How Much Should I Charge for a Renovation Job?
The bathroom quote looked good on paper. Then the dumpster, the permit and the plumber's bill landed, and the job you were proud of paid you less than your helper.
Put in your own numbers. The calculator adds your overhead, prices the job to the margin you want, and shows what you keep.
Renovation Job Price Calculator
- Materials$7,200.00
- Labour$6,000.00
- Dumpster, Permits and Subtrades$2,500.00
- Overhead$2,355.00
- Job cost$18,055.00
Questions
Can I price a renovation by the square foot?
As a starting point, yes. A square foot price is easy to check against your past jobs. But permits, dumpsters and the trades you bring in don't shrink with the room, so price them on their own in Dumpster, Permits and Subtrades.
How do I price changes once the job has started?
Write each change as its own priced line before you do the work, and get the homeowner's OK on it. Priced the same way as the main job, a change keeps your margin instead of eating it.
Markup or margin: which should I use to price a renovation job?
Price from margin. Markup is your profit as a share of your cost. Margin is your profit as a share of the price. They are not the same number: mark a $1,000 cost up 30% and you charge $1,300, but your margin is 23%, because $300 is 23% of $1,300. Price from the margin you want and you know what you keep.
Should overhead go into the price of a renovation job?
Yes. Your truck, insurance, phone, tools and the hours you spend quoting jobs you don't win are all paid for by the jobs you do win. A simple way to set it: add up last year's overhead, divide it by last year's job costs, and use that percentage here.
How do I turn this price into a renovation quote?
Sign up for HomeJet free and build the quote with a line for each part of the job: materials, labour and the extras. HomeJet adds your sales tax. The quote stays on the job with the photos and notes, so when it's accepted your crew already has what they need and the invoice comes from the same lines. It's free for one-person businesses, with no credit card.
You Priced the Margin. Now Keep It.
A good price only holds if the job runs clean. In HomeJet the quote, the photos, the notes and your crew's updates live on one job, so nobody chases details by text and nothing falls through the cracks. Less chaos, fewer mistakes, more of this margin kept. Free for one-person businesses, no credit card.