How to Bid a Spray Foam Job, Part One – Taking Measurements and Estimating Material Costs
At Freedom Foam, we are BIG fans of thinking things through.
(Don’t believe us? Check out our blog post on getting started with your spray foam business!)
Bidding a spray foam job is one of the most integral parts of being a spray foam contractor, and therefore, one of the most important things to think through in this line of work.
Your job bid is how your customers choose YOU to spray their foam! It is vital, then – for your livelihood and your customers’ budget – that the quote you give them for your services is correctly estimated.
One of the WORST things you can do as a spray foam contractor is deliver a job bid that is inaccurate…or just a straight-up guess.
Instead, you’ll want to prepare each spray foam job bid wisely!
Don’t just make up a number, man – if you do, you’ll likely be costing yourself money instead of making a profit. (No, thanks!)
You’re a spray foam contractor – you make your living spraying foam! To make a living that supports you and your family, your job bids need to be accurate.
We know it can be tempting to bid as low as possible to beat out any potential competitors – but are you sure that that low bid will cover your material and labor costs?
Are you sure you’ll make the money you need to make with that job if you don’t consider the details?
Remember that you sell more than spray foam insulation to your customers – you are you! You bring a very specific something to this industry.
What makes you and your business different from all the other spray foam contractors out there?
How do you connect with your clients?
Keep in mind that your business is more than just the money you bring in – you are offering your time to your customers, and that is priceless.
Your time – your life – is worth putting together an accurate job bid – one that you know will move your business forward and put food on your table!
You’re worth it!
And don’t worry – putting together an accurate spray foam bid only takes a few minutes and requires minimal measurements.
Remember, any job bid is still an estimate – you’re just making sure to take your material and labor costs into consideration when making your bid.
But how, you ask, do you bid a spray foam job accurately?
In this blog post, you’ll learn how to take on-site measurements quickly AND how to correctly estimate material costs for creating an accurate spray foam job bid.
No more losing money for you!
Let’s jump in.
Measuring at a Job Site – Calculating Board Footage for a Spray Foam Job
To make accurate calculations and estimate material costs correctly, you need these to know the following things:
1) The surface area (in square feet) you will spray with foam
2) The thickness (in inches) of the foam you will spray
That’s it.
Yup, really!
There are many structures in which you may spray foam, but the basic math behind all of the calculations is the same.
With the surface area and thickness, you can calculate the board footage for your spray foam job. Then, you’ll use the board footage to accurately estimate how much foam material is needed to complete the job.
1 Board Foot = 1 Square Foot x 1” Foam Thickness
How do you get surface area measurements without spending all day at a job site?
You use building science and geometry!
Wall Measurements
How do you find the surface area (and then calculate board footage) for your spray foam job?
To find the area of a rectangle – like a wall – you multiply the length of the wall by the height, measured in feet, and that gives you the square footage for your spray area (in square feet).
There are very minimal physical measurements necessary to complete this task throughout a house.
Break out your trusty measuring tape to find the height of a wall (you’ll likely only need to do this once for the whole house) – but you can accurately estimate the length, as long as you know the stud widths in the house.
Houses generally use studs that are 16” apart.
Once you confirm stud distance in the structure you’re bidding, you can count the spaces between studs in the wall, and multiply that number by 1.33 ft (16” = ~1.33 ft) to find the wall lengths.
Subtract the square footage of any windows or doors that may be in the walls you will spray to get the most accurate numbers possible in your spray foam bid.
Repeat this process for each wall you will spray in the house, then add the numbers together to find total surface area for the walls of the job site.
Then, multiply your total spray area – in square feet – by the thickness of spray foam you’ll spray – in inches – to find board feet.
Most houses require outside walls and the roof deck to be insulated. Let’s talk about taking accurate roof measurements without climbing a ladder!
Roof Measurements
Spraying foam on a roof deck but don’t have a ladder to take measurements?
No problem!
Typically, homes are built with rafters on 2’ centers.
That means that the space between the center of one rafter and the center of the next is 2 feet.
With that information, you can count the spaces between rafters and multiply that number by 2 to estimate the length of a roof (in feet)!
To find the surface area you’ll spray on the roof, you’ll also need to find the height of the roof deck.
What’s a roof deck, you ask?
The “roof deck” is the sloped area you’ll spray foam on the under-side of inside the house – the same sloped area that roofers install shingles on the outside of.
How do you find the height of the roof deck without climbing up a ladder to measure it?
Count the seams between the plywood pieces of the roof deck – from the base of the slope to the top.
Standard roofing plywood is 4 x 8 feet. With that info, you can accurately estimate the height of the roof deck so you can calculate the surface area you’ll spray!
Once you have found the surface area for the roof, you can calculate the board footage by multiplying that surface area (in square feet) by the thickness of the spray foam you intend to spray on the roof deck (in inches).
The next step? Figuring out material costs using the spray foam job’s board footage.
Estimating Material Costs for a Spray Foam Job
To estimate how much material will cost for a spray foam job, divide the board footage you found when measuring the job site by the estimated board coverage of a set of your spray foam – rounded up. This will let you know how many sets of foam you will likely need to complete the spray foam job.
If you don’t have manufacturer-based numbers on hand, we recommend estimating a closed-cell spray foam coverage of ~4,000 board feet per set, and ~15,000 board feet per set for open-cell foam.
Keep in mind that temperature – and many other factors – can change the material coverage for your particular project, so round up if you are not sure how much foam to bring.
Multiply the number of spray foam sets you need by the cost of a set of foam from your foam supplier to find the material cost for your spray foam job.
Then double the cost.
Here’s our recommended method for bidding a job:
Find material costs (using the measurement methods above), then double that cost, and add estimated labor costs to that number.
You read that right!
Spray Foam Job Bid = (2 x Material Costs) + Labor Costs
Doubling the material costs will give you a cushion of profit in case something goes awry with the job – such as needing more material, or taking longer than you expected at the job site.
Plan for the worst and hope for the best, right? Right!
Conclusion
Creating a spray foam job bid can be overwhelming, especially as a new spray foam contractor.
However, you can create an accurate spray foam bid with using only a few measurements and calculations – no need to spend all day at measuring the job site, and no need to lose money just guessing.
Next time, we will discuss adding labor costs to your job bids and how to bid jobs using spray foam machine strokes.
Do you need foam to spray that job you’re bidding? Have questions about the bidding process? Give Freedom Foam a call today!
We look forward to helping you on your spray foam journey.
