How we estimate project costs

Each project type has a national benchmark expressed per unit, per square foot of roof, per ton of cooling capacity, per square foot of finished bathroom, and so on. Benchmarks include typical labor, materials, and standard disposal for that work.

We multiply the benchmark by the size you enter. Where jobs get cheaper per unit as they grow, mobilization, setup, and dump fees spread across more work, we apply a mild scale adjustment rather than pretending cost is perfectly linear.

Budget, standard, and premium tiers change material grade and finish expectations. This is usually the single biggest swing in a remodel: the same bathroom footprint can differ by more than double between tiers.

Steep or multi-facet roofs, second-story access, structural changes, moving plumbing or electrical, and hidden damage all raise cost. We express this as a complexity multiplier rather than burying it in the base rate.

Labor rates, permit costs, and code requirements vary by metro area. Our model supports a local cost adjustment, but we apply one only where we hold validated local cost data. Today no state or metro adjustment is active, so every estimate is presented as a national planning benchmark at a factor of 1.00 rather than implying local pricing precision we cannot support.

We report a low, typical, and high figure. The spread reflects genuine market variation between contractors and unknowns that only a site visit resolves. If your quote sits near the edges of the range, that is not automatically wrong, it is a prompt to ask what is included.

Our company records are used for contractor search only. They do not contain pricing and are never used to validate or adjust a project estimate.

Benchmarks are reviewed as market conditions change, and we will say so when a model changes materially. Think a number is off? Tell us , specific, local corrections are the most useful thing you can send us.