Pricing & Rates

Should you charge for travel time

Should a contractor charge for travel time? See what the drive really costs you per year, then compare four ways to recover it on your estimates.

How to calculate your contractor hourly rate

How to calculate a contractor hourly rate that covers overhead, taxes and take-home pay, with a worked example built on realistic billable hours.

Giving a discount without giving away margin

Contractor discount pricing, in numbers: what 10 percent off really costs, how much extra work it takes to break even, and what to offer instead.

Electrician hourly rate: what to charge and why it varies

What electricians are paid state by state, how to turn that wage into a billed hour, and why the license tiers behind an electrician hourly rate are not the same everywhere.

Fixed price or hourly: which to quote

The fixed price vs hourly contractor decision comes down to who absorbs the overage. How to sort jobs by risk, plus the hybrid that sits between them.

What handymen charge

How to set a handyman hourly rate that survives small jobs: what every visit costs before you pick up a tool, block pricing for punch lists, and what the hour is worth by market.

House cleaning rates: pricing the frequency, not the house

House cleaning rates per hour and per visit, and why the frequency ladder — weekly, biweekly, monthly, one-time — is the real pricing structure.

What HVAC contractors charge

HVAC service call cost, maintenance agreements and equipment changeouts run on three different pricing models. Here is how to set each one.

How junk removal is priced

Junk removal pricing works by truck volume, but your costs arrive by weight and per item. Here is how to stop the gap between them eating the job.

How landscapers price work

How landscapers price two businesses off one trailer: route maintenance by stops per day, and install work costed forward from materials, rentals and crew days.

Material markup: how much to add, and what it pays for

How to set a contractor material markup percentage, convert markup to margin correctly, and show materials on an estimate customers will not argue with.

Setting a minimum service call fee

Work out how much a service call fee should be by pricing the true cost of the visit, then pick a structure and answer the pushback on the phone.

Overhead and profit, in plain numbers

How overhead and profit work in construction pricing: one deck job costed two ways, plus a method for calculating your own overhead rate from last year.

Setting your painting price per square foot

How to work out painter cost per square foot from your own hourly rate and production speed, and what has to be true for the unit price to hold.

Plumber hourly rate: why most shops price by the task

A plumber hourly rate is hard to pin down, because most established shops sell residential service out of a flat-rate price book. Here is the hourly math hiding inside it.

How pressure washing is priced

What a pressure washing job costs you before profit, how to pick the unit for each surface, and which jobs are worth declining instead of discounting.

Per square foot or per line item

When price per square foot vs line item pricing costs you money, which job conditions break a unit price, and how to price internally by line item.

Pricing emergency and after-hours work

Set after hours service rates as a written policy: define the windows, attach a structure to each, and publish the number before the 11pm call comes in.

Raising prices without losing good customers

How to raise prices as a contractor without losing good customers: when to do it, how much notice to give, and the exact notice wording to send.

How roofing is priced per square

Roofing cost per square starts with a base number, but pitch, layers, decking and access are what move the price — and storm work is priced off someone else's list.