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The number a homeowner wants is a price per amp, or a published “$2,500 panel upgrade.” That number is not a takeoff. A 100A same-amp garage swap with the existing grounding is not the same job as a 100A-to-200A underground service with twenty AFCI breakers and a finished-space feeder. The starting amp is the same. The hours are not.
Open the free bid calculatorEV-charger calculators price a dedicated circuit, a trench, and panel space. Standby-generator calculators price a transfer switch, a pad, and gas. Mini-split calculators price a line-set and one more circuit. A panel upgrade is a service: the can, the landing of every existing circuit, the path from the meter, grounding, and the utility. Quoting all of that from a published per-amp number is how the first underground lateral eats the field margin.
Each finished-space feeder is fishing and patch that never appears on the label. An underground lateral is billed as its own hours and its own cable. AFCI/GFCI, a meter socket, new ground rods, and temporary power are adders that get forgotten on a brochure special. On the sample rates a 100A-to-200A underground job with a 40-foot finished-space feeder, twenty AFCI breakers, temp power, and a utility disconnect prices about $11,590 ($58 per amp of new service, 46.0 crew-hours). The same shop’s 100A same-amp garage swap prices about $2,941 ($29 per amp, 10.7 hours, walk-away $2,059). Matching the brochure job’s per-amp number on the underground upgrade is how that job becomes a loss.
A 200A-to-400A underground meter-main in a garage is not the 200A finished-space job plus 100%. On the sample rates that 400A class prices about $11,054 ($28 per amp, 39.8 crew-hours) — similar money to the 200A underground, not because the can is cheaper but because the 40-foot finished feeder and the twenty AFCI breakers do not live in a published per-amp number. A 100A-to-200A overhead garage meter-main with eight AFCI and new ground rods prices about $7,658 (28.0 hours). Treating either as a blended add-on is how the special that looked fine turns into a loss after the first utility disconnect.
A $52/h journeyman loaded at 34% payroll burden is $69.68. 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. Replace every rate with your invoices before you send either number.
This is not an electrical specification, a building-code determination, a permit, an engineering stamp, or a recommended market price. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. Ampacity, service path, grounding, meter, and whether the utility must disconnect are yours to confirm.
Charge from the panel swap, any amp upgrade, overhead versus underground path, feeder feet, circuits landed, AFCI/GFCI, meter socket, new grounding, temporary power, utility disconnect, loaded labor, overhead, and a margin that is a share of price. A default 100A same-amp garage swap at the sample rates in this calculator prices around $2,941 — about $29 per amp of new service.
Homeowners count the number on the label. Feeder feet, AFCI/GFCI, underground laterals, finished-space access, a meter socket, new grounding, and temporary power do not scale with that number. Matching a cheaper per-amp quote written for a brochure garage swap is how a 200A underground job becomes a two-day loss.
Not in proportion. On the sample rates a 100A to 200A underground job with a 40-foot finished-space feeder, twenty AFCI breakers, temp power, and a utility disconnect prices around $11,590 ($58 per amp), while a 100A same-amp garage swap prices around $2,941 ($29 per amp).