Price waterline tile by the real foot, not the going rate. Free, no signup. All defaults are editable starting points.
Pool tile contractors quote one flat per-foot number while tile grade, calcium prep, spalls, coping, and drive quietly eat the margin. Start with your bar (65), margin percent (20), material markup percent (25), minimum fee ($400), and daily goal ($800). Pick a tile preset: Standard ceramic, Mosaic, or Glass, each filling material dollars per foot and install plus demo minutes per foot as editable starting points. The leaks card prices the margin killers: heavy calcium prep (6 extra minutes per foot), curves (10 percent more labor), spall patching (2 hours plus $60 materials), coping replacement with a material tier (cast concrete, flagstone, travertine) and install minutes per foot, drive minutes, round-trip miles, and setup. Results show site labor, drive, vehicle, materials at cost with your markup, true cost, the recommended quote (never below the minimum, cost plus margin, rounded up to $25), dollars per foot of perimeter, your effective rate, and profit. Verdicts are PRICED RIGHT, CLOSE, BUT LEAKING, WORKING TOO CHEAP, or LOSING MONEY. The gut check takes your instinct price per foot; 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. Ceramic defaults on a 120-foot perimeter with flagstone coping at a $65 bar: tile labor is 120 times (6 plus 4) equals 1,200 minutes; coping is 120 times 6 equals 720; setup is 45, for 1,965 site minutes, or 32.75 hours at $65, which is $2,128.75. Drive is 50 minutes at $65 equals $54.17; vehicle is 40 miles at $0.67 equals $26.80. Materials at cost are tile $390 plus thinset $210 plus coping $1,680 equals $2,280, billed with 25 percent markup at $2,850. True cost is $5,059.72. Recommended quote is ceil(5,059.72 times 1.20 divided by 25) times 25 equals $6,075, or $50.63 per foot. Effective rate is (6,075 minus 26.80 minus 2,280) divided by 33.58 equals $112.20 per hour, which clears the bar, so the verdict is PRICED RIGHT. The $15 per-foot gut instinct totals $1,800, pays negative $15.09 per hour, and falls $3,259.72 short of true cost. The day planner turns $1,585.28 of profit into 1 job and 33.6 hours for an $800 goal, which fires the over-10-hour warning.
Why does the tool recommend above the forum going rate?
The recommended quote prices your real labor, drive, and materials with markup. If forums quote $15 a foot while the true cost is $42, the going rate is the problem, not the math.
What fires the material-share leak note?
When marked-up materials pass 50 percent of the quote. Glass and mosaic prices swing fast, so a high material share means your material quote expires sooner than you think.
Why is calcium prep off by default?
It is a toggle because new pools skip it. Old pools almost always need it, and the leak note reminds you to add 10 minutes a foot when the waterline is crusted.
What does the gut check compare against?
Your instinct price per foot times the perimeter, graded against true cost. It shows your effective hourly rate, whether you fall short of true cost, or how much you left on the table.
What does CLOSE, BUT LEAKING mean here?
The job pays and your effective rate lands between 85 percent and 110 percent of your bar. Curves, calcium, or the drive are usually the leak.