By Jordan Tong
Calculating the price for a commercial cleaning company to strip and wax floors begins with understanding your costs. Stripping and waxing resilient floors can be a very profitable form of extra-bill work if priced correctly, sometimes bringing in profit margins north of 50%.
Not only is this work very profitable, but it also makes routine floor maintenance easier and can drastically improve the look of the customer’s facility. Most of us use standard per-square-foot prices when we submit pricing to our customers.
However, understanding how this price is derived can help us make modifications when necessary and give us more confidence when pricing larger or more complicated jobs.
Below is a strip and wax pricing example given to me by Tom Wilkinson, a friend, long-time industry veteran, and a fellow member of the Elite BSC Mastermind Group.
Cost to Strip and Wax Floors:
Example – Strip and Wax 10,000sf VCT
- Cost of stripper (10,000 sq ft / 1,000 sq ft per gallon = 10 gallons x $15 = ($150) = 1.5 cents per square foot
- Cost of finish (5 coats x 10,000 sq ft / 2000 sq ft per gallon = 25 gallons x $14ea = $350) = $.035 cents per square foot ($350)
- Cost of pads, mops, etc. (estimate) = 1.5 cents per square foot ($150.00)
- Cost of labor (2 people, 2500 sq feet per day to strip and finish, 4 total days @ 8 hours each(64 total hrs), $18 per hour wages, + 20% for taxes and insurance = $1,382) = $.14 cents per square foot **This figure could go up or down depending upon the difficulty of the job**
Total costs to contractor = $0.20 per square foot or $2032.00 cost for labor and material, not including travel or moving of furniture. Here are the final prices to the customer, based on various markup amounts.
- 50% Markup – $0.30/sf
- 75% Markup – $0.35/sf
- 100% Markup – $0.40/sf
The Best Way To Increase Floor Work Sales
Keeping an eye on your material and labor prices can help maintain a firm grasp on your strip and wax costs. In my experience, an active approach to extra bill sales is far more successful than waiting for customers to call and request services.
And the best way to employ an active approach to add sales is using the managers most closely connected to the customers. Additionally, pay commission on all add-work sold.
At my company, we give all our area managers the authority to sell extra bill projects to their customers. They know the building needs and they have regular access to the customer. Armed with a standard price sheet and the motivation of gaining sales commission, our managers training program helps our team sell extra-bill work.
In the past 3 years, we have doubled the amount of extra bill work we do by deploying our area managers in this manner. Know your pricing, empower your managers, and pay them commission. This is the recipe for extra-bill success.
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