lowballing | Ask Mason Knowles - SPF Consultant | Spray Foam Technical Questions and Answers | SprayFoam Magazine Q&A Forums

Q&A Forums

Author	Comments
philip mullins Posted: Jan 14, 2008 09:24 PM	lowballing hey bud, lookin for a little advice here. here along the ms coast we have had several new installers pop up in recent months. nothing wrong with competition but, i have encountered some competitors bids for as low as 70 cents to spray a 1500 sf crawl space. and 65 cents to spray a 2400 sf home with conventional attic. short of breaking some legs, i dont know what to do. should i drop my insurance and stop paying taxes so i can afford to compete. and, by the way, i gotta go look at a house that i was under bid on tomorow. the dude says he can scrape the foam (cc) off the walls with his fingers! i am afraid that this continuing will kill the spf industry in my area. should i contact thier suppliers? is thier some sort of regulatory commitee that i can speak to? what would you suggest?
Terry Adams Posted: Jan 14, 2008 10:09 PM	It's hard enough to get foam sales without someone low bidding and doing shoddy work. How about the manufacturers putting together a database of authorized installers and not selling to every tom dick and harry. These chemicals don't need to be installed in peoples homes inproperly, its dangerous and bad for the entire industry. Does somebody have to get hurt or injured first? There was one other installer when I started and in 2 years here there is at least 10 more within 60 miles of here. Are they trained and not like I was - basicly here's the gun now pull the trigger and wave it at the wall.
mason Posted: Jan 15, 2008 07:52 AM	Terry, Troutkiller, This issue concerns me more about the future of our industry than any other. It is critically important for the SPF industry to provide the best training possible and develop ways to separate the responsible suppliers and contractors from the folks that either don't know or don't care about quality applications. In fact, a large part of my consulting business is dedicated to education, training and quality assurance programs for both contractors and suppliers. I am currently working on a contactor evaluation program whereby a contractor could provide pertinent information on their business. This would create a data base so that prospective customers could compare contractors based on a predetermined criteria. In the meanwhile, when confronted with low ball pricing, I provide my prospective customer with the financial facts. How much the material costs, how much labor costs, overhead, specific job costs & profit. Most people don't mind a contractor making a fair profit and will be uncomfortable if their selected contractor is doing the job at costs or worse losing money. If they still insist on the low ball price, you would not want them as a customer anyway. Price buyers tend to be more suspicious of contractors. And for good reason, their buying tendencies typically end up with projects where the contractor is willing to cut corners.
Todd Baxter Posted: Jan 16, 2008 08:35 AM	I know from roofing, when a person said they could get it done for less I would say let me see their estimate, and most of the time they were no offering the same thing that we offer. But if they still look at the low price them I would say walk away. more problems then you will know about. not having all the money at the time the job is finished.

Author

Comments

philip mullins

Posted: Jan 14, 2008 09:24 PM

lowballing

hey bud,
lookin for a little advice here. here along the ms coast we have had several new installers pop up in recent months. nothing wrong with competition but, i have encountered some competitors bids for as low as 70 cents to spray a 1500 sf crawl space. and 65 cents to spray a 2400 sf home with conventional attic. short of breaking some legs, i dont know what to do. should i drop my insurance and stop paying taxes so i can afford to compete. and, by the way, i gotta go look at a house that i was under bid on tomorow. the dude says he can scrape the foam (cc) off the walls with his fingers! i am afraid that this continuing will kill the spf industry in my area.

should i contact thier suppliers?
is thier some sort of regulatory commitee that i can speak to?
what would you suggest?

Terry Adams

Posted: Jan 14, 2008 10:09 PM

It's hard enough to get foam sales without someone low bidding and doing shoddy work. How about the manufacturers putting together a database of authorized installers and not selling to every tom dick and harry. These chemicals don't need to be installed in peoples homes inproperly, its dangerous and bad for the entire industry. Does somebody have to get hurt or injured first? There was one other installer when I started and in 2 years here there is at least 10 more within 60 miles of here. Are they trained and not like I was - basicly here's the gun now pull the trigger and wave it at the wall.

mason

Posted: Jan 15, 2008 07:52 AM

Terry, Troutkiller,

This issue concerns me more about the future of our industry than any other. It is critically important for the SPF industry to provide the best training possible and develop ways to separate the responsible suppliers and contractors from the folks that either don't know or don't care about quality applications.

In fact, a large part of my consulting business is dedicated to education, training and quality assurance programs for both contractors and suppliers.

I am currently working on a contactor evaluation program whereby a contractor could provide pertinent information on their business. This would create a data base so that prospective customers could compare contractors based on a predetermined criteria.

In the meanwhile, when confronted with low ball pricing, I provide my prospective customer with the financial facts. How much the material costs, how much labor costs, overhead, specific job costs & profit. Most people don't mind a contractor making a fair profit and will be uncomfortable if their selected contractor is doing the job at costs or worse losing money.

If they still insist on the low ball price, you would not want them as a customer anyway. Price buyers tend to be more suspicious of contractors. And for good reason, their buying tendencies typically end up with projects where the contractor is willing to cut corners.

Todd Baxter

Posted: Jan 16, 2008 08:35 AM

I know from roofing, when a person said they could get it done for less I would say let me see their estimate, and most of the time they were no offering the same thing that we offer. But if they still look at the low price them I would say walk away. more problems then you will know about. not having all the money at the time the job is finished.

You need to login to reply to this topic. Please click here to login.