Chimney & fireplace
Chimney Job Cost Calculator
Costs a chimney job, where staging is the line that gets forgotten.
Result
Travel time is counted because it is paid and it occupies the day, whether or not the customer sees it on the invoice. Gross profit is what is left after the cost of doing the job. Overhead comes out of that: the building, the office wages, the vans, insurance, software and advertising. A healthy gross margin still loses money if overhead is larger.
Get a Free Business AuditHow the calculation works
Direct cost built from burdened labour hours, materials, and equipment including staging. Staging is the line most often omitted, because a ladder feels free while scaffolding is an obvious cost, and the result is that tall or steep roof jobs look as profitable as easy ones. Erecting proper access takes time and sometimes hired equipment, and costing it honestly is what reveals which jobs are actually worth taking.
What moves the number
- Staging and access, which varies enormously between properties.
- Burdened labour, which on height work carries a high class rate.
- Materials, which on masonry work are modest relative to labour.
- Travel to the job, which on a dispersed area is a real cost per job.
Where this one goes wrong
A job on a tall, steep or awkward roof is a different job from the same work on a bungalow, and costing both at the same labour hours hides it. Access time, equipment hire and the slower working pace at height all belong in the cost. The related point is that this is why bundling matters: if staging is costed honestly, the case for doing crown, cap and flashing in one visit becomes obvious in the numbers rather than being a sales argument. Travel on a dispersed service area is the other line worth tracking per job, since a short job an hour away can be unprofitable at a standard rate.
Before you quote
- Cost staging and access separately rather than absorbing it in hours.
- Apply a slower productivity rate for work at height.
- Track travel per job, since distant short jobs can lose money.
Questions
About this calculator
What is most often left out of chimney job costing?
Access. Erecting proper staging on a tall or steep roof takes real time and sometimes hired equipment, and because a ladder feels free that cost gets absorbed. The result is that difficult-access jobs look as profitable as easy ones when they are not.
Should travel be costed per job?
On a dispersed service area, yes, because a short job an hour away consumes most of a half day. Without tracking it, those jobs appear profitable at a standard rate while quietly subsidising themselves out of the margin on nearby work.
Does working at height change the hours?
Yes, productivity is genuinely lower. Moving materials up, working from staging and the additional care required all slow the work compared with the same task at ground level. Costing height work at ground-level productivity understates every job above a single storey.
The formula
cost = (job hours + travel) x crew x wage x (1 + burden%) + materials + overhead per hour
Put this calculator on your site
Free to embed. Paste this where you want it to appear. It stays up to date automatically because it loads from BDEVY.
Please keep the attribution line. It is the only thing we ask in return.
How to use this calculator
- Labour hours (h). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 2 h.
- People on the job. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 3.
- Hourly wage ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $24.
- Labour burden (%). Payroll tax, insurance, holiday, training. On top of the wage.
- Materials ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $65.
- Travel hours (h). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 0.75 h.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to true job cost, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Labour hours | 2 h |
| People on the job | 3 |
| Hourly wage | $24 |
| Labour burden | 28% |
| Materials | $65 |
| Travel hours | 0.75 h |
| Overhead per working hour | $22 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| True job cost main result | $499.94 |
| Labour including burden | $253.44 |
| Overhead absorbed | $181.50 |
| Cost per labour hour | $60.60 |
The job costs $499.94: $253.44 of burdened labour, $65 of materials and $181.50 of overhead. Anything you charge below that loses money.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only hourly wage, this is what happens to true job cost. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Hourly wage ($) | True job cost |
|---|---|
| $12 | $373.22 |
| $18 | $436.58 |
| $24 example above | $499.94 |
| $36 | $626.66 |
| $48 | $753.38 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Labour hours (h)
- Measured in h, starting at 2 h.
- People on the job
- A number, between 0 and 30, starting at 3.
- Hourly wage ($)
- A money amount, starting at $24.
- Labour burden (%)
- Payroll tax, insurance, holiday, training. On top of the wage.
- Materials ($)
- A money amount, starting at $65.
- Travel hours (h)
- Measured in h, starting at 0.75 h.
- Overhead per working hour ($)
- Annual overhead divided by billable hours.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| True job cost | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Labour including burden | A money figure. |
| Overhead absorbed | A money figure. |
| Cost per labour hour | A money figure. |
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.