How to Bid Fences? Everything You Need to Know to Start Bidding Any Fence Job.

All right, so I'm gonna talk to you about how I go about my simple bidding process of bidding fences Like all my bidding. I try to keep things really simple and easy That way I have to do a whole lot of work in the bidding process Which just takes up a whole lot of time and you don't necessarily get paid unless you get the job done So I make my bidding processes very simple and easy to do So I'm gonna talk to you about two a few scenarios of painting wood fences up here when we are They're all ruffs on cedar fences, and I'm also gonna talk about iron fences if you haven't Subscribe to our channel hit the subscribe button hit the notification bell that way you get notified Every time I come out with a new video. It's free simple and easy to do I've got over 1500 videos that I've done over the last 12 years. They're all free That all right at whole time and they're gonna be free forever. So Subscribe hit the subscribe button notification bell and you'll get an email I have a time I come out with a new video simple way to help support us Also, give us a thumbs up if you enjoy our videos on with the bidding process I've got a fence behind me. This isn't the typical scenario of The average fence we run into on a daily basis or weekly or monthly basis in Idaho a typical Stereotypical fence is gonna be a six foot dog-eared cedar fence with either four or six foot foot planks or fence Pickets and they're usually from post to post eight feet and that is a very Stereotypical fence this kind of is a custom fence. That's not vertical This is a horizontal fence and it does fall into kind of the same category of how I go about bidding fences And we'll talk about that when it comes to a fence. We've got posts here. They are posts to post this Is a little bit unusual, but we'll just talk about the stereo typical fence and you'll probably see it on this video Flash it across here somewhere post to post eight feet. They got eight feet studs usually two or maybe three and then they're four to six I'm inch dog-eared cedar benches all the way closed All the way touch and closing so you really can't see through it in their privacy fences And they are not smooth. They are roughs on cedar fences up here 99.9% of the time now my bidding process is very simple I did a whole bunch of fences Eventually calculated how much material how much time it was taking to do a post to post and I came up with a number That my fence bids are and they are 35 dollars per panel and that is one side of the fence and post to post is a panel So it's 35 dollars from the face of that fence post to post and then if I'm doing both sides Which most of the time it's a shared fence in a neighborhood and the customers only having me do their side And so it's 35 dollars per panel now if they own both sides of the fence or the other opposite neighbors paying to have it done You're gonna have two sides and it's 35 dollars times two and that is the simple Process of how I go about bidding fences all I do is just count up the the Panels so right here. I've got one two three four five six seven eight panels both sides eight times two is 16 16 times 35 is going to be my estimate now of course I am pointing to this fence right here and this isn't eight-foot Post to post sections, but I really just average it out if I run into a fence like this It's shorter But there are gaps into it in between the fence that make it a little bit more difficult to do the fence So there's kind of a trade-off. There's a trade-off This isn't a typical six-foot fence either But it's just all gonna average out to me and I do have to say one thing I don't paint fences to make a living I typically only do fences for customers where I'm painting They're exterior of the house It's very rare that I go just bid a fence and just do the fence because to me There's just not a lot of money in doing fences by themselves I do do them for my customers and once again It's going to be $35 a panel this one here because of the pickets You do have to do the tops and bottoms of the pickets or the horizontal slats You do get over spray going through you know the sides a little bit more than a regular privacy fence But that's kind of the trade-off $35 because it's lower and more narrow I don't want to talk about the $35 charge that we do have a post-supposed I just talked about it just briefly but I did do fences for probably five six years And what I did is just took the average fence that we're doing Eight-foot section that's a post-supposed six-foot high most common fence we did Out of the materials out of the time and labor that it took to do that travel time And then just average it out with an average size length of fence And it just ended up averaging out to about that $35 charge for one side of the panel What you want to do is wherever you're located you want to make sure that fits in the range Of doing fences on the price range where you're at so you're not too high or too low What it's really good you can take my numbers And then do offense yourself what's going right and check and see and you might want to adjust it You know up or down And once again I typically I'm not going to come out and bid just doing a fence Because I just personally myself don't think there's a whole lot of money in doing fences I'd rather paint a house that a fence but I know there are some painters out there that just do fences And it's very profitable so you'll just have to decide on your own So let's talk about some of the charges that might make the charge the $35 per panel Situation go up or actually go down Now this is a section here this is six foot instead of eight foot sections post-supposed If you wanted to just drop that because you got two feet less You got less material and less labor you can just drop that right down I'd drop it down to $32 per panel This fence right here is not eight feet high And I can just drop that down also two or three dollars per panel I'm not going to get any lower than $30 per panel because that's what's going to make it worth it For me to do offense Our fence painting method if you do think this number is really high And typically most customers that we give a fence bed bid too They do think our prices are really high But when it comes to