The plant
Pick a common job to start, then replace every rate with a boiler invoice and a crew you have timed. Changing scope, system, or fuel fills starting hours and material only when you have not already edited that field.
Hours and material rates
These start from the scope, system, and fuel you picked. They are ballpark crew figures, not a boiler catalog or a guarantee.
Your costs
Payroll burden covers employer taxes, workers’ compensation, liability insurance, and paid time off. Underestimating it is how a $4,500 boiler that looked profitable was not.
One more winter of patches
The 9 p.m. no-heat call is “just replace the circulator for $280.” That number is scored against this visit only. Extra calls and later winters stack the season the owner is actually buying, then set it next to the plant bid. Starting figures are a circulator swap plus the callbacks a leaking heat exchanger generates — replace them with the truck you are loading.
Your bid
- Plant
- Zones
- Travel
- Crew hours
- Loaded labor
- Boiler, zones, fuel
- Liner, indirect, extras
- Travel & other
- Overhead
- Total cost
- Profit
- Price per MBH
- Effective hourly rate
- Walk-away price
A bid link carries your own rates — wage, burden, overhead, and target margin — so the page reopens exactly as you left it. Send it to yourself or your crew. The numbers ride after the #, which is never sent to a server, so copying a link uploads nothing. The customer should get the price, not the link.
Same plant, three scopes
| Scope | Hours | Price |
|---|
Patch vs replace
| Path | Hours | Price |
|---|
Same plant, who bought the boiler
The $4,500 “just hang what I bought at the supply house” special. Zeroing the plant invoice is not a free changeout — the trip and the hang still cost money, and a wrong-size or wrong-system unit is a second trip. Should I install a customer-supplied boiler?
| Who supplies | Hours | Your bid | At their number |
|---|
Same plant, when you can stand in the basement
The “can you come Saturday? House is cold. Same $4,500?” special. A weekday slot is the bid you already have. Same-day with no heat is the same wage on a slower hang. After-hours is time-and-a-half plus a second dispatch because a Friday-night no-heat call is not a stop you combine with a weekday route. Should I take a Saturday boiler call?
| Access | Hours | Your bid | At their number |
|---|
Where the hours go
Transparent arithmetic from your own inputs. The starting hours and material rates are common ballpark figures, not an industry standard, a benchmark, or a guarantee — time your own crews and replace them.
Hand the customer a proposal
The price above is for you. This is the page you print or save as a PDF and give to the customer — your details, their details, the scope, the deposit split, and a line for them to sign. Your business details are saved on this device so you only type them once; the customer’s details are never saved.
Everything on the printed page is text you typed or a number this calculator worked out. It contains no warranty, lien, or cancellation wording — those depend on your jurisdiction and your contract, and this tool is not the place to invent them.
Common questions
What does this boiler bid actually add up?
The price adds up plant-hang labor and the boiler invoice, venting and condensate work, a steam-to-hot-water conversion when that is the scope, heating-zone labor and hardware sized to input MBH, an indirect water heater, a chimney liner sized to flue height, an oil-to-gas conversion, primary/secondary piping, and fuel-specific hardware — plus travel and equipment, overhead, and your target margin, all from the MBH, system, scope, and fuel you enter, not a flat “$4,500 boiler” price.
Why does a steam-to-hot-water conversion cost so much more than a like-for-like swap on the same MBH?
Like-for-like, condensing-upgrade, and steam-to-hot-water scopes each start from their own plant, vent, condensate, and conversion hours — steam-to-hot-water adds piping-conversion hours that a like-for-like swap has none of, on top of higher plant hours for the new hydronic circulators and zoning a straight steam replacement never touches. The “Same plant, three scopes” comparison prices your same MBH and zone count under each scope’s starting kit so a like-for-like rate does not get quoted on a conversion by mistake.
What does the patch-vs-replace comparison show?
It prices the $280-style “just fix it for now” no-heat call as its own visit — trip, labor, and parts — then stacks the extra callbacks that visit typically triggers this winter and in the winters after, and lines that season total up against the full replacement bid on the same plant. That is the comparison that tells you whether tonight’s patch price still covers the visit, and how many winters of patches it takes before replacing would have been cheaper.
Is my data uploaded anywhere?
No account and no network requests — the calculator runs entirely in your browser. Your bid is saved in this browser’s local storage between visits, and a bid link you copy carries those same numbers in the page’s URL hash rather than sending anything to a server. Your business details for the printed proposal are saved separately on this device; the customer’s details are never saved.
What’s the difference between the bid price and the walk-away price?
The bid price already includes your target margin on top of labor, materials, and overhead. The walk-away price is the total cost underneath it — plant, venting, zones, and every extra you checked — the point below which the changeout stops being profitable at all.
Does this check fuel-gas code, combustion, or chimney safety?
No. Hours and material rates are ballpark shop figures you can edit, not a heat-loss calculation, a fuel-gas-code determination, or a chimney design. It also does not price a furnace changeout or a standalone water-heater swap — those are separate jobs. Whether a flue needs a liner, what size the liner should be, and whether the combustion venting meets code for the fuel and appliance are still a judgment call for the licensed tech on site — this tool prices the plant you choose, it does not certify it.