The house
Pick a common job to start, then replace every rate with a unit invoice and a crew you have timed. Changing drive, hoistway, or cab fills starting hours and material only when you have not already edited that field.
Hours and material rates
These start from the drive, hoistway, and cab you picked. They are ballpark crew figures, not an elevator catalog or a guarantee.
Your costs
Payroll burden covers employer taxes, workers’ compensation, liability insurance, and paid time off. Underestimating it is how an $18,995 pneumatic special that looked profitable was not.
Your bid
- Stops / travel
- Capacity
- Travel
- Crew hours
- Loaded labor
- Unit, shaft, cab
- Pit, feeder, extras
- Travel & other
- Overhead
- Total cost
- Profit
- Price per stop
- 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 house, four drives
The upgrade a homeowner is asking for when they say “can we do a real elevator instead of the tube?” — same stops, same hoistway, starting drive kits. Matching the pneumatic special on a hydraulic shaft is the losing bid.
| Drive | Hours | Price | vs pneumatic |
|---|
Same house, five hoistways
| Hoistway | Hours | Price |
|---|
Same house, four cabs
The upgrade after they shopped the tube: acrylic versus standard versus wood-panel versus glass, starting cab kits. Matching the acrylic number on a glass-cab ask is the losing bid. Acrylic vs glass home elevator cab?
| Cab | Hours | Price | vs acrylic |
|---|
Same house, who bought the unit
The $4,995 “just install what I bought” special. Zeroing the unit invoice is not a free set — setting their Stiltz or Savaria still takes hours, and a wrong opening is a second trip. Should I install a customer-supplied home elevator?
| Who supplies | Hours | Your bid | At their number |
|---|
Same house, when they need it
The “mom comes home Friday — same $18,995 on Saturday?” special. A weekday slot is factory ground freight, an empty house, and a weekday inspector. Discharge week is next-day air on the unit plus a slower set while they stay home. Saturday is overtime, a second dispatch, the same air ticket, and a weekend inspector. A home elevator is not a stair-lift rail. Should I expedite a home elevator for hospital discharge?
| When | 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.
Common questions
Why is my price so much higher than the advertised $18,995 pneumatic special?
That number is usually the cheapest combination this tool can price: a through-floor cut, an acrylic tube, no pit, no feeder, no permit. Adding a real hoistway, a hydraulic or traction drive, a pit, a 240 V feeder, or an inspection is exactly what the flat number leaves out. Use the “Same house, four drives” and “five hoistways” comparisons to see how much of the gap each upgrade accounts for.
If the customer already bought their own unit, is the install free?
No. Zeroing the unit invoice removes only the equipment cost — setting a customer-supplied Stiltz or Savaria still takes the same crew hours, and an opening that does not match the unit is a second trip on your dime. See the “Same house, who bought the unit” comparison and the linked guide before quoting a customer-supplied job at parts cost alone.
Does this include the state elevator inspection and permit fee?
Only if you check “Permit and inspection,” which adds the hours and dollar figure you set for it. The calculator does not look up your state or municipality's actual fee, inspector availability, or turnaround time — confirm those locally before you promise a date.
Does the price change automatically for a rush job, like a hospital discharge?
Not on its own. The “Same house, when they need it” table shows how a weekday slot, discharge-week, and weekend access compare using a starting expedite-freight and rush-inspection assumption, but your quoted price still comes from the fields you set above it. If the job really is a rush, raise your own hours, travel, and other-cost inputs to match — the comparison table is a reference, not an automatic switch.
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.