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True Trade Cost

Handyman Pricing Calculator: Price the Visit, Not Just the Wrench Time

Updated

A visit that swaps a kitchen faucet and two shutoff valves, replaces a toilet and hangs a ceiling fan, 3.5 hours of hands-on work, comes to $868.41 at a $92 break-even rate with 20% profit. That is $248.12 for each hour a tool is in your hand. Put in your own task list and the price follows every change.

This handyman pricing calculator starts from wrench time, then adds the paid hours that wrap around it. The starting numbers are a simplified copy of the example visit in the Handyman Pricing Calculator spreadsheet, where the customer bought the faucet, the toilet and the fan.

1. The job
hrs

Tool-in-hand time only: the faucet, the toilet, the fan.

hrs

Adds the drive, the parts run, setup, cleanup and the invoice around the work.

$

Valves, supply lines, wax ring, fan box. Fixtures the customer buys cost you nothing.

2. Costs that come with every job

The ones owners leave out most. Put 0 if it doesn't apply.

$
$
$
3. Your rate and profit
$/hr

What each labour hour has to bring in to cover wages and overhead.

%
%

Don't know your break-even rate? Work it out in two minutes with the true hourly rate calculator.

Job price$868.41

Why each hands-on hour carries 1.57 paid hours

The example visit has 3.5 hours of real work in it and 5.5 hours on the clock. The other 2 hours are the drive there and back, the run for a valve you didn't have, clearing out under the sink, laying drop cloths, cleaning up, carrying the old toilet out to the truck and sending the invoice. Spread over the hands-on time, that is 1.57 paid hours for every hour you are working on a fixture.

That ratio is the heart of this tool. Quote only the task times and the example visit loses 2 paid hours, about $184 at $92 an hour before profit. Handymen who wonder why a full day of small calls barely covers the truck are usually missing this number.

Timing a task list from the customer's photos

Write every task on its own line and give it a time for a normal house, not a perfect one: shutting the water off, pulling the old part, fitting the new one and testing. The example has a disposal in the way of the sink valves, so unhooking and rehanging it is part of the faucet time.

Then look for the things that stretch a task. A fan going into a box that isn't fan-rated needs a new brace. Toilet bolts that won't turn need cutting. Old shutoffs that weep need replacing before the faucet goes on. If the photos show any of these, add the time now rather than arguing about it on the day.

One short call against a full day of tasks

Fewer hands-on hours push the per-hour price up. Set the hands-on time to 1 hour and the dump fee to zero and the visit comes to $289.26. Half an hour with no dump fee and no extra fixings comes to $161.43, just above the $150 minimum, because the truck's $43 doesn't shrink with the job.

Longer days bring it down. Six hands-on hours at the example's settings come to $1,417.56, or $236.26 per hands-on hour, since the dump fee and fixings are spread thinner. If a long day also means one drive instead of three, lower the 1.57 a little to match.

Why the spreadsheet's visit comes to $916.61, not $868.41

The $92 break-even rate is the example's $92.17, rounded. It carries the owner's pay, the truck, insurance, tools and the hours that never get billed. The handyman hourly rate page shows how the example gets there, and the free true hourly rate calculator builds yours.

The spreadsheet prices each part from a price list you keep, costs the truck and cordless tools by the running hour, adds a small cushion, lists the visit costs handymen leave out, prints a quote with your terms and tracks every job in a log. Its version of this visit comes to $916.61 before tax. For what other handymen charge per task, see the handyman pricing guide.

How the math in the Handyman calculator is checked

Every version of the handyman spreadsheet goes through an automatic test before it ships. The test rebuilds the file, recalculates it in a separate spreadsheet engine, and fails the release if any of these is off.

  • The example's break-even rate, $92.17 an hour, is worked out a second time outside the spreadsheet and the two have to agree to the cent.
  • The total for the customer has to equal the price plus sales tax, and the customer quote has to show that same total.
  • The example quote ($981 total) has to earn more per labour hour than it costs to run the business. It earns $131.65 an hour against the $92.17 break-even.
  • Then the test tries to break it: every yellow box on the quote emptied, nobody on the crew billable, a material price 400 days old, an order of zero. No cell may show an error, and the checks box has to flag the missing customer name and the out-of-date price.
  • The formulas only use functions that work the same way in Excel and Google Sheets.

Last test run: Handyman passed, along with 39 of the other 39 trades. The example job and the list of easy-to-miss costs come from research into 8 videos of handyman owners explaining how they price. More on how the calculators are built.

Questions owners ask

How do I price a handyman visit with several small jobs?

Add up the hands-on time for every task on the list, multiply by the paid hours each one drags along, then add parts and profit. The example faucet, valves, toilet and fan visit is 3.5 hands-on hours and comes to $868.41.

How much should a handyman charge per hour of actual work?

About $248 per hands-on hour in this calculator's example, at a $92 break-even rate with 20% profit. That looks high until you count the 2 extra paid hours the visit takes that nobody sees.

How do I price a one-hour handyman job?

Run it through the same math, not a flat hourly rate. One hands-on hour with no dump fee comes to $289.26 with the example's numbers, because the drive, the parts run and the truck cost almost the same as on a long visit.

Should a handyman mark up parts when the customer supplies the fixture?

Yes, on the parts you buy. The customer's faucet, toilet and fan cost you nothing, but the valves, supply lines, wax ring and fan box do, and the example marks those up 30%.

Does the handyman calculator handle a minimum charge?

Yes. The $150 minimum applies to any visit that prices lower. A half-hour job with the example's settings comes to $161.43, just above it.