How to use the unit price calculator
A unit price is the fully assembled cost of installing one unit of work, built up from bare material, bare labor and bare equipment cost and then marked up for overhead and profit. This calculator follows that structure so you can price a line item and extend it across a quantity in one step.
The build-up here mirrors the convention used by commercial cost databases such as RSMeans, which list bare material, bare labor, bare equipment and a separate total including overhead and profit for every work item. Note that this is an estimating practice rather than a legal form: some countries require contractors to submit a prescribed cost breakdown sheet using government-published productivity and markup rates, while in the United States the format and the markup percentages are the contractor own decision.
Waste allowance covers cutting loss, breakage and over-ordering. It varies widely by material, so use the figure your supplier or your own historical records support rather than a single blanket percentage across the estimate.
Because every quantity in the estimate is multiplied by these unit prices, a small error in one line propagates through the whole bid. Running the same item at two or three different material prices is a quick way to see how sensitive the bid is before the numbers are locked in.
Frequently asked questions
Bare cost is the raw material, labor and equipment cost of installing one unit with no markup. Cost with overhead and profit adds the contractor markup for payroll burden, general conditions, office overhead and profit. Commercial databases such as RSMeans publish both columns for every line item.
The labor markup absorbs payroll taxes, workers compensation, general liability insurance and unemployment insurance in addition to overhead and profit, and those burdens alone commonly run 40 to 60 percent of the base wage. Material and equipment carry only the handling and profit markup, so 10 percent is typical.
No. Unlike systems where a government agency publishes a mandatory cost breakdown sheet, US unit pricing is a private estimating convention. Owners may require a schedule of values or a unit price bid schedule in the contract documents, but the internal build-up of material, labor, equipment and markup is left to the contractor.