The number a homeowner wants is a published “$2,495 installed” furnace special, or a price they saw for a basement swap on a coupon site. That number is not a takeoff. A 60k 80% AFUE hang with fifteen included feet of duct is not the same job as a 100k 96% condensing unit in an attic with a matching coil, a gas upsize, forty feet of duct, haul-away of the old unit, and a new thermostat. The trip is the same. The hours are not.
Open the free bid calculatorHVAC-maintenance calculators price a recurring service contract. Mini-split calculators price ductless heads and a line-set. Water-heater calculators price a vent, a gas upsize, and an attic for a water heater. A furnace job is a changeout: the unit, where it sits, the coil, the gas, and the duct that is not in the coupon. Quoting all of that from a published special is how the first attic condensate run eats the field margin.
Each extra foot past the included run is time that never appears on the coupon. An attic set is billed as its own hours. A matching coil, a gas upsize, haul-away, and a thermostat are adders that get forgotten on a brochure special. On the sample rates a 100k 96% condensing unit with a matching coil, a gas upsize, 40 feet of duct, haul-away, and a thermostat prices about $10,940.47 ($273.51 per foot of duct, 17.1 crew-hours). The same shop’s 60k 80% basement swap prices about $4,013.20 ($334.43 per foot, 5.8 hours, walk-away $2,608.58). Matching the brochure job’s $2,495 special on the attic-and-coil house is how that job becomes a loss — the walk-away on the heavy job is already $7,111.30, and the $2,495 special loses $113.58 even on the brochure basement swap.
An 80k heat pump with a matching coil, haul-away, and a thermostat in an attic is not the 60k 80% special minus 100%. On the sample rates that heat-pump job prices about $11,474.41 ($382.48 per foot, 15.2 crew-hours) — more than the brochure swap, not because the outdoor unit is slower but because attic hours, a coil, and a $1,600 equipment premium do not live in a published basement special. An 80k 96% basement unit with 25 feet of duct and haul-away prices about $6,260.60 (8.9 hours). Treating either as a blended add-on is how the special that looked fine turns into a loss after the first condensate run.
A $52/h tech 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 HVAC design, a Manual J load calculation, a building-code determination, a permit, an engineering stamp, or a recommended market price. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. Capacity, AFUE or HSPF, location, coil match, gas, and duct are yours to confirm.
Charge from the trip, the set, extra duct past the included run, attic versus basement, BTU capacity, 80% versus 96% versus heat pump, a matching coil, a gas upsize, haul-away, loaded labor, overhead, and a margin that is a share of price. A default 60k 80% AFUE basement swap that stays inside the included footage, at the sample rates in this calculator, prices around $4,013 — about $334 per foot of duct.
Homeowners count the swap. Extra duct, an attic set, a matching coil, a gas upsize, haul-away of the old unit, and a thermostat do not scale with that number. Matching a cheaper special written for a 60k 80% basement swap is how a 100k 96% attic-and-coil job becomes a two-day loss.
An attic coil-and-gas job is not a basement-only special. On the sample rates a 100k 96% condensing unit with a matching coil, a gas upsize, 40 feet of duct, haul-away, and a thermostat prices around $10,940 ($274 per foot, 17.1 crew-hours), while a 60k 80% basement swap prices around $4,013 ($334 per foot, 5.8 hours).