How to price a construction job is a sequence the trade learns by losing money out of order: take off the quantities from the drawings before pricing anything, price the quantities at the supplier's sheet with waste, estimate the hours from the crew's own record at a loaded rate, add the subcontractors at their quotes and the equipment by the day, then recover the overhead and apply the markup that leaves a profit. Present the customer one total with the scope and the exclusions and keep the estimate. The estimate template on this site holds the last steps and prints the material, labor, overhead, profit and total lines.
Take off before you price
Read the drawings and the specification and count every material in the unit it is bought in: yards of concrete, board feet of lumber, squares of roofing, sheets of drywall, feet of pipe and wire, pieces of fixtures and hardware. Count by area or by room so the waste is real, and write down the drawing revision the count is from. A price that is not built on a count cannot be defended when the job runs over, and it cannot be repriced when the drawings change.
Price the count, the hours, the subs and the equipment
Price the materials at the supplier's current sheet with a waste allowance the crew has measured; the sheet's date is the estimate's date. Estimate the hours from the company's record of similar work per unit, and price them at a rate loaded with taxes, insurance, the truck and the tools. Put subcontracted trades in at their written quotes with their exclusions carried into yours, and equipment by the day or the week. A number the crew cannot meet is a loss already booked.
Overhead, markup and the offer
Divide last year's overhead by last year's direct cost to get the percentage every job must recover before profit, then add the markup that leaves the profit; the template prints the margin alongside the markup so it is read the right way round. Offer the customer one total with the scope, the exclusions, the schedule and a validity date. Pro on this site keeps every estimate against the customer and the job, so a change order is priced from the same count and the same rates.
Questions people ask about how to price a construction job
What is the first step in pricing a construction job?
The takeoff: counting every material from the drawings in the unit it is bought in, with the revision noted, before any price is attached.
How do I estimate labor on a construction job?
From the company's own record of hours per unit on similar work, priced at a loaded rate that carries taxes, insurance, the truck and the tools.
Should overhead be a percentage or a line?
A percentage of direct cost from the company's books, applied to every job before the markup; it can be shown as its own line on the estimate the company keeps.