CONSTRUCTION PRICING GUIDE
Construction rates
The 2026 US general contractor hourly and day rates, the fee percentage on project cost and what it comes to on a kitchen, a basement or a new house, the markup that gets you the margin you meant, labor burden and permits — and a free calculator that turns them into a price you can put on your website.
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The short answer
General contractors charge a 10% to 20% fee on construction cost for large projects, $50 to $150 an hour or $300 to $500 a day for small ones (HomeGuide, September 2023). The fee on a kitchen remodel comes to $1,300–$4,300, on a bathroom $550–$3,000, on a home addition $2,200–$15,000 and on a new house $18,000–$83,000; subcontractors and laborers run $150–$250 a day.
Housecall Pro's national pricebook data (September 2026, 14,308 jobs) gives median listed prices for common jobs: $1,400 to demolish kitchen cabinets and countertops, $500 for a bathroom exhaust fan and venting, $650 for a custom vanity, $2,063 for luxury vinyl plank flooring, $2,063 for granite or quartz countertops, $1,800 for the electrical in a kitchen-and-laundry remodel and $7,500 to replace a shingle roof.
The arithmetic that protects the fee: a 20% margin needs a 25% markup, and a 20% markup only leaves 16.7% (Housecall Pro, October 2026; Joist, July 2026). Labor burden adds 20%–35% to wages — a $30 an hour worker costs $36–$40 or more an hour before profit (Joist) — and over 30% of builders mark projects up by 25% or more (the 2023 State of the Residential Construction Industry report, as Buildertrend reports it). Labor is 20%–40% of a project's cost (Jobber, June 2026).
Price every job from its costs — labor, subs, materials, permits, equipment, the job's share of overhead and a contingency — then divide by one minus your target margin (Housecall Pro). Put the hourly rate, the day rate and your fee percentage on your website; the homeowner comparing three contractors trusts the one who says how the price is built.
FREE PRICE CALCULATOR
What should I charge for this job?
Pick hourly or daily work with the time it takes, or the general contractor fee on a common project; say whether the client is a business, and tick the planning and permit lines. The range uses the published US figures in the table below.
Suggested price
$400–$1,200
general contractor, hourly, 8 hours
A starting range from published US figures — the fee is the contractor's charge on top of the construction cost, not the project's price. Build every real bid from your own labor, subs, materials, overhead and margin (the formula below) before anything goes on your price list.
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RATES · OCTOBER 2026
Construction rates and contractor fees (2026)
Typical US figures. The fee rows are HomeGuide's general contractor charge on top of each project's cost — a kitchen remodel of $12,800–$21,200 carries a $1,300–$4,300 fee, a house of $178,000–$416,000 an $18,000–$83,000 fee (September 2023). Housecall Pro's medians for common listed jobs run from $500 for a bathroom exhaust fan to $7,500 for a shingle roof (September 2026 data).
| The job | Typical US price · source |
|---|---|
| General contractor, hourly | $50–$150 per hour · about $400–$1,200 for 8 hours · HomeGuide |
| General contractor, day rate | $300–$500 per day · about $1,500–$2,500 for 5 days · HomeGuide |
| Subcontractor or laborer, day rate | $150–$250 per day · about $750–$1,250 for 5 days · HomeGuide |
| General contractor fee by project (10%–20% of construction cost) | Kitchen remodel: $1,300–$4,300 · Bathroom remodel: $550–$3,000 · Home addition: $2,200–$15,000 · Finish a basement: $2,200–$9,200 · Build a garage: $1,900–$5,700 · Build a deck: $440–$2,000 · Build a house: $18,000–$83,000 · HomeGuide |
| Hourly, general contractor | $50–$150 an hour · HomeGuide |
Rates read off each publisher's page in October 2026. The calculator above uses exactly these numbers. Full source list below.
