Is this guard job actually paying you? Free, no signup.
Materials are the swing factor: mesh screen runs $1-4/ft, micro-mesh $5-9/ft, reverse-curve $8-15/ft. Your supplier price goes here.
Guards over dirty or loose gutters come back as warranty calls. Price the prep, don't eat it.
Assumes every job pays and costs like this one.
Gutter guard jobs die on the single per-foot quote. A $9/ft number hides the material spread between mesh screen and reverse-curve, the two-story ladder work, the steep roof, and the gutter cleaning you do before the guards go on. Start with your bar (75), a minimum job fee ($349), profit margin percent (20), and a daily take-home goal. Pick a guard system: Mesh screen ($2.50/ft, 1 min/ft), Micro-mesh ($4.50/ft, 1.5 min/ft), Reverse-curve ($9/ft, 2 min/ft), or Foam insert ($1.75/ft, 1 min/ft), all editable. Enter linear feet, pick 1-story or 2-story (adds 15 percent to labor), and tick the steep-roof box with your adder. The prep card takes cleaning minutes and rehang feet at your rate, because guards over loose gutters come back as warranty calls. Add drive round-trip minutes and miles at your vehicle cost. Results show guard materials, repair sections, labor plus drive, vehicle cost, true cost, profit, and the recommended quote (cost plus margin, rounded up to $25, never below the minimum), with the per-foot price underneath. Verdicts are PRICED RIGHT, CLOSE, BUT LEAKING, WORKING TOO CHEAP, or LOSING MONEY. The gut check grades your instinct per-foot price, and the day planner turns your goal into jobs.
Example only, not typical pricing. Micro-mesh on 150 feet at a $75 bar: install time is 150 x 1.5 / 60 = 3.75 hours, plus 1 hour of gutter cleaning = 4.75 labor hours. Labor cost = 4.75 x 75 + 0.67 x 75 = $406.25. Materials = 150 x $4.50 = $675.00. Vehicle cost = 24 x $0.67 = $16.08. True cost = 675 + 406.25 + 16.08 = $1,097.33. Recommended quote = ceil(1,097.33 x 1.20 / 25) x 25 = $1,325, or $8.83 per foot. Effective rate = (1,325 - 675 - 16.08) / 5.42 = $117.03 per hour, which clears the bar, so the verdict is PRICED RIGHT. Flip on 2-story and the 25 percent steep-roof adder and the recommended quote becomes $1,500 ($10.00/ft): same footage, same guards, two different quotes, which is why one per-foot number never works.
Why is material cost per foot the first preset?
Because the guard system swings the job. Mesh screen at $2.50/ft versus reverse-curve at $9/ft changes true cost by hundreds of dollars on the same footage. Price the system you sell, not an average.
What does the 2-story button change?
It adds 15 percent to install and cleaning labor, because ladder work is slower. The steep-roof checkbox stacks its own adder on top of that.
Why price the gutter cleaning separately?
Because guards over dirty or loose gutters come back as warranty calls. The prep card prices the cleaning and rehang work so it is quoted, not donated.
How does the gut check work?
Enter the per-foot price you would have quoted. The tool prices that number against your hours and names the effective hourly rate, so you see exactly what a $9/ft instinct pays.
When does the minimum job fee kick in?
When the margin math lands below your minimum, the recommended quote holds at the minimum. Small jobs with full drive time need the floor.