What should this cost?
We build the number from parts: the listed price of the equipment, the median wage for that trade in your metro, the hours the work takes and the margin a business runs on. Then we show you all of it.
Why estimates differ so much
The same job, quoted by two honest businesses, can differ by thousands. Here is where it comes from.
| Input | How we get it | How much it moves the number |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment | Listed price from a supplier catalog, with the date we checked it | Fixed for a given size. The least contested part of a bid. |
| Local wage | BLS median for that trade in your metro | A San Francisco plumber’s median is far above a rural one. |
| Hours | Trade practice. We have not measured this. | Large, and the first thing real quotes will replace. |
| Overhead and margin | An assumed band | The widest single reason two honest bids differ. |