Contractor Knowledge Base
Pricing Guides for
Trade Professionals
Straight-talk articles on job pricing, overhead, taxes, and business math — written for contractors who want to understand exactly what they're earning on every job.
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How to Price a Contractor Job: The Complete Guide
Most contractors underprice their work because they only think about the obvious costs. This guide walks through all 6 components of a correct job price — labor, materials, overhead, drive time, taxes, and profit margin — with a step-by-step example calculation you can apply to any trade job today.
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How to Price an HVAC Job: Service Calls, Installs, and Refrigerant
HVAC is a premium trade — but only if the pricing matches. How to structure service calls, flat rate vs. T&M, what to charge for refrigerant after the R-410A phaseout, installation cost breakdowns, parts markup by category, and warranty callback rules.
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Change Orders for Contractors: How to Stop Scope Creep From Killing Your Margin
Scope creep is the silent margin killer. A customer adds one small thing, then another — and you've worked four unpaid hours by the end of the job. Here's what a change order is, an 8-element checklist, a word-for-word template, and the scripts to have the conversation mid-job without losing the customer.
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Contractor Profit Margins by Trade: What's Normal in 2026?
Revenue tells you how busy you were. Margin tells you how well you ran the business. Trade-by-trade net margin benchmarks for 2026, why service work pays more than new construction, and the warning signs your margins have slipped below sustainable levels.
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Should Contractors Charge for Drive Time? (Yes — Here's How)
At $85/hour with 150 jobs a year, not charging for drive time costs you $12,750 annually. Here's the math, three billing methods, trade-by-trade rate benchmarks, and exactly how to explain a service call fee to customers without losing the job.
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How to Write a Contractor Estimate That Actually Wins Jobs
Most contractors lose jobs before the customer ever gets to the price — because the estimate didn't inspire confidence. Here are the 9 elements every estimate must include, a word-for-word template you can adapt for any trade, and the 5 mistakes that cost you work before you swing a hammer.
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How to Use the Job Profit Calculator: A Step-by-Step Guide
A complete walkthrough of the free calculator — from selecting your trade and entering labor, materials, overhead, and taxes, to reading your real profit and sending a clean, customer-ready quote. Price your next job in about two minutes.
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Self-Employment Tax for Contractors: What You Actually Owe
Most contractors find out about self-employment tax the hard way — at tax time, staring at a bill they didn't see coming. Here's the exact 15.3% calculation, what you actually keep after all taxes, and how to price it into every job so April stops being a crisis.
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How to Calculate Your Hourly Rate as a Contractor
Most contractors pick a rate by copying what competitors charge. That's broken math. This guide walks through the 5-step formula — starting from your actual income goal and real cost of self-employment — to calculate a floor rate you can defend and build a business around.
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What Overhead Percentage Should a Contractor Use?
Industry benchmarks say 15–25%, but your real number could be higher. Learn what counts as overhead, how to calculate your actual rate, and why most contractors underestimate it by 5–8 percentage points.
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How Much to Mark Up Materials as a Contractor
A 15–30% material markup is standard across most trades — and it's not price gouging. This guide explains exactly what markup covers, how to apply it by trade, and how to handle customers who want to supply their own materials.
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