ornamental ironwork pricing

anyone here do ornamental ironwork? how do you price it. when customers ask for estimates i usually guess because i haven't learned how to estimate labor. i used to think i was being scientific and had a well planned out scheme, but it turns out they were time consuming WAGs', surprisingly this hasn't panned out so well.
a contractor just ask me how much per linear foot for "a staircase ballister" i wrote him back that it would be somewhere between 75$ and 600$ a foot not counting installation. this too was a WAG but it seems to have a lot of wiggle room. it seems to me that there are too many variables with installations (other peoples screw ups, feral beasts, weather etc)to give a hard number up front.
Anybody have responses ready to vague questions such as prices per linear foot of "stair ballister"? seems that i should be talking with the client instead of a contractor anyway.
interestingly enough a "ballister" is a crossbow, has any body ever been in a position where a contractor wants them to build crossbows where the building code requires a baluster?

I just got a call from a contractor for a replacement wi rail a tree took out and its about 40 feet long. I did one last year 20' for 500 bucks and lost my butt so i think 2 grand is in order depending on all the fancy stuff she wants. That boils down to 50 bucks a foot plus installation and even that may be cheap. Plus i am the 3rd guy they called no one else wants to do it in my area. Oh and one other thing, its on the roof of a house ...Bob

Not knowing which part of the business you are in the fabricator, installer, or fabricator &
installer.
I haven't worked with any contractors in the last 2 years but at that time it was a sum of below:

Material prices
Design Labor
Fabrication Labor
Permits
Equipment rental
Installation labor
Refuse disposal
Additional purchased equipment amortized for dep.
and about 10+25% markup (This was a minimum)

Hope this helps

ad to the above;
fixed overhead
administrative
and profit !!!

unless you are not into making money

I figure a rate per hour to include material that covers the elements of the piece. For example, a simple railing might be $50 an hour. An extremely complex one with hand forged elements might be $150 or more per hour. A lot depends on your expertise and tools at your disposal.

What works for me is to have a few basic rail designs with pictures or drawings and a base price per foot plus a disclaimer stating that prices can vary depending on site conditions. Make one design the cheapest possible and add others with more eye candy and higher price. Add about 25% for stairs, double the price for flat curved rails and at least triple it for curved stairs. When they ask the "how much per foot" question you can throw the basic rates at them and if they grab their chest and gasp you don't need to waste any more time working up a detailed quote. In my area it's pretty common to be working through a contractor and not direct with the homeowner. Prices vary a lot in different areas and for different types of work, here the cheapest is probably around $50 a foot with average closer to $65 and $80 not uncommon. That's for pretty straightforward fabricated rail and more ornate hand made stuff can easily be 5 to ten times that.

I have been watching your reply's Re: decorative Iron work. I have been in this business for years and I still do not have a handle on it, you all are saying the the same thing prices aint fixed at all.
Too many variables, sometime people want fancy and it sure has to cost what it is worth and that unfortunately is difficult. I am now completing a large Powder coating oven 10ft X 4ft X 6 ft and the power it uses can break you 125 amps for up to 2 hours. If I mix Plasma cut pieces to the wrought Iron I have no idea what to charge especially when you powder coat it as well. I am toying with the Idea to computorize it by feeding all the variables in and come up with a price per foot and show the customer what it will look ike on the laptop. (Then ask for a healthy deposit and pray you are right. Us being in canada as well as being on an Island prices of material is high but as a rule most of the customers are cheap (hope none of my customers read this).

I am by no means a full time handrail fabricator, but I have built a few over the last couple years. As mentioned a few times above, too many variables out there in order to give definative information.
How I do it is the following:

1 Find out what they want it to look like. This means, what scrollwork or designs they want incorporated.
2) Get a total for materials expected to be used such as posts, etc
3) Decide how much time you think will be involved. If you have to make special jigs you better figure materials and time in that too.
4) Figure extraneous materials such as concrete, core bore, on site welding, etc.
5) Only allow the quote for certain period of time as materials costs are volatile now and likely to rise. I am leaving some stuff out here but this is the minimal things to consider.....Then, add a clause in there that prices are subject to change due to unforeseen problems with installation,etc. Finally, I always put a +/- $ _ _ _. 00 just to CYA for materials, etc.
Best of luck.---Grant