Restoration
Restoration Job Cost Calculator
Costs a restoration job, where equipment is a line most job costing forgets.
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, subcontractors, and equipment charged per unit per day. The burdened labour figure matters here because restoration technicians carry a high burden: workers compensation on contaminated and physical work, protective equipment, certification and training. Equipment is the line most often omitted or under-counted, because it is owned rather than purchased per job, and a dehumidifier on a loss for a week is a genuine cost whether or not an invoice arrives for it.
What moves the number
- Burdened labour rate, which on this work is well above the base wage.
- Equipment units and days, charged as a real cost even though owned.
- Protective equipment and consumables, which are used up on contaminated work.
- Disposal, which on a demolition-heavy loss is substantial.
Where this one goes wrong
Owned equipment is not free, and treating it that way makes every job look more profitable than it was. Each unit has a purchase cost, a finite life measured in run hours, maintenance and eventual replacement, and the only way those are recovered is by charging jobs for the days they used it. A company that bills equipment to insurers but never costs it internally cannot tell which jobs actually made money. Consumables are the other under-counted line: protective suits, respirator cartridges, containment sheeting and tape are consumed per job rather than amortised.
Before you quote
- Charge owned equipment to jobs at an internal rate, not as free.
- Use a fully burdened labour rate including certification and protection.
- Count consumables per job rather than treating them as overhead.
Questions
About this calculator
Should owned equipment be costed to a job?
Yes, at an internal rate. Each unit has a purchase cost, a life in run hours, maintenance and replacement, all recovered only by charging jobs for the days they used it. Treating owned equipment as free makes every job look more profitable than it was.
Why is restoration labour so heavily burdened?
Workers compensation on physical work in contaminated conditions is a high class rate, protective equipment is consumed rather than reused, and certification and training cost both fees and productive time. The gap between a technician's wage and their true cost is wider than in most trades.
What gets missed in restoration job costing?
Equipment days and consumables, in that order. Containment sheeting, tape, protective suits and respirator cartridges are used up on each job rather than being overhead, and on a contaminated loss they add up to a meaningful line that a labour-and-materials costing misses entirely.
The formula
cost = (job hours + travel) x crew x wage x (1 + burden%) + materials + overhead per hour
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How to use this calculator
- Labour hours (h). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 22 h.
- People on the job. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 5.
- Hourly wage ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $26.
- Labour burden (%). Payroll tax, insurance, holiday, training. On top of the wage.
- Materials ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $1,300.
- 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 | 22 h |
| People on the job | 5 |
| Hourly wage | $26 |
| Labour burden | 28% |
| Materials | $1,300 |
| Travel hours | 0.75 h |
| Overhead per working hour | $22 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| True job cost main result | $7,588 |
| Labour including burden | $3,786 |
| Overhead absorbed | $2,503 |
| Cost per labour hour | $66.71 |
The job costs $7,588: $3,786 of burdened labour, $1,300 of materials and $2,503 of overhead. Anything you charge below that loses money.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only hourly wage, this is what happens to true job cost. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Hourly wage ($) | True job cost |
|---|---|
| $13 | $5,695 |
| $19.5 | $6,642 |
| $26 example above | $7,588 |
| $39 | $9,481 |
| $52 | $11,374 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Labour hours (h)
- Measured in h, starting at 22 h.
- People on the job
- A number, between 0 and 30, starting at 5.
- Hourly wage ($)
- A money amount, starting at $26.
- Labour burden (%)
- Payroll tax, insurance, holiday, training. On top of the wage.
- Materials ($)
- A money amount, starting at $1,300.
- Travel hours (h)
- Measured in h, starting at 0.75 h.
- Overhead per working hour ($)
- 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.