What to charge for Christmas light installation
Price it by the foot of lights you hang. Add up the feet, what the lights cost you if they are yours, the hours to put them up, the hours to take them down, and every trip to the house. A price above that, divided by the feet, is your price for a foot.
By TailGateBid. .
One job, two halves
The lights go up once and come down once. That is two trips, two days on a ladder and, if the lights are yours, a box to store until next year.
A price that only counts the day they go up gives the second half away. The boxes below keep the halves apart, so you can see each one and put each on the quote.
By the foot, or by the house
If you quote by the house, hold that figure up against the sum here before you say it. Two houses on one street can be a hundred feet of roofline apart, and a flat price is the same for both.
A price for a foot rises with the roofline by itself. Measure every stretch you will light, not only the front: the eaves, a ridge, the garage, round the windows, up a tree. Each stretch is feet, and each has a box.
Whose lights they are
- Yours. Then cord, bulbs and clips are a cost of this job, by the foot, and they go in the box for a foot of lights. If the same lights go back up next year, decide now how many seasons have to pay for them, and say on the quote who keeps them.
- The customer's. Then that box stays empty and you are selling hours. Look the sets over before you price the job. The National Fire Protection Association's holiday tip sheet says to replace any string of lights with worn or broken cords or loose bulb connections, and that some lights are only for indoor or outdoor use, but not both. A set you will not hang is a call to the customer before the day, not a surprise on the roof.
- Either way, clips. The same sheet says to use clips, not nails, to hang lights, so the cords do not get damaged. Clips are a cost by the foot too.
Work out what a job costs you
Start with the roofline
Type the feet of each stretch you will light: the eaves, a ridge, round a window, up a tree. The boxes add them up and put the feet, the lights, the hours and the trips in the calculator below. A new box opens when the last one is filled.
Cord, bulbs and clips, if you supply them. Leave it empty when the lights are the customer's.
Two people for 3 hours is 6.
The half of the job that gets left out. Everyone's hours, added up.
One to put them up, one to take them down, and any you make between.
Type the feet of the first stretch. The total shows here.
Two people for a day of 8 hours is 16.
A rental, dump fees, a sub.
Type the size of the job to see a price for each foot.
If you want it checked. Leave it empty if not.
Type your hours and what an hour costs you, or your materials. The answer shows here.
One house, up and down
An example with made-up numbers, not a going rate
Say a house takes 72 feet along the eaves, 38 on the ridge and 30 round the garage: 140 feet of lights. Say the lights are yours and cost you $1.85 a foot with their clips, a made-up price: $259. Say putting them up takes 6 hours of work and taking them down 2: 8 hours, which at $57.05 an hour is $456.40. Say each of the 2 trips costs you $45: $90. The job costs you $805.40. Charge $1,151 and you keep $345.60, which is $30 of every $100. That is $8.23 a foot, up and down.
The same house at five prices
An example with made-up numbers, not a going rate
| Price | You keep | Of every $100 |
|---|---|---|
| $895 | $89.60 | $10 |
| $1,007 | $201.60 | $20 |
| $1,151 | $345.60 | $30 |
| $1,343 | $537.60 | $40 |
| $1,611 | $805.60 | $50 |
How many sets on one run
- Go by the tag. Read the manufacturer's instructions for the number of light strands to connect, says the National Fire Protection Association's tip sheet. That number is the maker's, it is printed on the tag or the box, and it is not the same for every set.
- For the old kind there is a ceiling. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says never to string together more than three sets of incandescent lights, and never to overload electrical outlets: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Holiday Safety.
- What that does to your price: when a roofline is longer than one run may be, it takes a second run with its own cord back to an outlet. Cords and a timer are materials. Laying them out is hours.
- Adding an outlet or a circuit is a different job from hanging lights. Ask your state what it requires before you offer it.
The ladder is in the price
- OSHA's card on portable ladders opens with why it exists: falls from them are one of the main causes of deaths and injuries at work. Doing what the card asks takes time, and that time belongs in your hours.
- Getting onto a roof. The card says an extension or straight ladder used to reach a raised surface must extend at least 3 feet above the point of support, and the angle it gives is the base set a quarter of the ladder's working length out from the wall: the same card.
- Climbing. The card asks for 3-point contact, two hands and a foot or two feet and a hand, and says not to exceed the ladder's load rating, counting the weight of any tools or equipment. If that means a second person passing the lights up, their hours are in the job.
- Power lines. Look for overhead lines before handling a ladder, the card says, and avoid a metal one near power lines or exposed live electrical equipment.
- The card is a summary of safety tips. For what the rules ask of an employer whose crew works on ladders and roofs, ask OSHA or your state's own program.
A string goes dark in December
If a section goes out in the middle of the season, somebody drives over. Decide before you quote whether a service call is in the price, how many, and what one costs you. A trip there and back costs the same whether you change one bulb or forty.
If calls are in the price, add them to the box for trips. If they are not, say so on the quote, with what one will cost.
On a quote
In TailGateBid the install and the take-down can be two lines on one quote, each with its own price, and a deposit can be due when the customer approves it. How quotes work.
The hour under all of it is what an hour costs you. If you clear leaves at the same houses in the fall, that job has its own sum: what to charge for leaf removal. And if lights are one of many small jobs you take, TailGateBid for handyman businesses shows a list of them on one quote.
Where each number comes from
- When this page works out a price for you, it never aims to leave you more than $90 of every $100. TailGateBid's own price suggestions stop at the same place. A price you type yourself can leave more.
- The ladder shows the prices that leave about $10, $20, $30, $40, $50 of every $100. The steps are our choice: a ladder to read across, not advice.
A calculator works from the numbers you type. Check the answer against your own books.
This page is about one kind of job. TailGateBid works for any trade, and Bid Partner is built to price a job in any of them: how it works for your trade.
Sources
Related
- Trip and minimum chargeIn the example, a job 25 minutes away costs $93.92 before any work is done. See what your smallest job costs with the trip in it.
- What an hour costs youIn the example, $25 an hour of pay turns into $57.05 for every hour you can bill.
- Leaf removalFrom the lot, the crew, the visits and the loads to a price for each 1,000 square feet cleared.
- HandymanA list of small jobs on one quote by the hour, and extra work approved before you do it.
- QuotesOptions, add-ons and a signature on your customer's own phone.
Put the install and the take-down on one TailGateBid quote, each as its own line, and send it from your phone.
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