Price gutter-vac jobs so the ground-based rig pays. Free, no signup. All defaults are editable starting points.
The vacuum rig costs real money up front. Spread it across jobs so each quote carries its share.
Gutter-vac operators lose money on the per-foot quote. One flat per-foot number sounds fine until story height, debris condition, rig moves, drum empties, and the drive are all priced at zero, while the $2,500 vacuum rig itself sits unbilled. Start with your bar (65), margin percent (20), minimum trip fee ($125), and daily goal ($600). Pick a preset: Ranch, 2-story, or Split-level. Each fills linear feet, story multiplier, debris level, downspouts, and rig moves. Story height multiplies vacuum minutes (1x, 1.5x, 2x); debris runs dry leaves at 1x up to wet sludge at 3x. The leaks card prices minutes per foot, rig and pole moves, drum empties, ladder-only sections, bag-and-haul, drive minutes, and miles. The rig payback card carries the rig cost per job: rig price divided by expected jobs. Results show a minute-by-minute breakdown, true cost, the recommended quote (never below the minimum, rounded up to $25), dollars per foot, your effective rate, and named leak notes. Verdicts are PRICED RIGHT, CLOSE, BUT LEAKING, WORKING TOO CHEAP, or LOSING MONEY. The gut check grades your instinct dollars per foot; the planners turn the goal into jobs. No signup; runs on your phone.
Example only, not typical pricing. The ranch preset at a $65 bar: vacuum time is 140 feet times 0.9 minutes times 1.0 story times 1.5 debris equals 189 minutes; downspouts add 24; rig moves add 48; drum empties add 24, for 285 site minutes plus 50 drive, or 5.58 committed hours. Your time at the bar is $362.92; vehicle is $20.10; the rig carries $25 a job. True cost is $408.02. Recommended quote is max($125, ceil(408.02 times 1.20 divided by 25) times 25) equals $500, or $3.57 a foot, for an effective $89.55 per hour against the $65 bar, so the verdict is PRICED RIGHT. A $1.50 per-foot gut quote totals $210, falls $198.02 below true cost, and leaves $290 on the table. The day planner turns the $600 goal into 7 jobs and 39.1 hours, which fires the over-10-hour flag; the rig pays off after 28 jobs.
Why is the rig carried as a per-job cost?
A $2,500 vacuum spread over 100 jobs costs every quote $25. Skip that line and the rig never pays for itself no matter how busy you are.
What fires the moves-eat-vacuum note?
When rig and pole moves exceed half the actual vacuum-pass minutes. Cut moves, reposition smarter, or add a move fee to the quote.
Why does sludge get its own note?
Wet sludge triples vacuum time. The tool says sludge jobs need their own quote tier, because a per-foot number that works for dry leaves fails on sludge.
What does the gut check compare?
Your instinct dollars per foot times linear feet, graded against true cost and the recommended quote, with your effective hourly rate shown.
What does the rig payback planner tell me?
Jobs until the rig is paid off at the recommended quote's profit per job. That is the number that decides whether the rig was a good buy.