Apartment Complex-3 story 32 Buildings-Help

B

Bill Raines

New member
I have a vinyl apartment job to bid with 32 three (3) story buildings 100% vinyl siding; we are cleaning 4 sides on 6 of the buildings and cleaning the north side on the rest, plus some touch up. Nice job; any frigging idea how to quote it? We have 4000 psi, 4 gpm units (2), MJets with 5 Xjet gallon chem tanks. Looks like we will need to reach some areas with a ladder to reach all the spots. Will use 12% SH with "Power House" added. Any thoughts?

I'm thinking around .06 to .08 per sq ft. Higher or lower?

Thanks:neo:
 
Assuming they are all the same size/style, I would figure out what you need to make on one building and apply that number to the 6 buildings. Then take the "one building" number and divide it by 4 and apply that number to the rest because you are only doing one side of them. Then add it all together and maybe cut some off if you REALLY want to get it. This is just how I would go about it. I've never had to bid something that big.
 
First Bill fill out your signature its the rules.......
We will need a lot more info.

Do you have to clean the breezeway floors?
How many breezeways per building is there 1,2,or 3 ?
Is there fire alarms?
Is there water available?
How many units is there per building?
Do you have to clean the inside of the balconies?
Do you have pictures of a building?
Do you have the funds to buy 2, 8 gal machines.
 
Lou Zehnder said:
First Bill fill out your signature its the rules.......
We will need a lot more info.

Do you have to clean the breezeway floors?
How many breezeways per building is there 1,2,or 3 ?
Is there fire alarms?
Is there water available?
How many units is there per building?
Do you have to clean the inside of the balconies?
Do you have pictures of a building?
Do you have the funds to buy 2, 8 gal machines.
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+1 an x2 on the fire alarm thing! HUGE HUGE P.I.T.A. :yeah:
 
Great points to think about Lou.

He told me the same thing, he really knows his stuff and will help a lot.
 
We looked at a similar job a couple years ago and walked away from it as we didn't have the knowledge. What is the concern with the fire alarms? What do you do to address the concern?
 
jlpressure said:
Bill, I have to ask, how long have you been in business?
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I think its obvious Jeff. But at least hes asking for advice instead of winging it.
 
Truthfully unless you actually see the job, know his business model and consider about a dozen or so variables there is no way to quote a price for him?

I mean there are things I can charge 3 cents for and can make more money than someone that charges 8 cents ............. just because I can get it done is alot faster time frame and move on to something else and the other contractor would still be on the job.
 
Thanks guys. Question 1, what is the "Signature" referred to. I thought I had done what was needed. Question 2, what about the fire alarm.

Answer; I've been in business since last October; did about 65 70 residential jobs, learned some on every one; bought the 4GPM after reading on here and with some suppliers.

We can stay on the gun, thanks to the ball valve, as needed, so we can stay somewhat productive. After I get paid for this job, I might buy an 8gpm. No breezeway floors, 12 apartments face the breezeway; no balconies. The entire building is vinyl.

Thanks again.
 
Fire Alarms _ unless they are turned off the will be going off!

Any water vapors will set them off - hot or cold - it does not matter however the steam from hot water seems to make them go off quicker

Funny story, the pm was supposed to have them turned off for us, they were switched to "silent" instead, we were doing interior walkways, I walked out and into the presence of about 15 Firefighters.......woops!
 
Bill Raines said:
Thanks guys. Question 1, what is the "Signature" referred to. I thought I had done what was needed. Question 2, what about the fire alarm.

Answer; I've been in business since last October; did about 65 70 residential jobs, learned some on every one; bought the 4GPM after reading on here and with some suppliers.

We can stay on the gun, thanks to the ball valve, as needed, so we can stay somewhat productive. After I get paid for this job, I might buy an 8gpm. No breezeway floors, 12 apartments face the breezeway; no balconies. The entire building is vinyl.

Thanks again.
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No one can truly quote this for you. You just need take it one building at at a time and figure out how long it will take you. Add up all the hours X the amount you need to make per hour and that's your price. If you get it great if you don't it wasn't the right job for you at the right time. Move on to the next one and use this as a learning experience.

Everyone's market is different - everyone's overhead is different - everyone's skill level is different.

This site is great for technical advice - how to's - chems - equipment - etc., but pricing is going to be all over the place. Take your best shot and go from there.

Good Luck
 
Russ Spence said:
Fire Alarms _ unless they are turned off the will be going off!

Any water vapors will set them off - hot or cold - it does not matter however the steam from hot water seems to make them go off quicker

Funny story, the pm was supposed to have them turned off for us, they were switched to "silent" instead, we were doing interior walkways, I walked out and into the presence of about 15 Firefighters.......woops!
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I learned this the hard way...

The firefighters didnt show up but I thought they were about to.

We were actually washing for an Electrical contractor who was remodeling the compex. They had installed the fire alarms with the conduit running into the tops of the control boxes.

Before we started washing we taped and bagged everything but it didnt make a difference. Water ran down the conduit and into the boxes frying the high dollar controls.

When the first one went off I thought well crap there goes our profit on this job but the Electrical companys on site manager said "hell we installed them. Its our fault. Keep washing." Needless to say I was very on edge and made it clear to him that if I screwed something up Id take care of it but I didnt want to dig my hole deeper. He was adamant that it wasnt my fault so we finished the job. Only 3 boxes were ruint....

Before we were finished a man with the company who installed the electronics came out and shut down the last few while we washed. He pointed out to me the problem with the conduit entering the top of the box and even showed me places where you could see light.

I was lucky for that to work out like it did. The other complexes weve washed Ive bagged them and had no problem but I wont push my luck any further. Ill be shutting them off from now on.

This was same complex that I got my a@@ chewed out by a hud inspector! It was one stressful week.
 
AHA! Now the fire alarm makes sense. I'm going to measure tomorrow, I'll take some pics and post them; as long as Don doesn't recognize it. And the 75/275 or 240 seems about right.
 
Don M. said:
Why did you get chewed by a hud inspector?
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Don it was a case of an overzealous government working freaking out about us dsing bleach.

We were actually shut down by the guy... Ive got an old thread on one of these boards somewhere.

It all turned out good. I kept a cool head during the situation and got a little help from friends later and he backed off.
 
apple said:
Don it was a case of an overzealous government working freaking out about us dsing bleach.

We were actually shut down by the guy... Ive got an old thread on one of these boards somewhere.

It all turned out good. I kept a cool head during the situation and got a little help from friends later and he backed off.
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I remember now.
 
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