SFA: What's the Answer?
Contract Labor for Installs
mattj34 Premium Member
I am in the beginning stages of contemplating using contract labor to install my retail, one-off jobs. I currently have one in-house crew of 4 installers. I would like to use this crew to continue to install all of my dealer and home-builder jobs. My question is, how many of you are using contract labor installers to install your jobs and how much are you paying them? Thanks for any and all answers. Matt Stone Shop Manager Robert F. Henry Tile Co. Montgomery, Ala.
Matt Lansing Administrator
There is typically a schedule of charges for using contract installers. A base square-footage price depends on a minimum square-footage being reached; otherwise it’s a flat base rate. The square-footage rate can be anywhere from $8 to $20 per square foot depending on demand in your area. Then extra charges for attaching sinks, drop waterfall legs, doing cutouts in field, and such like that. You just need to sit down with a contract installer and find out what they are looking for and see if it fits according to what you have charged the customer. If it fits then you are good to go. If you need to change what you’re charging customers going forward in order to use a contract installer, then you now know where you need to be. But when you analyze the costs to install, keep in mind that if you use a contract installer that frees up your guys to other things to make you more money that you weren't capturing before.
Stone Innovations, Inc. Plover, Wis.
Coop Premium Member
You need to make sure your contract subs are making money. Coop Simply Sinks Acworth, Ga.
QuartzworX Premium Member
In my market, good installers are few and far between. I used a contract installer for a few months a while back, and after running the numbers on what he was charging me, his fees were eating up most all of my profit on those jobs. He started out at $10 ft². We eventually got down to $5 ft² plus sinks and other itemized labor items, and it was still killing me. I had to quit using him. From his perspective, it wasn't worthwhile for him to do it any cheaper than that, so it was a lose-lose scenario. Darin Quartzworx Grand Junction, Colo..
Alan_Garcia Free Member
In my market we have built a good team of subs, we pay them $5 ft² for new construction, no extras unless it's a job over 1 hr. away then we add a trip charge for them if it's only 1 house. $5.50 ft² for remodel/retail. We keep our group small so they know they have work every day and take 200-300 ft² daily so it works out for them. Faucet holes are drilled in shop so most of the extras are just sinks and cooktop cutouts. We tend to mainly do national builders/new construction. We have had reached out to other subs in our areas and they've quoted anywhere from $6-$12 ft²plus extras.
gssfabrication Premium Member
This is probably a topic for the SFA Members area. Discussing ranges is one thing; specific amounts and you may give people in other markets a false idea of what they think they should be paying vs. what their local market will bear. Even places less than a few hours away can have drastically different pricing for a variety of reasons. Rick Graff GSS Fabrication Inc. Richland, WA estimating@gssfabrication.com