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Mark up

badranman

Charter Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2003
Messages
218
Location
Halifax Nova Scotia
Occupation
Owner Cutting Edge Construction Limited
Here's another question I have. What kind of mark up do you guys normally put on a product. Let's say you had to go get it, like pipe for example. How about gravel that's delivered? Any thoughts?
 

dozerman

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
39
Location
Friday Harbor, WA
Occupation
Owner operator excavation
markup

It depends,

T&M;
If its a good repeat customer and an isolated order, no markup.
Otherwise, 10% for anthing other than earth products.
I figure earth product, hauling, and markup and charge per yard.

Bids;
If its a good repeat customer-5%
Others-10% to 20%
Usually my estimates are 10% high so I net about 15% profit/overhead over cost.


If I had employees, accountants, office to support, I would raise all these cost by 10%.


These figures are in "normal" market conditions, ie; (there is work to bid on)
 

DKinWA

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2003
Messages
210
Location
Western Washington
Occupation
Biologist and Contractor
I aim for 10-20% markup over retail on most things like culverts, drain pipe, gravel, etc. I've also made it a point to work out discounts with suppliers on things I typically use so I'm actually making more than the 10-20% markup. I don't think this is unreasonable since chasing parts and materials is time consuming and I'm not about to work for free. I also try to keep extra materials/parts that I use regularly so I don't have to make special trips. Unfortunately, things don't always go as planned :(
 

leadarrows

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2003
Messages
54
Location
Anderson, Indiana
Occupation
Owner: Acme Farms LLC
On gravel 10% of say #8 stone which I pay $8.90 for would only be $6.23 for the seven tons that I can haul on my single axel.
Thats not enough IMO. I like to get at least my gas money back on the load so that my haul fee is profit. So I up the per ton price on all the stone prices by $3.00 a ton. That is $21.00 per load and that just about covers my fuel cost. I don't know about pipe thats not my thing.
 

Oregon Rob

Active Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2004
Messages
33
Location
NW Oregon
Occupation
Equipment operator
Wow, the numbers that you guys are throwing out there seem surprisingly low to me. I take it that the margins are thin on excavation work?
 

dozerman

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
39
Location
Friday Harbor, WA
Occupation
Owner operator excavation
When you say mark up, I read that to say markup over cost.
Cost is labor and material.
IE;
10 yards 7/8" drain rock delivered
cost at pit-$15.00/yard
cost to haul-$7.00/yard
subtotal-$22.00/yard
profit (markup) $2.20------(10%)

Total cost delivered $24.20/yard

I know these costs are high, its because we are on an island.

But the math is the same for anywhere. Use the local pit/ hauling costs and add your "Markup".

Cheers....B
 

leadarrows

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2003
Messages
54
Location
Anderson, Indiana
Occupation
Owner: Acme Farms LLC
Originally posted by leadarrows
On gravel 10% of say #8 stone which I pay $8.90 for would only be $6.23 for the seven tons that I can haul on my single axel.
Thats not enough IMO. I like to get at least my gas money back on the load so that my haul fee is profit. So I up the per ton price on all the stone prices by $3.00 a ton. That is $21.00 per load and that just about covers my fuel cost. I don't know about pipe thats not my thing.
I don't think I made something clear. I still charge a haul fee that I wasn't going to post. But I guess I will. The $21.00 per load is just the mark up on materials. I still charge a haul fee of $50.00 on loads within the county I work out of. So Thats $71.00 per 7 ton load. I want to make the fifty so I mark up the material to cover my costs. Does that sound more like it?
 

badranman

Charter Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2003
Messages
218
Location
Halifax Nova Scotia
Occupation
Owner Cutting Edge Construction Limited
Thanks for all the replies so far. I was basically wondering how much in percent do you mark something up. I think it would depend on what it was because some things may cost more for you to get than others (something 5 miles away vs something that is 25 miles away etc.). I know an electrician who marks all his stuff up 100 %. He pays $.49 for it he charges you $.98. I was just trying to get a ballpark if I even could on how much people were marking their stuff up , 10%, 20% etc. Is it just enough to cover your fuel plus a certain hourly wage you've worked out or do you just say to yourself " oh maybe 20 bucks on that , 10 on that etc. As far as the gravel thing, say I call the local pit and have them drop off a tandem load that cost $250.00. I gotta charge something extra for taking the time to call them and organizing it don't I? How much? A certain dollar amount or a percent? Keep the replies coming!
 

DKinWA

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2003
Messages
210
Location
Western Washington
Occupation
Biologist and Contractor
I didn't do a very good job explaining things either. With gravel, I charge roughly 20% over retail cost (I pay wholesale price) plus my hourly truck rate for hauling. So for instance, if the price is $10/ton (retail) and I pay $9/ton (wholesale), I charge $12/ton to the customer and I make $3 or 25% for materials. In addition to this, I also charge the customer the hourly truck rate for hauling.

For things like culvert, pipe, etc, it's much the same. If a customer wants 20' of culvert delivered, I charge them 10-20% over retail price for the culvert plus my hourly rate for delivery. When it comes to biding projects, I use the same method for calculating materials costs. Once I figure the materials costs, I calculate the labor and equipment costs to install them.

BTW, for some customers I'd like to add a pita surcharge, but I'd feel funny doing that :)
 
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