Raising rates on commercial roofing jobs in zone 5 - anyone else feeling the squeeze?

Up here in north Jersey, zone 5 winters are killing our timelines on flat roof TPO installs, and material costs for Firestone products have jumped 25% since last year. I just quoted a 50k square foot warehouse re-roof at $1.2 million, up from what I'd have bid $900k a couple years back, and the GC is pushing back hard saying it'll blow their budget. Saw this Instagram reel from Dmitry Lipinskiy touring the Roofing Insights office, and it got me thinking about how these big commercial clients expect us to eat the inflation while they nickel and dime every line item. Someone in the Roofing Pros Facebook group mentioned similar headaches with union labor rates climbing too. We're a small crew of 8, and if I don't raise rates soon, we'll be working for free after overhead. NGL, it's frustrating as hell when you've been slinging shingles for 15 years and still gotta justify every penny. Anyone got tips on presenting these increases without losing the bid?

Man, same boat here with those GCs acting like they run the world. Feels like we're always the ones bending.

Break it down in the quote - show them the Firestone invoice bumps and labor hour increases from zone 5 delays. Works 70% of the time.

Ugh, just lost a bid last month because of this crap. Client went with some cheap out-of-state hack who'll leak in a year.

Commiserating hard - my commercial flat roofs are eating margins alive with all the permitting BS up north.

These big box stores think $800k is still fair for a full tear-off. Pisses me off every time.

Just hiked mine 18% across the board and ate one job to set the precedent. Fingers crossed it sticks.

Haha, watched that Dmitry reel too - fancy office won't pay for my overtime though. Laughable.

Don't quote flat rates anymore on commercials - go T&M only. Nail 'em to the wall with change orders.

SharkBite style fittings for roofing? Nah, but seriously, underbid once and you're screwed forever. Fight the power.