You’re not in Oregon are you? I’ve got a bunch of flat work needed on my current job. We do our own form work before framing, so I know what’s happening to material and labor costs, but I don’t have the skills to make it look good on the flat.
Discussion
Naw Im in DFW
You feel my pain 😄. I mostly do remove and replace. I have 14 concrete formers & finishers who form and pour. Did 130 yards this morning at 4 am.
Ready mix concrete used to cost me about $130 a yard. Now its roughly $200. Lumber costs skyrocketed a year or so ago but have came down a bit since.
Its the skilled labor thats killing me along with everyday fixed costs (insurance, fuel, equipment payments, and commercial warehouse rent)
Seems like the only thing going down is what GCs are willing to pay. $14/ sq ft to $12 to $10 😪
I feel your pain while also being insulated from it. My work is almost all on spec, and the retail market on houses keeps rising given the huge demand and the challenges Oregon keeps putting in the path of development. So I’m able to absorb most cost increases without affecting my bottom line, it just gets past on to the end home buyer.
But skilled labor is typically less skilled and yet 25% more than it was 3 years ago. And of course subcontractors costs keep going up. I’m not a big enough GC to use a sub more than twice a year typically, so never feel I have enough pull to argue their pricing. Plus I’d rather have 1 or 2 I trust to price me fairly than to constantly be chasing the lowest bid.
If I can’t budget the price I’d rather reduce scope than try to crush someone else’s margins. But I get most GCs can’t operate that way and so are going to demand you absorb those costs internally.
"But skilled labor is typically less skilled and yet 25% more than it was 3 years ago."
☝️EXACTLY! This is pretty much reducing profits to near 0. Especially when you calculate the things Ive had to re-do out of pocket because the new "skilled laborers" end up not being skilled at all
Then when things slow down the real skilled folks get work from a big contractor and end up gone forever. My slow months havent even started yet and getting thru winter is gonna take some grit