Most shop owners know how hard it can be to charge accurately for sign installation. It’s easy to overlook a little time here and there, leading to lost profits. Recently we had a great comment from a reader on this subject.
Rocco Gaskins Sr. Abco Signs in Pennsauken, NJ, and has tracked installation costs for years. His e-mail became an article that you’ll find in the Jan/Feb 2012 issue of SignCraft. Here’s some of what he had to say about a very typical sign installation for most shops: a 4-by-8 on two posts:
We install signs on a wholesale basis for other companies and probably hang more signs in a year than most small shops do in a lifetime. We do everything from small post panel installations to channel letter mall jobs to large pylons. I avoid the mega structures since my crane is only an 85-ft. unit.
I ran the typical 4x8 two-pole job through my estimating spreadsheet. If I ignore a few things, then SignCraft’s 2011 Sign Pricing Guide’s price of $225 to install this sign is right on the money, assuming the $87 hourly shop rate.
But let’s take a closer look. Here's what I came up with, again based on the $87 hourly labor rate:
Labor:
Travel to/from site, 30 min.: $43.50
Dig holes, 1.25 hours: $108.75*
Install sign, 30 min.: $43.50
Load/unload truck, 30 min.: $43.50**
Total labor: $239.25
Materials:
Two 4x4 posts, $17 each: $34
Two bags quick-setting concrete, $5 each: $10
Misc. (There are always items that don’t get accounted for.): $5
Total materials: $49
After 50% markup: $73.50
Total $312.75
That’s still not too far off, and if you assume a bit less time to dig the holes, then we're very close.
But the time spent on digging holes varies. One hole can take an hour or more if the ground is hard, frozen, or you hit rock. And almost everyone forgets the time involved in loading and unloading the truck. Time it sometime—you’ll be surprised.
Most sign people underestimate the time it takes to install signs. Even a simple two-post job is difficult. At 18 I did these by myself; once I turned 40, I started taking a helper.
That cuts down the digging, assembly and load/unload time, but now you have to pay the helper. So let's make it 30 minutes for travel, 45 minutes to dig, 25 minutes to install, and 20 minutes to load/unload. If increase the shop rate to $145 per hour (adding a discounted rate for your helper), we are at $290 for labor. Add the $73.50 materials and you have a total of $363.50.
That’s starting to get far off the Pricing Guide number. If you leave $120 or more per installation on the table, you are losing a lot of money in the course of a year. Imagine taking that much off the price of every sign. You could also contend that the labor rate should be even more than your shop rate, but I'll ignore that for now.
Suppose you have to snap a few photos or double-check the installation location with the store owner. Or you have to call the utility location service to mark out the site. Maybe you have to gab with the customer for a bit about the job and while he or she writes a check. At least another 30 minutes should be added to the total labor—and I’m not even talking about getting a permit.
You work harder on an installation than you do in the shop. If anyone thinks that installing signs is easy, let them come with me for a week. Installing a sign, even at ground level, is dangerous and exhausting. A premium should be charged for it.
I feel that the Pricing Guide rate for installation is at least 50% low—maybe even 75% to 100% low. And that's for a simple job like the two-post 4x8 sign in the Guide. Don't even get me started on something like installing an illuminated cabinet on a wall.