ADD-ONS AND ADJUSTMENTS
What the client type, the planning and the permits add
Commercial work carries a higher fee percentage; planning and permits are their own lines on the bid.
| What | Typical US price · source |
|---|---|
| Client: commercial | a 20%–25% fee on commercial projects against 10%–20% on residential · HomeGuide figures |
| Pre-construction planning consultation | +$150–$1,000 · HomeGuide |
| Building permits | +$50–$2,000+ · HomeGuide |
Where a row shows a sum (a rate × a quantity, or a percentage worked out from published dollar ranges), the arithmetic is ours and the inputs are the publisher's.
THE PRICING FORMULA
How to price a construction job
Six steps from the walkthrough to the number on the bid and your website.
List every direct cost
Crew labor with payroll costs and supervision, subcontractor bids, materials with delivery and waste, permits, equipment, hauling and disposal (Housecall Pro, October 2026). Don't count the same expense twice.
Burden the labor
Payroll taxes, workers' comp and benefits add 20%–35% to wages: a $30 an hour worker is $36–$40 or more an hour, $45.48 in Joist's full example with unbillable time and the truck (July 2026). Jobber's rule of thumb is 15%–25% on top of base wages.
Add the job's share of overhead
Monthly overhead ÷ jobs a month: Joist's example spreads $18,000 of overhead over 12 jobs, $1,500 each. Jobber's: $2,000 of overhead over 300 hours, so a 40-hour job carries $266.
Allow a contingency
An allowance for the extra costs you can foresee but can't price yet — minor subfloor repairs behind a damaged floor (Housecall Pro). Jobber's example adds 10% to the job's cost and margin.
Divide by one minus the margin
Price = (direct costs + overhead + contingency) ÷ (1 − target margin): $24,000 of cost at a 20% margin is a $30,000 price (Housecall Pro). A 20% margin needs a 25% markup; a 20% markup leaves 16.7% (Joist). Over 30% of builders mark up 25% or more (the 2023 State of the Residential Construction Industry report, via Buildertrend).
Choose the billing method
A fixed price for clearly defined work, time and materials for repairs you can't fully assess, cost-plus where the client pays actual costs plus your fee (Housecall Pro). In the US, most contractors take a 10%–25% deposit and bill at milestones (HomeGuide); some states cap the deposit, so check your state's contractor board.
The formula, worked through
Say a kitchen remodel with $24,000 in estimated costs — Housecall Pro's own example (October 2026).
Labor $15,000, subcontractors $6,000, materials $1,000, permits and equipment $1,000, overhead $1,000: $24,000. At a 20% target margin, $24,000 ÷ (1 − 0.20) is a $30,000 price — $6,000 between the quote and the cost. Priced with a 20% markup instead, the same job would be $28,800 and the margin 16.7% (Joist).
The contractor's share of that price sits where HomeGuide puts a kitchen's general contractor fee — $1,300–$4,300 on a $12,800–$21,200 project, 10%–20% — once the subs and materials are paid. So “general contracting at 15% of project cost, planning consultations from $150” is a fair line for your website. The figures are the publishers' examples; your crew, your subs and your overhead make them yours.
What to charge in your area
The ranges on this page are US national figures. Prices follow local costs: the Bureau of Economic Analysis puts overall prices in California at 110.7 against a US average of 100, and Arkansas at 86.9 (2024 regional price parities, released February 2026). So a $100 an hour rate in an average market is about $110 in California and about $87 in Arkansas; construction wages rose 4.2% year over year to August 2025 (Deloitte, as Jobber reports it).
Commercial projects carry a 20%–25% general contractor fee against 10%–20% residential — bigger systems, heavier equipment, more trades (HomeGuide). A construction manager working alongside the architect charges 5%–15% instead.
In the US, building permits cost $50 to $2,000 or more depending on the project (HomeGuide), and whether the contractor or the owner pulls them is set by the city or county — check your local building department before the bid, and put the permit on it as its own line. Outside the US, treat the ranges as a shape, not a price — an hourly or day rate for small work, a fee percentage on the project, a deposit and milestone payments — and check what local builders list on their own websites.
