The pool
Start from a common job, then replace every figure with your takeoff. Changing finish or chip-out never overwrites a rate you already typed.
Your crew rates
A $36/h plasterer loaded at 30% is $46.80. Quoting the raw wage on a published per-square-foot special written for the water surface is how a pebble chip-out that looked fine turns into a two-day loss after the first drain day.
Your bid
- Finish and chip-out
- Takeoff
- Crew hours
- Loaded labor
- Materials + fees
- Travel + equipment
- Overhead
- Total cost
- Profit at this price
- Price per sq ft of plaster
- Price per sq ft of water surface
- 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, a pool specification, or a structural determination — 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 does a 16×32 pool come out as 1,064 square feet of plaster?
Because you plaster the walls, not just the water surface. On the defaults the floor is 512 sq ft (16 × 32) and the walls add another 552 — the perimeter, 96 ft, times the average depth of 5.75 ft, which is the mean of the 3.5 ft shallow end and the 8 ft deep end. That is why a “512 square foot pool” buys a bit over twice that much finish material, and why quoting off water-surface area alone underbuys the job by roughly half.
Why are there two different per-square-foot prices?
They divide the same price by two different areas. On the defaults the job prices at $7,825.99, which is $7.36 per plaster square foot (over all 1,064 sq ft of shell) but $15.29 per water square foot (over the 512 sq ft footprint a homeowner would measure). Neither is wrong; they answer different questions. Use the plaster figure to sanity-check your material and labor rates, and the water-surface figure only when you are comparing against a competitor who quoted that way.
What is the drain-and-refill line actually costing me?
Two things, and the water is the larger one. The default pool holds about 22,023 gallons (512 sq ft × 5.75 ft average depth × 7.48 gallons per cubic foot), which at $0.012 per gallon is $264.27 of water, plus 3.5 hours of attended drain and refill time. Turning the option off removes both. If your district meters filling differently, or you are on a haul-in rate, that per-gallon field is the one to change.
Why doesn’t a 26% target margin mean multiplying cost by 1.26?
Because margin is measured against the price, not against the cost. The default job costs $5,791.23 all in, and holding 26% of the price as profit means dividing by 0.74, not multiplying by 1.26: $5,791.23 ÷ 0.74 = $7,825.99. Marking cost up by 26% would give $7,296.95 and leave you at a 20.6% margin — the single most common way a bid that looked profitable on paper is not.
Does the price include chip-out?
Not on the defaults. The chip-out selector starts at “none” — a bond-coat resurface over sound plaster — so the chip-out square footage and its hours are both zero. That is the brochure special most homeowners are comparing against. Switch to partial or full chip-out and both the demolition hours and the dumpster line become real, which is usually the difference between the advertised number and the one you can actually deliver.