Construction Bid Calculator

This calculator builds a construction bid price by stacking direct costs, overhead, and profit in sequence. Direct Cost sums Material Cost, Labor Hours times Avg Labor Rate, and Equipment Cost; Overhead is a percentage applied on top of Direct Cost; Profit is a further percentage applied to the cost-plus-overhead subtotal; and Bid Price is the sum of all three layers. Material Cost has the largest effect on Direct Cost and Bid Price at this calculator's default values -- larger than Labor Hours or Avg Labor Rate, which move the total by identical amounts as each other since Labor Cost is their direct product. Overhead Rate and Profit Margin each move their own line item (Overhead, Profit) directly and proportionally, since both are computed as a straight percentage of the layer beneath them.

Fully Loaded Rate -- Bid Price divided by Labor Hours -- behaves differently: raising Labor Hours alone actually lowers Fully Loaded Rate, because Bid Price grows only through the added labor cost while the hours in the denominator grow by the same count, diluting the fixed material and equipment costs across more hours. At the default inputs, raising Labor Hours from 2,000 to 2,200 drops Fully Loaded Rate from $172.37 to $162.75/hr, while raising Material Cost by the same 10% raises it to $181.44/hr instead. This is a markup calculator, not a full estimate -- it doesn't include bonding, insurance, or contingency unless folded into the overhead or profit percentages.