What To Consider When Writing A Tile And Grout Cleaning Estimate
Ceramic tile is a popular choice of flooring because it’s durable, aesthetically pleasing, and versatile.
However, due to the porous nature of both the tile and the grout that its sealed with, tile flooring can get extremely dirty with extended foot traffic.
Having a tile floor professionally cleaned is the best way to restore the surface to like-new condition, but what all goes into pricing these services?
This article will go over the major cost factors you should be including on your tile and grout cleaning estimates as you bid on more jobs in the hard surface restoration industry.
Project Size And Charge Methods
Most tile and grout jobs are charged by the square foot, and many companies set a base rate of a couple hundred dollars to ensure they hit their profit margin.
Commercial and residential tile and grout cleaning jobs cost about the same per square foot. You can expect to charge around $0.50-$3 per square foot for a standard deep clean service.
If you’re curious what the competition is charging, call and ask for a quote. This is the easiest way to assess the market in your area.
What makes for the difference in price?
One of the factors is how dirty the grout is. Tile itself is pretty easy to clean, but grout can collect mold, mildew, discoloration, and debris. A heavily soiled floor is going to cost more.
These are details you should be paying attention to on your tile and grout cleaning walkthrough. Always refer back to your notes and pictures when writing your estimate. If you’re using Route, all these details are conveniently saved for you.
Another thing that influences price is how many grout lines there are. Large tiles mean fewer grout lines. Small tiles mean lots of grout lines. The more grout lines there are, the more work you have to do, and the smaller the details will be. This can definitely send your price per square foot into a higher range.
If you don’t want to charge by the square foot, you can opt to charge by the hour, but in order to do this, you need to know exactly how many hours a job will take you. We will discuss this further in the “labor” section, but know that unless you are particularly good at timing your work, pricing your services by the square foot will ensure you hit your profit margin most often.
Supplies And Equipment
Tile and grout cleaning requires specific kinds of supplies and equipment.
Things that should be included with a tile and grout service are:
- The application of a cleaning solution on the grout
- A high-pressure wash
- Application of a sealant to keep the grout cleaner longer
When determining your overhead costs, figure out what these items are costing you or your company. Then add a markup.
If you are creating a tile and grout cleaning estimate with Route, the software will add a default markup of 8% to your supplies and equipment, but you can change this number to whatever you want. Other estimating tools typically provide a similar default markup.
It should also be noted that tile and grout cleaning is a job that should be done regularly for best results.
When writing your estimate, you can select the service frequency from a drop-down menu in the estimate builder.
You can also determine if your supplies are one-time or recurring costs. If you’re doing the job more than once, many of your supplies will be recurring. Route will calculate the total cost of each section in your estimate for you.
Labor And Production
When calculating your own prices, it helps to know some average figures of different rooms and jobs.
A 9’x11’ bathroom will run $100-$300 and often takes around 2 hours depending on the condition of the tile and how strong your cleaning solution is.
Larger bathrooms and master bathrooms run around $150-$300 and take 2-3 hours.
For a 300 square foot kitchen, the average cost is $300-$400 and the time is around 3-6 hours.
Knowing these figures is useful because they can aid in finding your _production rate. _
Your production rate is the average time it takes to do jobs of different sizes. If you know your production rate, you can easily gauge how many man hours you’ll need, plus you’ll be able to assess your proficiency against national averages, which will help you hit your profit margin.
When breaking down your labor in an estimate in Route, check the box labeled “advanced”. This allows you to break your team down by composition. This is useful if you have employees working at different pay grades. Many other bidding tools offer a similar feature, as well.
Conclusion
Maintaining tile floors is a detail-oriented job in the hard surfaces industry.
To make the most out of your bid, start by determining your price per square foot.
This number depends on a variety of factors, the most notable being how dirty the floor is and how many grout lines are (or how small the tiles are).
If you are absolutely sure about the time it will take you to do the job, you can opt to charge by the hour, but most people do not do this.
You can bill your client for many of your supplies and equipment and you can add a markup to these items, as well. Adding a markup is a standard practice that ensures you hit your profit margin.
The main supplies needed for a tile and grout job are an abrasive cleaning solution, a high pressure washer, and a sealant.
When assessing labor, it helps to look at national averages across several different rooms to get an idea of how long it should take.
The main rooms you will service most often are bathrooms (standard and master) and kitchens. These are not the only rooms that have tile flooring, but they commonly do.
Knowing your own production rate, or average time it takes you to clean a space, will help you determine how much labor you need and if your business is efficient compared to others in the industry.
Refer back to this article before submitting your next tile and grout cleaning proposal and see how much time and money you save as you move up in your industry.