Gas or electric?

I replaced an electric heater for a friend after the old one was killed in 4' of floodwater when they got a quote of $1200 for labor and if it took an hour, that was a lot (I told him I would do it for a grand :D). I replaced both of my gas water heaters and it was a similar amount of time. I installed a furnace before asking for a permit and the inspector told me I couldn't do it myself- I had been told I could about 3 years earlier and I mentioned that. When he inspector asked if I had already installed it, I slowly said "Maaaybe". He said it would be OK for me to get a contractor to inspect and sign off, so I did that- it cost $85 and the HVAC guy told me I did a nice job on the installation.

I replaced my own. Took about an hour.

Picked up a top of the line Rinnai tankless from a foreclosure. Guy had paid $3700.00 installed. I gave him $100.00 and took it home.

I charge for design and it includes a site visit. Prior to doing this I mostly talk to people on the phone and text back and forth. During this time is when I send them pics of my work and discuss ball park price ranges for systems.

I rarely actually go to a potential work site until they've actually paid me the design fee. During the prior exchanges I explain my four step process, design, pre-wire, equipment purchase, and install. I explain that they can hire me for any or all of the four stages but that if I'm to install the equipment then I supply any new equipment so that I can properly support it after.

The design I give them is word document describing the system and how it will work, and an Excel spreadsheet including tabs for wiring, labour, infrastructure (rack, cables, surge protection etc) and then usually 2 or 3 options for equipment.

This seems to have worked well for me. They can take my design and shop me. I'm sure people do. But that's their right and I was paid for the time so nothing is lost except future income, which sucks but at some point we have to tell people what they are buying and how much they are paying and at that time many will do price comparisons. I try to be competitive but if they don't come back, at least I got paid for the design.

Most of the people do stick with me and I feel like that's probably because we chit chat so much via text even before I design that I build repore, demonstrate my knowledge and educate them so they trust me by the time I do the design. Even if they do shop me, the competitor still had to compete with the repore I've built with them and that I was a referral.

I don't ever have people complain about paying for the design. I'm guessing because I present it as a product in it self that they get to keep after I'm gone. When I discuss design and labour with people sometimes we talk about the state of the market and how the internet has made everything cheap. When the conversation goes that way I have no reservations about telling people that there is no profit in a lot of the equipment we sell/install and that I make my living on time. Some people value time. Other people don't.

Craig.

What do you typically charge for your design?

Pm sent.

As for sending an Excel spreadsheet, a buddy of mine learned a hard lesson about this several years ago.

He worked out pricing, saved the spreadsheet, and sent it to the client. His mistake was to send the entire spreadsheet. I think he defined a range before saving, but did not realize that he was saving the entire spreadsheet. There, off to the right of the intended information, were costs and margins.

If you're going to send a "spreadsheet," define the range you want to send and save it as a pdf. That way other info in the file cannot be seen, nor can it be changed by the client.

Send it to your wife, and make absolutely certain it cannot be altered.

Been there, done that. Some scum will try...

pricing on the web is easy for simple standard objects but I don't think it makes sense for custom installs. Let's take a simple HT, projectors range in price from under 1k to over 50k, will he use his existing seats, cheap simple seating or high end d-box seats or some other option.. as for the install are will the builder do everything and all you need to do is connect some wires, is it all open and ready for a pre-wire or are we talking trying to snake and hide wires in a building so old that it was never meant to have wires at where and it will be hell to get the wires into the ceiling to where the projector will be?

The OP talked about an outdoor job. On one of them all we did was sell the equipment, connect it and reprogram the remote. On an other job we had to do everything (dig trenches, drill holes pass cable, fix landscape, repair holes ....) equipment was mostly the same but obviously the work and the total price was
very different.

if a client calls and says "can I swap out my TV for a new 4K tv" or something similar the rest does not apply since realistically there is no consultation or design so why charge a fee for it.

But for a real job
1) we charge a 300$ consultation fee payable at our first meeting where we sit with the client (and hopefully the whole family) and take some measurements and some minor inspection to get an idea of the job.

2) we charge a design fee (the consultation fee is deducted from the total) payable when we give it to them. It usually includes equipment list, renders, plans and costs. The later broken down to what the client requested.

The design fee is not fixed and depends on the job.

For example at the lowest end we had a client that just wanted a simple equipment list, plan and how much it would cost to program the remote for that set-up. He wanted it for his place down south, he used the equipment list and plan to shop for a local installer but he wanted to still have the same interface he knows from home.

At the other end of the spectrum we had a client where we needed to get an architect involved (walls would be coming down) and he wanted a 3D model so it was a lot more expensive.

Sent a customer a spreadsheet? why not just print it to a PDF and send that?

Are you an architect or a handyman?

Any time I work in Excel and I need to send the document to a client, I always click on Print Preview, to make sure nothing will be included that I don't want them to see.

Saving as a PDF is a good idea.

I once had a woman say i shouldnt charge more than $20 to install her tv since she got it for free.....lmfao

How long did it take you? LOL