Price decks, stairs and railings from your own costs
You tell it once what your deck business costs to run. After that, every deck is priced from your own crew, truck and dealer prices, not from a per-square-foot number someone posted online.
- Know what a crew hour really costs Insurance, the truck and trailer, the auger and every wage, yours too, become one break-even rate per billable hour.
- Price the whole deck, not just the boards Footings, ledger and flashing, framing, decking, fascia, stairs and railing each get their own crew hours.
- Still see the price per square foot You get the deck total and what it works out to per square foot, from the same numbers.
- Get paid for the time off the deck Inspection trips, yard runs, the stair pad and rain days sit on a checklist that has to be answered.
- Send a deck quote that looks professional A one-page customer quote with scope, price, deposit and deck terms, ready to print or save as a PDF.
- Know which decks made money The Job Log tracks every quote, won or lost, and the real hours each build took.
- One-time payment, no subscription
- Instant download
- Excel and Google Sheets
How it turns a lumber list and crew hours into a deck quote
Six tabs, in the order you use them. Set up the business once, keep dealer prices current, and build one quote per deck.
- Start HereThe setup order for a deck business and what each cell color means, about an evening of work.
- Shop SetupYour overhead, crew, truck, trailer and auger, turned into a break-even rate per billable hour.
- Price ListFootings, framing lumber, hangers and joist tape, decking, fascia and railing sections at your dealer's prices, each dated so an old price gets flagged.
- QuotePick materials, enter crew hours by stage, answer the don't-forget list, and watch the price and price per square foot build.
- Customer QuoteThe page your customer signs: scope, price, deposit and deck terms.
- Job LogQuoted against real hours and costs, so you see which decks made money.
What is a break-even rate? It is what one billable crew hour has to bring in to pay the wages and every cost of running the business, before profit. Plans, the permit and trips to the lumber yard are not billed hours, so the hours on the deck carry them. The deck builder hourly rate page works it through.
Prefilled example built-in
The file comes filled in with a made-up deck company and its $21,061 composite deck quote, so you see a finished quote before you type in your own numbers.
The example company is an owner, a carpenter and a helper, with a break-even of $61.37 per billable hour. The deck is 12' x 20' (240 sq ft), attached, about 4 ft up, with capped composite on hidden clips, fascia wrap, a picture-frame border, a 4 ft wide 3-step stair and black aluminum railing.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Part of the price | Amount |
| 2 | Materials, with waste | $7,992.60 |
| 3 | Labor, truck and tools | $5,360.32 |
| 4 | Permit | $350.00 |
| 5 | Easy-to-miss costs | $1,403.36 |
| 6 | Markups, cushion and profit | $5,954.60 |
| 7 | Price to the customer | $21,060.88 |
That is $87.75 a sq ft. The easy-to-miss lines add about 9% to cost, and the deck brings in $121.22 for every labor hour. How the price is built, and how it compares with other decks, is in how much to charge for building a deck.
$1,403
That is what the easy-to-miss lines alone added to this one example quote. It is about 28 times what the calculator costs. Miss them once and the file has paid for itself.
- One-time payment, no subscription
- Instant download
- Excel and Google Sheets
Why pricing a deck from the board count loses money
A lot of deck quotes start with the boards and end with a guess: add up the lumber, double it, and call that the price. It works on the deck you pictured. It fails on the one with rock at the footings, three inspection visits and a stair that needs its own pad.
The sample Job Log shows the damage. One $9,200 deck was quoted at 52 hours and took 90. At the example's $61.37 break-even, those 38 hours over the quote cost $2,332.06, and a deck priced to make $1,800 lost $923.39 instead.
The calculator fixes this by pricing the hours stage by stage and asking about the trips and digging before the quote goes out. Then the Job Log shows which kinds of decks run long, so the next quote for that kind of deck starts closer.
Inspection trips, the stair pad and the other deck costs it catches
The Quote tab won't mark a quote ready until each line has a Yes, No or N/A:
- Return trips for the footing, framing and final inspections, three visits that are easy to price as one.
- Drawing the plans and filing the permit, before a hole is dug.
- Digging to the depth your building department sets, and the rock and roots that turn up on the way.
- The pad at the bottom of the stairs, which is its own small job.
- Extra boards for border and breaker cuts when the deck doesn't fit 12, 16 or 20 ft lengths.
- Warranty callbacks. Left as No in the example on purpose, so the warning stays until you set your own number.
Exactly what you get
One file, sent as an instant download at checkout. It opens in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, with no subscription, no login and no app to learn.
- The six-tab calculator, ready for your own crew and dealer prices.
- A complete example deck company, with a finished composite deck quote you can check line by line.
- Deck customer terms you can edit, covering product swaps after signing, what happens when digging hits rock, stain and seal upkeep on wood, and the workmanship warranty, with changes handled as a change order.
- A Job Log that shows your win rate and which decks ran over their hours, the habit covered in job costing.
How it compares
Most owners price a job one of these ways. Here is what each one gives you.
| Copying another company's price | A free estimate template | Estimating software | This calculator | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starts from your own costs | No | No | Varies | Yes |
| Makes you answer the easy-to-miss costs | No | No | Varies | Yes |
| Shows which jobs made money | No | No | Varies | Yes |
| Works in Excel and Google Sheets | – | Yes | No | Yes |
| Cost | Free | Free | Usually a monthly fee | $49.95 once |
Who it's for: deck builders with 1 to 15 people
It fits deck builders and small crews of about 1 to 15 people who quote from a notepad or an old spreadsheet, and carpenters adding decks who aren't sure their rate covers the truck and the time off the deck. Low pressure-treated platforms or big composite builds with glass rail, solo or with a crew, it works the same, because every rate and price in it is yours.
It is not for homeowners pricing a DIY deck, and not for companies already running full estimating software with takeoffs. It is not a design tool either: you work out the boards and posts, and it turns that list into a price. To see your rate first, try the free true hourly rate calculator.
Stop pricing decks from the board count and a guess. Price every deck from your own crew hours and costs, catch the inspection trips and off-deck hours that usually get missed, and see which decks made money.
Deck Builder Pricing Calculator
$49.95 one-time
Buy now and download- One-time payment, no subscription
- Instant download
- Excel and Google Sheets