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For flooring and tile: measured by the square foot, bought by the box

Hardwood, laminate, vinyl plank, carpet and tile: a floor is measured in square feet and bought in boxes, and the count of boxes is a sum of its own. TailGateBid puts the laying on one line and the material on another, on a quote your customer signs on their phone.

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The work

Laying floors: hardwood, laminate, vinyl plank, carpet, and tile set and grouted. And everything around the floor itself: pulling up what is there, fixing the subfloor, underlayment, baseboards off and back on, thresholds where two floors meet, and tile on a shower wall or a backsplash.

How a floor is measured

  1. Each room: length times width is the square feet. A room that is not a rectangle is cut into rectangles, each one measured and added.
  2. Add the extra for cuts. For its own vinyl plank, MSI Surfaces says to add 10% to the total for mistakes, cuts and damage. The maker of your floor may ask for more: use their number.
  3. Divide by the square feet in a box, which is printed on the carton, and round up. Those are the boxes.
  4. Tile is counted by the piece. 144 square inches make 1 square foot, so a tile 12 by 24 inches covers 2 square feet. Daltile recommends buying approximately 10% more tile than you expect to need and keeping it, so a broken tile can be replaced from the same dye lot.
  5. Priced by the square yard? 9 square feet make 1 square yard: divide the square feet by 9.

An example with made-up numbers, not a going rate

Say the living room is 12 by 15 feet and the hall 4 by 10: 180 and 40 square feet, 220 of plank to lay. Add 10% and you need 242 square feet. Say the carton holds 20 square feet: 13 boxes, which is 260 square feet bought. Say the bathroom floor is 5 by 8 feet, 40 square feet, in tile 12 by 24 inches. With 10% extra that is 44 square feet, and at 2 square feet a tile, 22 tiles.

Two rooms and a bathroom, worked through

Sample

Sample Flooring Co.

Vinyl plank in the living room and hall, tile in the bathroom

  • Old carpet and pad pulled up and hauled awayQty 1 load$180.00
  • Vinyl plank laid, living room and hallQty 220 square feet$495.00
  • Vinyl plank, by the boxQty 13$806.00
  • Bathroom floor tile set and groutedQty 40 square feet$360.00
  • Floor tile, 12 by 24 inchesQty 22$143.00
Subtotal
$1,984.00
Sales tax (7.25%)
$68.80
Total
$2,052.80

Deposit due on approval: $205.28

Before you ask for a deposit on work at a home, check what your state or province allows.

Only you see this part. Your customer never does.

What it costs you
$1,333.60
What is left for you
$650.40

You keep about $33 of every $100

A sample, with prices made up for the example; they are not a going rate. Laying the plank and setting the tile are charged by the square foot measured, 220 and 40. The plank and the tile are charged as they are bought, by the box and by the piece, with the extra in them. Only those two lines are ticked as taxed: 7.25% of $949.00 is $68.80. A 10% deposit of $205.28 is due on approval. At these made-up costs you keep about $33 of every $100.

What TailGateBid does for a flooring business

  • Three floors, side by side

    Put laminate, vinyl plank and hardwood on the same quote as three options, each with its own price, and mark the one you recommend. You also choose what the customer sees of the price: one figure for labor and one for materials, every line, or both. They pick a floor and sign on their own phone. How options are set up.

  • Bid Partner, from photos of the rooms

    Stand in the doorway, take a few photos and say what floor is going down. Bid Partner is the AI tool in TailGateBid: it sends back a draft quote with your rates on the lines. Where you have no rate yet it keeps going with a typical price, tagged "Typical" so you can tell it from yours. Type your own and every later quote uses it. Measure before you order: it is a draft, and nothing leaves until you press Send.

  • Materials first, then the job

    Boxes are bought before the first plank goes down. A deposit can be due when the customer approves the quote, and its invoice is made by itself. Approval also makes the job, ready for a date and a crew on the schedule, and the customer is emailed a reminder the day before. The final invoice comes from the finished job with the deposit already off it.

  • A flooring company website

    With your account comes a website, hosted at no extra cost. Name the floors you lay in your own words, show a room before and after once the customer has agreed to it, and collect the reviews you approve. A visitor can ask for a quote and attach photos of the room. See what goes on it.

The square foot, laid

Your price for a square foot laid comes out of your own costs. The job price calculator takes your hours, what an hour costs you and your materials, and can show the price for each square foot. Not sure what your hour costs? The hour calculator works it out.

Then put the price on paper: what goes on an estimate, in order, with one filled in.

This page is about one trade. TailGateBid works the same way for any other, and Bid Partner is built to price a job in any of them: how it works for your trade.

Sources

Related

Measure the rooms and send the quote before you put the tape away.

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