]

Damn son, your bidding on 400 showers? The last one that I did like that I charged around $500.00 or so but it took me forever, I don't have as much experience though plus I just have the cheaper multimax by dremil and it took a good while to cut everything out. The Supercut would probably save a lot of time. Still I can't see charging much less that $350 for each one for the amount of time and labor intensivness of it and all.

[mooreoftom]

If you did 4 per day at 2.5 hours per unit, that would be 10 hours a day for 3.5 months. If you charged $350 per unit that would be $140,000.00.

Do they have a time frame it needs done by? If so you could train a couple of guys to either cut or just re grout/clean up behind you. If you trained them to be as good as you at doing the whole process, you could be done with the whole project in one month with 2 helpers, or in 2 weeks with 4 helpers, etc.

Let us know what you bid the job at and whether or not you got it.

p.s. These are just my 2 cents, I don't have any experience with re-grouts, I just love hearing about business opportunities.

[greenclean]

Are these single shower stalls or bathtub walls with a shower head. Because 4'.5" sounds to low for either. The average amount of tile for a bathtub is 60 sq. ft. and a shower with ceiling about 90 sq. Maybe i'm missing something.

Billy
GreenClean

[ridgerunner]

Albert

I would go with a day rate on this quote. Figure out what you need to make per day to stay in business, the figure out how many days it will take to do 400 showers. Simple math after that, the guy that will win this bid will be doing a day rate charge. If you try to bid it out per shower you are going to be beat. For me to stay in business I need to make 600 every day I work, your number will be diffrent.

[troygrout]

I am sorry but 2.5 hours for a complete regrout I dont believe is possible. Maybe 5-6 hours but I would rather not get the job if I am going to have to do it quick and dirty and get a 400 shower regrout callback.

[alazo1]

Thanks for the feedback. Billy, I was only guessing as to how tall the walls are. They sure could be 5' high vs the 4.5 I mentioned. We'll see how and if it pans out.

thanks again,
Albert

[Adam]

Do you also have to remove caulking or just install new?
Either way 2.5 hrs per shower is unrealistic. I think 5 hrs per shower is a minimum what will take you.

[Hannah]

A tub regrout is a tub regrout.....4" tiles? some are tight together and some are not.....caulk should NEVER be gone over, always taken out and may not be able to be reinstalled the same day. Sometimes we have to wait a day or two because it is too wet, sometimes we can use a hairdryer, depends.

Do the tiles need cleaned? usually, but not always.

Remove grout, remove caulk, replace grout, 3 days later return to recaulk, caulk will not stick to wet grout, and seal at that time.

Our standard with no tile repairs....$850.00 each. Don't like doing it so if we didn't get it, it wouldn't matter because we would not do it incorrectly and quickly just to get the work.

Any tile repairs would be an additional $100.00/hr plus materials. usually around the plumbing something is loose.

[alazo1]

"Do you also have to remove caulking or just install new?"

It will be replaced (not new). I think I messed up because I should have taken a knive to the grout before giving the quote.

For the record I do not plan on doing shotty work, I am guaranting it for 1 year. Normally I would give a longer guarantee but as I told the lady it's hard controlling what one person does yet alone a whole slew of them.

Some of the prices I'm seeing in this thread seem like for one bath sourround. Remember this is close to 400. My normal price for this if the grout can is medium dense meaning you can take it out fairly easy with the supercut is about 400 bucks and 100 to come back and seal. As far as time maybe I'm being too optimistic..haha. But the only way it would take 5 hours is if that grout's hard as concrete..I hope not.

Thanks for the feedback,
Albert

[ridgerunner]

I think you are setting yourself up for a PITA job that when it is all said and done you will end up losing money. I know that 400 showers will sound like a golden egg, but you have stated that your testing was not as good as you had wanted. I do my fair share of showers and the two things I can tell you is they have never been as easy as I thought, and I make the least amount of profit on them compared to the other services I offer.

The other thought is how much other business that pays better will you not be able to do because of the showers ?

[Hannah]

It doesn't matter to us if it's one or 400 in a regrouting case. The time is still the same. Showers are very time consuming from beginning to end and each shower could have different circumstances. Perhaps you could charge an hourly rate and get done what you can get done in one 8 hr day. We would charge
$100/hr plus materials. Have your chipping tiles disclaimer on the estimate. What happens if some tiles fall off the wall or are loose?