painting and offense We typically have one guy spraying one guy backbrushing And we typically put two to three times more material on a fence Than a do it yourself or would or even a lot of professional painters do We absolutely saturate the fences like this We use a five, either a five-fifteen tip Like an HEA five-fifteen tip And somebody's just saturating that thing With paint coming out of an airless sprayer Because it gets it on faster And then somebody's just backbrushing that saturated fence in And we only do one coat If you do more than one coat You're going to stand a chance of the fence peeling Now I'll talk about a couple other additional charges I have Also now This fence behind me This was a oil based coating that I put on this fence I personally do not do oil based coatings ever anymore when it comes to fences And that is due to liability Oil based fences on a calm day like this where there's no wind at all It literally will float, carry up, off into the air And on a cool day like this it's not going to dry It literally can carry about 300 yards Land on cars, other products could cause liability issues And I've even run into some issues like that in the past A water based coating that would be like the same color A water based coating is going to lift up in the air If it does, it's a lot heavier But if it does lift up in the air It flash dries extremely fast And typically if it lands anywhere 10 yards, 15 yards away It's going to be just dry dust I've never had an over spray claim on a fence like this Even when you got slats like this that are far apart Where over spray can carry through But if I was going to do an oil based fence Just because of the inherent liability of oils going up in the air Carrying off and then even just the cleanup process Getting oil based coatings on you Cleaning up with our water or not water But paint thinner or lacquer thinners versus water is more expensive I'm going to charge at least $3 per panel So if I got a $35 panel charged with a customer's adamant They use an oil based coating It's going to be a $3 additional charge Just for that inconvenience and liability using that type of product So now we're going to get questions about fences that have gates So I got a gate right here And a gate is typically not a post-to-post 8-foot section We always just carry our charged gates As a panel irregardless of how Why they are as long as they are 8-foot or less So this gate right here is going to count as one panel Even if it's a little bit wider it'll still count as one panel If you're doing both sides it'll count as two panels This gate right here is a metal gate on the opposite side So it's powder coated metal And you don't want to get any type of stain or coating on that So you do have to mask it So I do have an additional charge If there's any metal on the gate That the customer doesn't want any of the coating on I'm going to charge $25 to mask off the gates So if I got two-fold gates that are opening and closing That are like six-foot gates or eight-foot gates $25 a gate to mask off those gates Now if the gate is wood and you're staying And it just like the rest of the fence Then we don't have an additional charge for that I do occasionally run into where we've got the post Every post is a different color than the rest of the fence So you'll have part of the fence that is like a cedar color And then the posts are occasionally a redwood color And then they're typically like a solid color redwood Now if that's the case And I'm going to spray the entire fence And I don't worry about getting overspray onto those posts Because it's stain and itself priming And then I'm just going to come back with a solid color stain And I'm going to handbrush those individual posts So if I do got to do all the individual posts And a lot of times those posts are like four by six posts Or even if they're four by four posts It is going to be a $7 per post charge To do each individual post And now I'll talk about another couple scenarios You might end up charge in a little bit extra to do a fence with So when it comes to coding fences We typically run into two options And one of them is doing a semi-transparent stain Or a solid color stain By far the easiest to do when it comes to fencing Is a solid color stain Because the stripping and cleaning process Doesn't have to be nearly as thorough As if you're doing a semi-transparent stain Because any type of staining Any type of grain is going to show right through The semi-transparent stain So you're going to have to really strip the fence really good You see my videos on roughsons See defenses like this We use a rotating nozzle And you can really strip that thing down to bare wood But it's going to take you twice as much time To really prepare that thing So it looks really good when it comes to a semi-transparent stain So if we're dealing with semi-transparent stains I'm going to charge an additional $3 $3 per panel If it is not a brand new fence If it's a brand new fence There's no water stains There's no grain There's no mildew Nothing I got to deal with to make that thing look really good Because if you don't strip any water stains from sprinklers Or any mildew or any of that grain off When you put a semi-transparent stain right over the top of it It's not going to look really good Or if a semi-transparent stain Is on there and hasn't completely worn out It could come out really blotchy And not look really good So you do got to strip and clean that thing really good And it does take quite a bit more work Than just doing a solid color A solid color We typically power wash off fence Just strip it lightly Just to get all the dead Wood off the stuff that's really loose And dry-rotted or just flaky Get that stuff off So you get a nice good penetration of the stain Whether it's semi-transparent or solid You want to get it to absorb in there And bite really well And not peel off But once again Don't over-apply your stains Because if you over-apply them You will get peeling on your fence Or whatever you're doing That even pertains to a deck But especially fences You'll one good heavy coat And it's going to look natural and look great So I'll just touch on iron fences too And we do, I don't do iron fences nearly as much But your typical iron fence A lot of them are just like a four