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Price check: 8x4 skid sign real estate/construction site

gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Looking to see what everyone would charge for a skid sign similar to the one pictured. 8x4 pressure treated lumber painted white with a plywood backer to attach a sign face on one side. Include all hardware costs, sandbags/ground anchors, labor to build it and install it onsite. Don't include the sign face cost, just the frame itself.

RiteAidChowchilli-001.jpg
 
JBurton

JBurton

Signtologist
Somewhere around 5-700 depending on if I need to haul it to site. We suck at wood work, I could make it half the price and half the weight from aluminum.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
That was just a general example I found online. It does look 'trapezoidal' though, doesn't it? Here's one that I believe Tex made. Just a basic skid frame, but with a plywood backer to attach a sign face, and painted white.

I recently got a RFQ from a national wanting two of these installed at a remote location, with a budget of $700. I just sighed and responded with the actual cost and never heard from them again. I was around $500 ea plus $400 for travel and installation.

PXL_20230215_185952409.jpg
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
Tex gets a B+. At least he mitered the wood. Had to take some points off for being lazy and leaving the tags on the end of the lumber and not pulling the backing off the ACM.
I'd be using a framing nailer to put these together. Much faster and easier than screws.
 
Johnny Best

Johnny Best

Active Member
gnubler said:
That was just a general example I found online. It does look 'trapezoidal' though, doesn't it? Here's one that I believe Tex made. Just a basic skid frame, but with a plywood backer to attach a sign face, and painted white.

I recently got a RFQ from a national wanting two of these installed at a remote location, with a budget of $700. I just sighed and responded with the actual cost and never heard from them again. I was around $500 ea plus $400 for travel and installation.

View attachment 165184
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When they have a budget of $700 and you quote $900. You never heard from them again? Why did you even respond?
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Johnny Best said:
When they have a budget of $700 and you quote $900. You never heard from them again? Why did you even respond?
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Because they always lowball numbers on these RFQs I get. The request said their budget is "around $700" implying there was some flexibility there. So I was "around $1400" for two signs, installed at a site an hour away.
 
Johnny Best

Johnny Best

Active Member
You seem to be spinning your wheels in a lot of these install jobs. Are you digging the holes and constructing sign sleds or jobbing it out to others?
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
$700 per is more like it. That is a lot of work... Going to store to get the wood. Travel.. Lug and build it.... Invoicing them and waiting 2 months to get paid.
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
Notarealsignguy said:
Tex gets a B+. At least he mitered the wood. Had to take some points off for being lazy and leaving the tags on the end of the lumber and not pulling the backing off the ACM.
I'd be using a framing nailer to put these together. Much faster and easier than screws.
Click to expand...
I'd get a lower grade if you saw the front of the sign and the misspelled word that no one has still caught to this day
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Texas_Signmaker said:
$700 per is more like it. That is a lot of work... Going to store to get the wood. Travel.. Lug and build it.... Invoicing them and waiting 2 months to get paid.
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Agreed. I'm in the process of building 4 smaller skids right now...it's a lot of work! Getting wood to the shop, cutting pieces to size, painting. It'll get faster the more I build once I have a formula down. On the bid I put together for the national co my cost on the materials alone came up to around $500, and I mark that up 50%. They're out of their mind to offer a budget of $700 for two skids installed. Thanks all for the input, I don't think I'm out of line. They're probably finding tweakers to build these things under the table because I don't see how an actual business could do it profitably at that number.
 
Johnny Best

Johnny Best

Active Member
Use to be a female on this forum named JillBeans. She use to complain about the "hacks down the street" underbidding her all the time. I think she went out of business.
Someone developed a font with her name, JillBeans.
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
gnubler said:
Agreed. I'm in the process of building 4 smaller skids right now...it's a lot of work! Getting wood to the shop, cutting pieces to size, painting. It'll get faster the more I build once I have a formula down. On the bid I put together for the national co my cost on the materials alone came up to around $500, and I mark that up 50%. They're out of their mind to offer a budget of $700 for two skids installed. Thanks all for the input, I don't think I'm out of line. They're probably finding tweakers to build these things under the table because I don't see how an actual business could do it profitably at that number.
Click to expand...

Those frames cost me about $120/ea. in treated lumber and took no more than 2 hours total including the trip to Home Depot that was 5 mins. away. It's not the first time I've built a frame like that though... I build the wood frame on posts like I would when I put them in the ground, then I lean it up against my truck (make sure the wind is blowing the right way of course) and add the "skid" part. Once it's on the skid I can push them into place.

I only build a skid or install if I'm selling the sign. I probably make more profit on the sign (that takes 10 mins in an air conditioned shop) to apply than I do an hour or so onsite fucking around with heavy wood, cement and digging.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
Texas_Signmaker said:
Those frames cost me about $120/ea. in treated lumber and took no more than 2 hours total including the trip to Home Depot that was 5 mins. away. It's not the first time I've built a frame like that though... I build the wood frame on posts like I would when I put them in the ground, then I lean it up against my truck (make sure the wind is blowing the right way of course) and add the "skid" part. Once it's on the skid I can push them into place.

I only build a skid or install if I'm selling the sign. I probably make more profit on the sign (that takes 10 mins in an air conditioned shop) to apply than I do an hour or so onsite fucking around with heavy wood, cement and digging.
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You sissy. Moze will dig a hole for a billboard in a suit and tie in less time then it takes you to get out of the truck.
 
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