how much to make a gate?

Cost of your bought materials like the tube, pickets, hinges, mount, etc, add at least an additinal 25% to 50% to cover your time to select, purchase, pickup, return of overages, etc.

Figure your time in hours to build it, add in a fudge time to allow Mr. Murphy to visit you. Multiply by what you think you are worth per hour. Add in a second fudge number to cover your shop supplies, especially gas and wire. For a hobbist level you might want to figure $20 -$30 an hour for your expected time. That should be enough to cover your labor, overages, and consumables. Pro level field welders get $60 to $100 per hour.

Compare the total to a store bought gate of about the same size. It's hard to charge TOO much more than that. D> I have been asked for a bid on a 4' x 9' metal gate. Very straightforward,

Thanx for your response on this. It is helpful...

I calculate it this way: Coarsly add all the steel you need and look up the weight in a table. Multiply by 2$ or 2.50$ for every kg (2 pounds) to get the cost for your material*). Get the price for hinges (I like weld on hinges, they are very cheap) and other hardware. Add extra 10$ for screws etc.

Then look at the frame how many welds there are and how complicated the thing is. In your case, I guess you have to drill and countersink some holes for the pickets. Steel pickets? You know who much work it is to weld them nicly on?

You could make such a frame in about 2 hours (w/o pickets) if you don't have to think about every step. And if your saw works precisely. :-) Don't know what you think a fair price is, but if you more or less work for the fun of it, 20..25$ are OK. Add an extra hour or two for getting all the stuff you need.

Painting? Do you have to fit it?

Nick

It turns out that the answer, at least here in Austin, is $50 a linear foot, $900, delivered and installed on 6" posts. This was from an established fencing company.

I bid $850 plus materials, delivered, but not installed, so I was outbid. Oh well...

Thanx for the help!

Sometimes the best job is the one you didn't get.

Gary Brady

One way to always have "good jobs" is to ask too much money.

$850 + materials? If I do the math, it would have taken him 34 hours at

Nick

I agree with you, especially because I did not want to dig the post holes and hang the gate at all...

The soil here in Texas is often as hard as concrete - it might have taken me

I watched someone hang a gate once, and that is as much as I know about it. Digging and concreting the posts, leveling the two panels, welding the hinges, hanging and wiring the openers, all under the blazing sun -- no thanx!

All I wanted to do was the cutting and welding in a nice shady garage...

I appreciate your comments, though...

No s*it.

It probably doesn't matter at this point, but in responding to an email, I realized that I had made a bad mistake in this original post. The job was for two 4'x9' panels, making a 4'x 18' two panel gate, not a single 4'x9' gate as I originally described.

This is why I was reluctant to install it, and this makes my bid a lot closer to the fence company's... Hope this clarifies things - I wasn't as far off as it seemed...

Thanx again, this was a good exercise for me...