The fireplace
Start from a common job, then replace every figure with your takeoff. Changing fuel, size, chimney, or access never overwrites a rate you already typed. This prices an insert hang — not a CSIA sweep, and not a full chimney rebuild sold as the house.
Your crew rates
A $48/h installer loaded at 34% is $64.32. Quoting the raw wage on a published $2,499-installed special is how a wood insert with thirty feet of liner that looked fine turns into a two-day loss after the first seized damper.
Your bid
- Fuel, size, and access
- Chimney and extras
- Crew hours
- Loaded labor
- Insert + extras
- Travel + equipment
- Overhead
- Total cost
- Profit at this price
- Effective hourly rate
- Walk-away price
Where the hours go
Where the cost goes
Transparent arithmetic from your own inputs. Starting hours and material rates are common ballpark figures, not an industry standard or a fireplace design — replace them with your own takeoff.
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
Why can a competitor advertise “$2,499 installed”?
Usually because the special is written around one specific job, and that job is a preset here: a small gas insert into an existing masonry firebox with a live gas stub already there, no liner needed, on a one-story stack. It really does price low. What the flat number cannot see is fuel type, liner footage, hearth work, a new gas run, a dedicated circuit, a surround, and stack height. Price your actual fireplace beside the special and the gap becomes a list of line items instead of an argument about who is honest.
Why does a wood insert cost more to install than a gas insert of the same size?
Mostly because of what has to happen above the firebox. A gas insert with an existing stub can skip the liner entirely. A wood-burning insert almost always needs a full stainless liner run to the top of the chimney for safe draft, priced by the linear foot — 30 feet on a tall stack is a very different job from 16 feet on a one-story house, even with the same size insert sitting in the firebox.
Why does stack height change the price when the insert itself is identical?
Because the liner run and the roof access both scale with the chimney, not the insert. A one-story stack with ground roof access is the cheap-special assumption. A two-story or unusually tall stack needs harder roof access and more liner footage to reach the top, and that access and material cost is separate from whatever insert gets set in the firebox.
Is this the same as a chimney sweep or a full chimney rebuild?
No. This prices installing the insert itself, the liner, the hearth, and the extras that go with it. It is distinct from a CSIA chimney sweep (cleaning the flue and clearing creosote, priced by flue height and condition) and from a full masonry chimney rebuild sold as its own job. A chimney that needs rebuilding before an insert can safely go in needs that work priced separately.
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 so it is still here next visit, a share link encodes only the inputs you choose into the address bar and is never sent to us, and the optional usage counter records only which features were used and the day, never your fireplace details, wages, or prices.
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 — the insert, the liner, the hearth, the gas or electrical work, and the surround — the point below which the job stops being profitable at all. Typing a price you are considering shows you the margin or the loss before you send it.