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California

Pricing construction work in California

California overhead carries a workers compensation rate and a licensing cost most contractors never load into an hour. These guides work out what your hour actually costs, what to charge for it, and how the fixtures rule and district sales tax move the number before a customer ever sees it.

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18 guides on this

After you qualifyGetting on GC bid listsUnder Pub. Contract Code s.4104 a sub performing more than one-half of one percent of the total bid has to be named in the envelope. Covers the prequalification pack, what a GC checks first, and why the useful call happens two weeks before bid day.How to run the businessDo you need a licenseBPC s.7031 bars an unlicensed contractor from suing for the balance and lets the hirer recover everything already paid. Covers the $500 threshold in s.7048, the three exemptions people quote, and the classification trap that catches licensed contractors.How to run the businessFranchise tax and LLC feeThe $800 minimum every California entity owes, the LLC gross receipts fee tiers from $900 at $250,000 to $11,790 at $5,000,000, why each step is a cliff, and how to carry $6,800 a year as $200 a job in your overhead.How to run the businessSales tax on materials and fixturesRegulation 1521 makes you the consumer of materials and the retailer of fixtures on the same job. A worked HVAC contract moves the taxable measure from $76,200 to $99,000 on the contract form alone, plus the deemed profit trap on fixtures you fabricate yourself.After you qualifyCalifornia prevailing wageThe determination in force on the advertisement date governs the whole job under Lab. Code s.1773.2. Covers predetermined increases, what counts toward the hourly total under s.1773.1, the 8 hour daily overtime trigger, and the per worker per day penalties.After you qualifyAccessibility upgrades and CASpCBC s.11B-202.4 drags the path of travel into an ordinary tenant improvement, Exception 8 caps that spend at 20 percent of the adjusted construction cost, and the code fixes the six item order the money goes in. Plus what a CASp certificate buys under Civ. Code s.55.54.After you qualifySWPPP and stormwater pricingThe Construction General Permit switches on at one acre of disturbance, and an acre is 43,560 square feet counted across pad, haul route, stockpile and offsite trench. Who the discharger is, what QSD and QSP time costs, risk levels 1 to 3, and the bid lines.Before you qualifyC-57 Well drillingDepth is the whole cost and nobody can price it from the surface, so the contract carries a stated base depth, a per foot rate above it and a change order signed at the sample tray. Covers the county well permit, the groundwater agency that can move a start date by months, and six months to sue on a public works payment bond.How to run the businessWhat to charge per hourLoaded labor cost per sold hour, the fixed stack including the $800 franchise tax and the biennial $450 or $700 CSLB renewal, escalation to the midpoint of construction, and why a 20 percent markup is only a 16.7 percent margin.Before you qualifyC-29 MasonryRead the statement of special inspections before you price the block, because every continuous item puts an inspector on site while you grout. Covers the four dwelling seismic line, the $25,000 bond, two exams and 5 percent retention released 60 days after completion.After you qualifyCaltrans and public works bidsHow a bid item price is deemed full compensation, why final pay quantities are never remeasured, the 25 percent quantity swing, working days charged against the controlling activity, 5 percent retention and release 60 days after completion.After you qualifyBid ready checklistThe seven things an agency verifies before it reads your price: active license and classification, DIR registration for you and every listed sub, comp in force, named endorsements, security at 10 percent of the bid, and the one-half of one percent listing threshold.Before you qualifyC-8 Concrete contractor licenseBank, loose and compacted are three counts of the same dirt, and California has no standard method of measurement. Covers the Caltrans and Greenbook pay item families, the one acre SWPPP line, and the five foot trench permit.Before you qualifyC-12 Earthwork and paving licenseCaltrans charges working days against the controlling activity, and a quantity moving more than 25 percent opens a price adjustment. Covers trench permits at 5 feet, SWPPP coverage at one acre, the $450 application and the $25,000 bond.Before you qualifyC-38 RefrigerationA $180,000 grocery subcontract at 10 percent retention parks $18,000, and it runs 55 days from your last day on site to your last dollar. Covers the 30 day lien window a recorded Notice of Completion leaves a sub, the indoor heat standard from 82 degrees and the $25,000 bond.Before you qualifyC-6 Cabinet and millworkHow CDTFA Regulation 1521 splits materials from fixtures and taxes a shop built cabinet on a cost price carrying deemed manufacturing profit, and how to build a delivery milestone payment schedule around the $1,000 deposit cap on a $60,000 kitchen.Before you qualifyC-15 Flooring and floor coveringCDTFA Regulation 1521 sorts what you install into materials, fixtures and equipment, and the sort decides whether tax lands on your cost or on the selling price. Plus the $1,000 deposit cap and 65 percent CALGreen waste diversion.Before you qualifyC-36 PlumbingCDTFA Regulation 1521 measures tax on your $1,500 cost under a lump sum contract or on the $2,400 selling price when the fixtures are stated separately, a $900 swing on one bathroom. Covers the Cal/OSHA trench permit at 5 feet, egress at 4 feet, CALGreen 65 percent waste diversion and the $25,000 bond.

Count it instead of estimating it

Hourly rate calculatorOverhead, billable days and the wage you want in. The hourly rate that pays for all three.Free, no signup.Markup and margin calculatorAdd twenty percent to your costs and you keep sixteen point seven. Enter one job and see the price, the profit, both percentages, and what the mix-up is worth in dollars.Free, no signup.
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The rest of the California library

Getting and keeping a CSLB licensePreliminary notices and mechanics liens in CaliforniaRetention on California jobsPrevailing wage and public works in CaliforniaBuilding standards on a California siteCal/OSHA on a construction siteWorkers comp for California contractorsSales tax for California contractors
Every guideThe whole California libraryAfter you qualify