freelance charge Time and Rate

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone,

  I am part time CAD Operator for an Electrical Contractor. A project estimator about 80% of the time, CAD Operator about 20%. But ive been drafting for about 8 years. So operating the program isnt an issue. 

  Im looking to start doing a little freelance drafting on the side. But i having a hard time nailing down a solid rate to charge potential customers.  I feel the $50 -$60/hr is reasonable. But how do you determine the time allotted per project? Do you give you best estimation drawing from your experience or is there some sort of formula (i.e. details/difficulty per sheet, 2D vs. 3D, etc). I just need some sort of guideline. i dont want to sell myself short, but more importantly dont want to price myself out or over charge clients. I'd like good relationships to be the back bone the business. 

Any Information you may have on this would greatly appreciated. 

[Anonymous]

If you're not sure then better first price the whole job as fixed lump sum instead of keepig it open. This will give you more flexibility.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. Thats what i was thinking i should do to start.  Is there a typical scale per page? or will it simply vary per job and difficulty?

[RobDraw]

When I did side work, I had a sliding scale based on difficulty and time frame. If I was provided complete mark-ups, was just putting exactly what was on those mark-ups onto the drawings, and had plenty of time to finish, I charged my base rate. The more I had to fill in blanks and the more condensed the schedule, the more I charged.

[Anonymous]

Thank you RodDraw.  That's seems fare.  

[lotharerkens · Accepted solution]

In the window industry, the going rate per sheet is between $80.00 and $100.00 depending on the complexity of the details. Charging hourly requires either direct supervision to control the drafting time spent & invoiced or a solid relationship between client and detailer to establish a comfort level for the invoiced time. Negotiating a lump sum price will quickly establish the relationship required for unsupervised hourly rates.

Another item not brought up are revisions required after 1st submittal.  We typically handle revision in-house and farm them out only when we have no other choice.  They are typically taken care of on a Time & Materials basis when they do get farmed out.

(BTW: all of our drafting needs are 2D)

[Anonymous]

Thank you, that is helpful. 

[Anonymous]

When I did freelance, mostly steel detailing, I figured an hourly rate, then estimated total project cost by figuring how many sheets it would take and about how long each sheet would take.  10 sheets X 1 hour a sheet X 50$ an hour for example.  Then quote a lump sum  for the project, as submitted.  Changes to the project that created re-work cost extra most times.

I've also seen, again in the steel detailing area, people charge a flat fee, based on complexity for the initial model and design review.  Then X$ per cut sheet generated from the model.

[Donovan.james]

I've just recently got an additional mobile workstation from my work so I can do projects that need a little extra from home/field. It is mostly MEP coordination & estimating in the Fabrication/Revit space. I've been using TopTracker as an app on the laptop that will track my actual project hours spent. It will use a timer that stops when the computer is idle and continues when there is activity. It has settings to take a screenshot at set intervals and it will post these screenshots to the online account hours breakdown. It can track keystrokes per min or clicks as well. 

At the end of the week there is a printable PDF I turn in along with my weekly timesheets. They can use my log in to go online and review screenshots or any other of the tracked data. 

You could use this tool a couple times on some jobs you bid and get a feel for what your hours breakdown per completion is to help you facilitate future estimations. 

[Anonymous]

We are team of certified freelance architects, archicad, autocad drafters, technicians. Our goal is to help you to boost your productivity expanding your drafting and BIM modeling capabilities by outsourcing drafting services to us. We are using the most advanced architectural CAD / BIM software and our aim is to provide qualitative services of designing, drafting and object modeling at a low price. Our website is https://archicadteam.com

We work with Revit and Archicad and at the moment we are offering our services at a rate of 14 eu/h. If you would like to get some more information or quote please send us email to Team4BIM@gmail.com

In Lithuania we work as architectural company, so we have good knowledge what project and deadlines are. If you would like to visit our website or our Lithuanian architectural department: https://www.architektugildija.lt

Rendering of Revit and Archicad modelsWood structure and MEP modeling