Garage door techs: price every repair so the job pays, not the bait guy.
Check what this job needs. Parts cost is your supplier price, minutes is your labor. All editable.
The trap in garage door repair is quoting like the big shops advertise: a low service call to get in the door, then a scramble to make the math work once the door is apart. Independents get squeezed hardest, because customers compare your honest quote to someone else's bait price. This calculator prices the job the other way: from your real costs up to a flat quote you can write down before you touch the door.
Start with your bar: the minimum hourly rate you will work for, and the profit margin you want on top of cost. Then check every repair this job needs and adjust the parts cost and minutes. The defaults are starting points based on common supplier prices and wrench time for a standard residential door, not quotes to copy. Add your trip fee and your parts markup percentage, and the calculator adds it all up: marked-up parts, labor at your bar, and the trip. The recommended quote is that total plus your margin, rounded to the nearest $25 so it looks like a flat rate, not a receipt. Use the gut check to compare what you would have said off the cuff against the real number.
Example only, not typical pricing. A double-door spring job: two torsion springs at $60 parts and 45 minutes, plus cables at $25 and 30 minutes. That is $85 in supplier cost, $110.50 with 30% markup, and 75 minutes of labor at an $85 bar ($106.25). Add an $85 trip fee and the true cost is about $302. With a 20% margin the recommended quote lands at $375 after rounding. If your gut said $329, the gut check flags you $46 short before you even drove home.
Most independents keep the diagnostic or trip fee and apply it as part of the job total, so the customer feels they got value for the visit. Quoting it separately also protects you on no-go calls where you still burned fuel and an hour. This calculator treats the trip fee as kept revenue on booked jobs.
Markup covers stocking common parts, warranty callbacks, and the runs to the supplier. Thirty percent on supplier cost is a common independent baseline; higher-cycle springs and openers often carry more. Set your own number and stay consistent instead of marking up whatever the day demands.
Flat numbers read as confident flat rates and hide the hourly math from price shoppers. A $375 quote competes with the $329 quote better than $362.14 does, because the customer compares flat numbers, not your timesheets.
Replace both together. The older spring is on the same cycle life and will usually fail soon after, costing you a second trip and the customer a second service fee. The job items here price springs as pairs on purpose.
You do not beat them on the advertised number; you beat them by writing a complete price before you start. Customers who have been through the bait-and-switch pattern once are the best clients you will ever have. This tool gives you a written number you can defend.