Scaffold is a capital asset. Like any capital asset used on specific jobs, its cost should follow the work it supported -- not disappear into a general overhead pool that obscures which jobs are profitable.
A $3M masonry sub with $150K in annual scaffold costs running to overhead carries 5 percentage points of artificial overhead inflation. The overhead rate looks like 18% when it should be 13%. Every bid uses a markup based on the wrong denominator.
Jobs that used heavy scaffold look more profitable than they are because scaffold cost isn't on them. Jobs that used minimal scaffold look less differentiated. You can't tell which jobs are actually your best margin work -- or your worst.
Internal erect and dismantle labor for scaffold -- often 20-40 labor hours per setup -- runs to overhead as general labor cost. It should be tracked by job, billed where contract allows, and reflected in the job's true cost.
An internal scaffold rate is a weekly or daily charge per scaffold system that covers the cost of owning and operating that system. When a job uses the scaffold for 12 weeks, it gets charged 12 weeks of rate. The math is straightforward once you have the components.
Scaffold Rate Formula: (Annual Depreciation + Annual Maintenance + Annual Insurance Allocation) divided by Annual Billable Scaffold-Weeks = Rate per Scaffold-Week. Add erect/dismantle labor as a separate line item per setup if tracked internally.
At $692/week, a job using the scaffold for 14 weeks gets charged $9,688. That cost comes off overhead and lands on the job. Overhead rate drops. Job margin becomes accurate. SPM builds this into ControlQore during onboarding so it runs automatically each month.
Scaffold costs should be direct job cost -- not overhead. A scaffold system that worked a specific masonry job for 14 weeks should bear the depreciation, maintenance, and erect/dismantle cost for those 14 weeks. Running scaffold costs to overhead inflates the overhead rate and understates true job cost, making masonry jobs look more profitable than they actually are.
Add up annual scaffold-related costs: depreciation, maintenance and repair, erect/dismantle labor if internal, insurance attributed to scaffold, and storage cost. Divide by annual billable scaffold-weeks across all jobs. That rate per scaffold-week is your internal charge to each job. Review annually and update when fleet changes.
A $3M masonry sub with $150K in annual scaffold-related costs running to overhead carries 5 percentage points of artificial overhead inflation. Every job looks more profitable than it is. Bids calibrated to that inflated overhead rate are either winning at the wrong margin or losing to competitors with tighter overhead structures.
SPM sets an internal scaffold rate during the first 30 days of onboarding -- based on your actual fleet depreciation, maintenance history, and annual utilization. That rate is built into ControlQore so scaffold costs flow to jobs automatically each month.
One call. We'll show you what an internal scaffold rate looks like for your fleet and what it takes to get it running in 30 days.
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