How to Bid a Remodeling Job

The figures below are an illustrative example to show the method — not a price quote. Your local material prices, labor rates and sub quotes will differ, which is exactly why a workbook you can change beats a number someone else picked.

Step 1 — The takeoff: list every scope item

Before any pricing, you list what the job actually requires. For a mid-size bathroom remodel: demo, tile, a new vanity and top, fixtures (faucet, toilet, shower trim), plumbing rough-in, electrical, drywall and paint. The takeoff is the checklist the rest of the bid hangs on — miss a line here and you eat the cost later.

We’ll build each number by hand below so the method is clear; the Contractor & Trades Estimating Workbook does the same in one linked file if you’d rather not start from a blank sheet.

Step 2 — Materials, with a waste allowance

Price each material line, then add a waste percentage — tile gets cut, paint gets over-bought, fittings get swapped. 8% is a reasonable starting allowance for a remodel — adjust it to your own history.

Step 3 — Loaded labor

Labor is priced at a loaded rate — not just the wage, but the wage plus payroll taxes, workers’ comp and the non-billable time that comes with employing someone. If your crew costs $55/hour loaded and the remodel takes 60 hours of carpentry, tile and install, that’s $3,300 of labor.

Step 4 — Subcontractors

The trades you don’t self-perform get their own lines at the price they quoted you — and they get marked up too, because they carry your scheduling, coordination and warranty risk.

Step 5 — Direct cost and a contingency

Add the three together and put a small contingency on top for the surprises every remodel hides behind a wall:

Step 6 — Overhead and margin: the step that sets the price

Direct cost is what the job costs you. The price has to also cover overhead — your truck, insurance, tools, the hours you spent estimating — and leave a profit. Both come out of your gross margin. Say you need a 30% gross margin to cover overhead and profit. Price isn’t cost × 1.30 — that’s the markup-vs-margin trap. The right math:

• Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin) = $10,560 ÷ 0.70 = $15,086
• That’s a 42.9% markup on cost, not 30%.
• Gross profit on the job = $15,086 − $10,560 = $4,526 to cover overhead and net profit.

Round to a clean client number — $15,100 — and that’s your bid. You can sanity-check any single job’s markup and margin with the free bid-markup & job-cost calculator before you send it.

Step 7 — The change order (where margin usually leaks)

Mid-job the client asks for a heated tile floor. The instinct is to do it as a favor. Don’t — price it as the small job it is, at the same margin:

Logged against the original bid, the change order keeps the job’s margin intact instead of quietly eating it. “While we’re here” is the most expensive phrase on a job site — until it’s a priced line.

Build the whole bid in one connected file

Every number above lives on its own scratch sheet for most contractors — which is how a forgotten waste allowance or an un-marked-up sub turns a 30% margin into 12%. The Contractor & Trades Estimating Workbook runs this exact flow — takeoff, materials with waste, loaded labor, subs, overhead, markup and change orders — in one linked workbook, so changing a tile price re-prices the bid and the client summary in one move. It ships with a bathroom-remodel example already built, and the method fits every trade — see the landscaping estimate tutorial for the same flow on a paver patio, or browse the contractor & trades hub.