Price light demo jobs with disposal honest. Free, no signup.
Demo quotes die on the flat per-square-foot number. One price for the whole gut ignores how much the debris weighs, how many dumpsters it takes, the overweight fee per ton, and the hazmat surprise. Start with your bar (75), margin percent (15), minimum job fee ($500), and daily goal ($600). Pick a preset: Bathroom gut, Kitchen gut, or Whole floor, each filling square feet and demo plus load minutes per sqft as editable starting points. The debris tonnage card is the signature leak: tons per 100 sqft, a heavy-debris toggle that doubles it, dumpster size with included tonnage, rental cost, overweight dollars per ton, and self-haul trip lines. Getting there covers drive minutes, miles at your vehicle cost, and a hazmat toggle adding two hours plus a flat fee. Results show labor, disposal by tons and dumpster count, true cost, the recommended quote (cost plus margin, rounded up to $25, never below the minimum), dollars per sqft, and your effective hourly rate against your bar. Verdicts are PRICED RIGHT, CLOSE, BUT LEAKING, or LOSING MONEY. The gut check grades your instinct quote; the day planner turns your goal into jobs with an over-10-hour warning. No signup; runs on your phone.
Example only, not typical pricing. Kitchen gut preset at a $75 bar with 15 percent margin: 150 sqft, 8 demo plus 3 load minutes per sqft, no helper, 1.2 tons per 100 sqft, a 20-yard dumpster at $450 with 3 tons included, 40 drive minutes, 30 miles at $0.67. Demo plus cleanup is 150 x 11 / 60 = 27.5 hours; labor value is 27.5 x 75 = $2,062.50. Tonnage is 1.8, so one dumpster covers it with no overweight fee: disposal is $450. Drive time plus vehicle is (40 / 60 x 75) + (30 x 0.67) = $70.10. True cost is $2,062.50 + $450 + $70.10 = $2,582.60. Recommended quote is max(500, ceil(2,582.60 x 1.15 / 25) x 25) = $2,975, or $19.83 per sqft. Effective rate is $2,582.60 / 28.17 = $91.69 per hour, which clears the bar, so the verdict is PRICED RIGHT. A $1,500 gut quote would pay $53.25 per hour and leave $1,475 on the table. The day planner turns $392.40 of profit per job into 2 jobs and 56.3 hours for a $600 goal, which fires the over-10-hour warning: the answer is a higher quote, not more guts.
Why is disposal the first line to check when a demo quote leaks?
Dumpster rentals, tonnage overages, and overweight fees are the fastest-growing line in the true cost. A second dumpster or one overweight ton can erase the margin while the labor line looks identical.
What does the heavy-debris toggle change?
Tile, concrete, and plaster weigh far more per cubic foot than drywall and wood. The toggle doubles the tonnage estimate, which can push the job into a second dumpster or overweight fees before you quote.
How is the effective rate computed?
True cost divided by your own hours: demo plus load hours plus drive time. That is what the job really pays you per hour, graded against your bar.
What does CLOSE, BUT LEAKING mean?
True cost is covered but your effective rate sits within 20 percent below your bar. Check the disposal lines first, then raise the quote or shrink the haul distance.
When should I haul it myself instead of renting a dumpster?
The trip lines price your trailer runs as trips times dollars per trip against the dumpster rental and overweight math. If your runs cost less than a second dumpster, the tool shows it in the disposal line.