Baird,
2 day of clean up is WAY TOO LONG. This job should take no more than 4 day total to do this includes polishing set up and clean up. I guess I’m trying to understand what is taking you the time? Is it the set up ( masking and protecting ) or the clean up after you polish?
Perhaps you guys are milking the job ?? the actual time it takes to polish this 2700 SQ FT should only take 1 man no more than 24 man hours to complete, this even allows for a 35 % loss of productivity . this along should cover most if not all the masking and protecting time and the clean up time. The 35 % factor is what an average loss for a technician I have seem technicians that only lose 30 % production.
This means that 65 to 70 % of the time the machine is running getting work completed. The loss of productivity is the time need to mask, protect, vac and clean up.
If you were to polish the open areas with a 22 inch pad the time need to complete the job would be less than 24 man hours.
Many time we lose productivity by having 2 men on a job. This is a rare occasion when I put 2 men on a job unless I’m training someone. The second man actually slow down the entire process. I would rather have 1 man on 1 job and my second man on another job this gives you the maximum dollar production out of each man and at the end of the job 1 man is accountable for his job the second man is accountable for his job, and no time is wasted with the 2 man crew taking breaks, and wasting time talking about whatever.
The secret to making money in the Stone Restoration business keeping your technicians busy. I know several restoration contractors that in stone along no other services do in excess of 1 million dollars per year with a net income of over 22 to 25 %. It all about the volume you can produce. In my last restoration operation when I left the sales on stone only were over $950,000 with a 23 % net income. I know what it take to do volume. My average residential customer per day was $550 per day and I had approximately 90 maintenance contracts.
Maintenance contract is a totally different discussion.
John E. Freitag
President/Director
The Stone and Tile School
Office 407-567-7652
Cell 407-615-0134
jfreitag@thestoneandtileschool.com
From: Baird Standish [mailto:bairdstandish@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 6:01 PM
To: Restoration and Maintenance
Subject: RE: [sccpartners] 5x cost per unit?
Thanks John. I do have your numbers from the class. Thanks for confirming them. I saw the blurb from Stonetec and couldn't really believe the coverage they were touting. I am finding that my labor efficiency as far as actual honing and polishing is getting pretty predictable. I do struggle with the set up and clean up. I find that some jobs are easy and others require a lot of attention to detail with the nook and cranny factor. As an example, I am bidding a large, approx 2700 sf residential polishing job right now, and with all the many nooks and crannies and delicate stuff around the house, I believe it will take up to two days for the set up and final cleaning. I'm estimating 4 min per 10 sf for polishing ( it's white marble and looks like it may go faster) but the set up/clean up often stumps me.
As far as the materials are concerned, its really hard for us to track materials on a project by project basis, and averaging is hard because some projects use more of some materials than others. So I am, instead, trying to get as theoretical a handle on supplies as much as possible.
I didn't realize there was such a big saving by buying large quantities of polish at one time never did the math. Thanks for advice.
B
_________________
From Baird Standish
Managing Partner
Facility Specialists,LLC
1616 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Ph: 215-732-7505
Fx: 215-740-6436
On Jul 19, 2010, at 4:25 PM, "John Freitag" <jfreitag@thestoneandtileschool.com> wrote:Baird ,
Where were you in class when we went over cost of materials. The 5X powder cost you as a Partner 279.00 for 45 pounds this equals a cost of $6.20 per pound you will use approximately 2 no more than 3 ounces of powder for every 10 sq,ft. therefore if you use 2 ounces per 10 SQ FT there is 16 ounces to a pound divided by 2 = 8 , 10 SQ FT sections or 80 SQ FT per pound $6.20 divided by 80 SQ FT = .0777 per sq ft.
NOW , this is more then .02 per sq ft but my bet is you will not get that low of cost on that powder, I have tried all types of powders and found the 5X powder to be the best,
If you use powders other than 5X I cannot not guarantee you will get the same result as we did in training, if you need to spend more time then you labor rates will go up and you have saved NOTHING !
Over the years I have seen to many restoration contractor worry about the cost of materials, and not pay any attention to their labor costs. If your material costs are running over 5 to 6 % of you sales you have problems, not so much with you cost, but how your employees are using the materials.
The bigger number to look at is labor! If you labor rates are running over 30 % you have problems. This could be a loss of productivity, over p aid employees or your techniques do not allow you the maximum productivity.
If you purchase all your products from Stonecare Central and you control the use of the products you material and supply cost should not be over 5 to 6 %
Watch you labor if it’s over 30 % ( direct labor no benefits taxes etc included ) you need to look at you r productivity.
Do your technicians need to stop on their way to a job site to pick up supplies ?? if so then take a simple 5 to 8 mile trip to Home Depot or other stores and calculate what it cost you. You are not getting in and out of the store any faster then 30 minutes, then figure the drive time you , it cost you a least $13 to $18 for that hour maybe more depending upon you r pay scale. Oh if you are sending 2 technician to a job double those cost! So what have you really saved NOTHING it cost you money.
Look at the labor numbers find a single source supplier like StoneCare Central and review your monthly material and supply cost if they are over 5 to 6 % we need to talk.
John E. Freitag
President/Director
The Stone and Tile School
Office 407-567-7652
Cell 407-615-0134
jfreitag@thestoneandtileschool.com
--
________________________________________
From the desk of
Baird Standish
Managing Partner
Facility Specialists, LLC
1616 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: 215-732-7505
Fax: 215-546-9160