feet high You know, other ones are in that Six to eight foot range high And they're typically about six inch Pickets, little tiny pickets Not nearly as much surface area You don't go through nearly as much product Like three to four times less product But the labor takes just as much Because just to get those each one of those little spindles Or pickets sprayed with an HVLB sprayer Just takes a lot of time and effort Usually have some rusting That you got a wire brush off And you got a prime So the labor and the time comes out To about the same as doing a wood fence Over the years It's been about the same amount of time Doing a section of iron fence versus a section of wood fence So all my additional charges Or charges that I charge less on Or more on on a wood fence I'll typically pertain to an iron fence Also so if the fence is a little bit lower Instead of $35 a panel I might be charging $30 a panel If it's just like a little small three foot fence That keeps it a dog or something like that Now if I do have an iron fence Very common we have them around pools here And so you have this six foot or eight foot fence Around a pool And a lot of times the chemicals around the pool Cause those iron fences to be extremely rusty So you got to do some wire brushing You got to do some scraping You got to do some rust inhibited primer And we're typically using an oil-based Coding like rustolium and dust-reel enamel On a fence like that And I can't stand spraying oils So I do charge more because of liability Do charge more because of the rust issues And you will end up getting callbacks On it more and likely So on iron fences I'm typically in the range Per panel around pools $40 to $45 per panel So that's an additional $5 to $10 per panel On a pool fence So I know when it comes to fences Once again like the fence behind me You get a lot of questions about over spray I got tips and tricks How to control over spray This fence right here There's a pool right behind it And that was using an oil-based coating There's no issues with over spray A lot of it is a spray technique What size tip you use What tip you do use We use HEA high efficiency airless tips That run in low pressures And your gun angle is significantly important You can have somebody behind you Holding a drop-coff Or holding cardboard shields You help control over spray You can check out some of my videos On how to do a fence How to eliminate over spray liabilities I know it can be an issue for some people But it's never been an issue for me Because of the techniques that I use And the products I use Once again, there's a few products out there I like to use I use Benjamin Moore Arbacoat Is an amazing water-borne solid color finish Sure, Williams even makes a product Called woodscapes that I really like And those products This is kind of an overcast day Really cool It's probably the high 40s low 50s And the paints are the stain You could carry Get a little bit of breeze It could carry But there's nothing around To cause it to land onto And stick Even in temperatures like this Once the paint is atomized The mist is actually going to fall down Is dry over spray But once again, really just know The situation Know the humidity The more humid it is The more wind it is The cooler it is The more likely you could have over spray Even with water-based coatings Oil-based coatings In a condition like this Literally can carry about 500 yards away Get on somebody's house Get on their mailbox Get on their car So it could be an issue And once again, it's why I Never do oil-based fences ever Anymore All right, so how do I actually go about The bidding process What happens is the customer is going to call up And ask for a fence bid And I'm going to ask them Are we a previous customer of theirs If they're a previous customer We did their house exterior Then I'm probably going to give them estimates You know, if it's just a short run of fence And that's all they want done It's probably going to be too small of a project But if it is something I'm going to bid The irregardless of the situation I'm going to just explain to them All I got to do is see how many panels Or know how many panels you have I'm going to explain to them what a panel is It's going to be post-to-post And typically your posts are every eight feet Just count those panels up All the ones that you want Staying or treated And then let me know how many you got You can see me a couple pictures of the fence And that way I can see and get an idea What it is It is six foot fence, three foot fence And it'll be easy for me to bid and estimate I do like doing fence bids and estimates Like this just over the phone I do like to use Google Earth Google Earth is an amazing tool Where you can eat on there Look at the fence You know without having to ask for pictures And you can see Sometimes they're entire property And you can even count the panels yourself Using Google Earth It's just an absolute amazing tool But just have the customer Count it, send you some pictures Very simple and easy to do I do exterior estimates Over the phone and using Google Earth and Zillow Once again my estimating process I like to streamline it Like to make it fast Like to make it cost effective And then the estimates also sent by email So I don't have to send a print copy Send a hand delivered estimate either So very simple Easy to do process If you want to see my exterior bidding process Which is absolutely amazing And simple go check that video out So if you got any questions I know I probably didn't hit something That you want to know when it comes to bidding offence Leave it down in the comment section below I'll try to check it out First couple days right away to answer your questions If you got any tips and tricks When it comes to bidding or estimating offences You know we would like to know Just leave it down in the comment section below If you haven't subscribed Subscribe, hit the notification bell Hit the like button If you've enjoyed this video It helps us keep doing these videos And keep them us motivated We'll see you next time on my next estimating video I think I'm going to be doing one On interior bidding here pretty soon And I'm going to be doing one on doing concrete walkways And then even estimating epoxy garage floor So stay tuned for that video We'll see you out