The number a homeowner wants is a published “$99 dryer vent special.” That number is not a takeoff. A one-story wall cap with eight feet of pipe is not the same job as a two-story roof cap with a 28-foot run and a camera pass. The word “dryer vent” is the same. The hours are not.
Open the free bid calculatorHVAC-maintenance calculators price filter, coil, and a seasonal visit. Chimney-sweep calculators price flue, creosote, and a CSIA sweep. Kitchen-hood calculators price a restaurant canopy and a rooftop fan. Appliance-repair calculators price the machine. A dryer-vent job is a lint takeoff: the included wall cap, the extra story the coupon never mentions, the extra feet of duct, and the roof cap. Quoting all of that from a published special is how the first extra story eats the field margin.
Each extra story is a taller ladder, a second-floor access, and time that never appears on the coupon. Extra feet over the included eight-foot run are billed as their own hours and extra rods. A rooftop termination, a camera pass, crushed flex in the laundry closet, a nest, and occupied-home access are adders that get forgotten on a wall-cap special. On the sample rates a 2-story roof cap with a 28 ft run, a camera pass, and occupied access prices about $545 ($19.45 per foot, 3.5 crew-hours). The same shop’s 8 ft one-story wall cap prices about $178 ($22.29 per foot, 1.2 hours, walk-away $128). Matching a $99 Facebook special on the roof job is how that job becomes a loss of about $293.
A 2-story duplex laundry with two extra dryers, 22 ft of run, a camera pass, crushed-flex replacement, a nest, and occupied access is not the roof cap plus 20%. On the sample rates that multi-dryer job prices about $704 ($235 per dryer, 5.4 crew-hours) — more as a total, less per dryer, because the extra dryers and the nest do not live in a published multi-unit adder. A typical 2-story wall/soffit with an 18 ft run prices about $273 (2.2 hours). Treating either as a blended add-on is how the special that looked fine turns into a loss after the first extra story.
A $38/h tech loaded at 32% payroll burden is $50.16. Margin is a share of the price you send, not a markup on cost. The walk-away price is total cost — below that the job makes nothing before you take a dollar home. On the sample rates even the brochure wall cap walk-away is $128, which is why a $99 coupon is already a loss of about $29 before the first extra story. Replace every rate with your brush and rod invoices before you send either number.
This is not a fire inspection, a building-code determination, a lint-clearance certificate, a guarantee that any dryer will not overheat, or a recommended market price. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. Job type, stories, run length, dryer count, and whether the house needs a rooftop termination are yours to confirm.
Charge from the included one-story wall cap, extra stories over that include, extra feet of duct over the included short run, extra dryers, a rooftop termination, camera inspection, crushed-flex replacement, nest or blockage, occupied-home access, loaded labor, overhead, and a margin that is a share of price. A default 1-story wall cap at the sample rates in this calculator prices around $178 — about $178 per dryer.
Homeowners count 'a dryer vent is a dryer vent.' Extra stories, extra feet, extra dryers, a roof cap, a camera pass, crushed flex, and a nest do not live in a $99 coupon. Matching a cheaper wall-cap quote written for a brochure ranch is how a roof job becomes a loss.
Not in proportion. On the sample rates a 2-story roof cap with a 28 ft run, a camera pass, and occupied access prices around $545 ($19.45 per foot), while an 8 ft one-story wall cap prices around $178 ($22.29 per foot).