Put your prices on your website
A price list — even “from” prices — answers a customer's first question before they pick up the phone, and it's the line an AI assistant can quote when someone asks what construction work costs near them.
If you build your site with Zarla, tell the editor “add a pricing section: general contracting at 15% of project cost, small jobs from $75 an hour, planning consultations from $150” and your prices go on the site, in a section you can edit any time. Want to see a finished site first? Browse construction website templates or see how Zarla builds construction websites.
Still setting up? Write your construction business plan, browse construction business name ideas, and when the prices are set, read how to get your business on Google. Not licensed yet? Start with how to become a general contractor. Pricing one job on paper? The free construction estimate template carries the lines, and the construction invoice template bills them. Raising prices you set a year ago? The price increase letter tells customers a month ahead.
Pricing a bid? The free contractor estimate template lays out your crew, each sub, allowances, overhead and profit. Starting the company? How to start a construction business covers the license, the insurance and the first jobs.
Construction rates: common questions
$50–$150 an hour, or $300–$500 a day — though contractors rarely bill hourly except for planning and small jobs; the big ones carry a 10%–20% fee on construction cost instead (HomeGuide, September 2023). The calculator above works out both.
10%–20% of the construction cost on residential projects, 20%–25% on commercial ones (HomeGuide). On a house that's $18,000–$83,000; on a kitchen remodel $1,300–$4,300; on a bathroom $550–$3,000. The fee covers overhead, profit and the markup on materials and labor.
Enough to land the margin you mean: a 20% margin needs a 25% markup, and a 20% markup only leaves 16.7% (Housecall Pro, October 2026; Joist, July 2026). HomeGuide puts the markup on individual labor and materials at 8%–45%, netting out to 10%–20% overall; over 30% of builders mark up 25% or more (the 2023 State of the Residential Construction Industry report, as Buildertrend reports it).
Wages plus payroll taxes, workers' comp and benefits — 20%–35% on top (Joist) or 15%–25% (Jobber) — plus unbillable time and the truck. Joist's example turns a $30 an hour wage into a $45.48 true cost; price from the true cost or every hour loses money.
Pre-construction planning runs $150–$1,000 or more depending on the project, and contractors charge up to $1,000 for a detailed estimate on a large job — many credit the fee toward the project if it goes ahead (HomeGuide).
Most contractors take 10%–25% of the contract price up front and bill the rest at milestones — after demolition, framing or drywall (HomeGuide). More than 50% up front on a large project is a red flag to customers. In the US, some states cap the deposit a home improvement contractor may take — check your state's contractor board before you set yours.
Housecall Pro's examples use a 20% target margin; Jobber's contractors quote 20%–25%. Labor runs 20%–40% of a project's cost (Jobber), so a thin margin on a labor-heavy job disappears in one bad week — price the risk into the contingency.
Yes — your hourly and day rates for small work and the fee percentage you charge on projects, with the billing method explained. A homeowner comparing contractors trusts the one who shows how the price is built, and an AI assistant can quote a real number. On a Zarla site, tell the editor “add a pricing section” with your rates, and change them when your costs do.
Where these numbers come from
Every range on this page is read off a published source, dated below. They're US figures for residential and light commercial construction — typical, not a rule; your costs and your market come first.
- HomeGuide — General Contractor Charges, Hourly Rates & Fee Percentage — dated September 2023, read October 2026
- Housecall Pro — General Contractor Pricing Guide: 2026 Rates — dated October 2026, read October 2026
- Joist — Contractor Pricing Guide: How to Price Jobs in 2026 — dated July 2026, read October 2026
- Buildertrend — Everything You Need to Know About General Contractor Markups — dated April 2026, read October 2026
- Jobber — How to Price a Job as a Contractor: Pricing Guide — dated June 2026, read October 2026
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis — regional price parities by state, 2024 — dated February 2026, read September 2026
Put your construction rates on your website
Add your town and your business name, and Zarla builds the site from that one line. Your rates go in a pricing section you edit by chat.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.