I have to do an estimate on a comercial job, from what im told its a hotel with 6 floors, they want the area when you walk out of the elevators done with ceramic, on floor. i beleive its 10x20' areas there are 6 of them to be done, assuming there is no prep to be done and its on nice concrete,they said they want the perimeter of the rectangle done 90' ,( straight lay 1 tile deep)like a border so to speak, then a listello type insert border and the center done with a 45' inlay.(same tile as perimiter border.) The store thats contracting it wodered if i could give a price i said have to check it out first of course, how would you guys work this? would you have them pay you for each floor seperatly as its completed, make sure theres no un-realistic schedueles etc.? Thanks for the input gents!
steve

Considering that they're only 120 sq. ft. per, and you can get them done fairly quickly, I would bill them at the end. Or you might get paid half and half if you want to get the money a little earlier. Usually if I don't have any reservations about getting paid, and the job isn't going to last more than a couple of weeks, I don't bill until the end of the job.

Is this a new building, or a redo of existing? The reason I ask is, you may not be able to do all of an area at one time. If the elevators are in use, you will have to figure something out to let people in and out while you are tiling the area.

If the areas are all the same then they should go pretty fast after the first one. I would not bid on it without seeing it. but as always it depends on how badly you want the job. If you really need the work, then I'd be looking at $3/sft. including grout and thinset. If you can afford to lose it offer then 3.75.

that would be a competitive commercial rate around here.

Since you are looking at about 1200 feet, ask for a $800 deposit on materials up front.

If the store is supplying all the materials take off about 70 cents/foot.

Personally, I wouldn't do it quite that cheap. It's going to take some prep work to get it straight and square. I would think $3.00-3.25 plus thinset and grout would be a better offer.

the prep work could be a kicker. Things are not always what the customer says they are. But I think that if the concrete is nice and all the tiles are delivered, then I'd be looking at budgeting 11 to 12 hours/ floor plus about $100 per floor on materials. So at $3/sf it works out to about 42 bucks/ hour. That seems like enough to me because it would be nice full days for a week and a half.

Hey all... i havent got a call yet but somehow i think the guy just wanted to find out for himself..... i thought about it and what about aall the bathrooms and stuff in the hotel and showers etc, theyre usualy tile from what i see... well he seemd a lil fishy so we'l see. do you guys get alot of "fishers" trying to get your price to know what to charge themselves, or advicee, etc.. my dad says never give away 2 much info or they could try to do it themselves, me a friend and my dad all put out seperate adds over a 3 year period and we all got a call from the same lady about a b.s. outdoor tile job still aint been done i think her hubby is an indeoendet installler , looking for other's rates. lol

anyways not like i havent called the depot askin what they charge for installs :}

thanks steve