Your crew hourly wage, payroll burden, overhead on direct cost and target net margin are the same on every job you bid. Save them once and every trade bid calculator here opens with your numbers instead of a stranger’s ballpark.
Kept in this browser only, on this site’s own storage. Nothing is uploaded, and clearing your browser data clears it. Forgetting them leaves the numbers already on this bid alone.
Keep this bid so it is still here when the customer calls back. Every number on this form is saved together, under a name you choose, along with the figure it gave you, and restoring one puts the whole job back exactly as you priced it. Mark each one won or lost when you hear — the ones you have not heard back on stay listed as waiting, with how long they have been out. Once a few have come back, this panel says how long yours actually take, and how many are still out past that. Once enough of them have been decided, it also says whether the bids you save here have been landing differently lately than they used to. Once a few here are decided, this panel says what the ones you won averaged against the ones you lost, so you can see where your price tips. On a lost bid you can also note what the job went for, if you heard — then it says how far off you actually were, which is the part guessing gets wrong in both directions. On a won one, note what the job came to once it was done and this panel says what those jobs actually kept, so you can see whether the ones you are winning are worth winning — and it tells you how many of your won jobs are still missing that figure, rather than going quiet about it. Restoring a bid also pins the figure it was saved at above this panel, so when the customer asks what it costs without the tear-off, the new number is shown against the one they already have — and by how much, in money and in percent.
Kept in this browser only, on this site’s own storage. Nothing is uploaded, and clearing your browser data clears it — download a backup to keep a copy or open your bids on another device. Bids are kept per tool, so these are the ones you saved here.
FOR VINYL-LINER POOL CREWS
Bid the walls, the hopper, and the stairs.
Price a residential vinyl liner the way the trade actually loses money: liner square feet a water-surface special cannot see, then hopper extra, stairs, bead, track, extras, permit, and the margin you intend to keep. You get the job price, what it works out to per square foot of water, and the number below which the job loses money.
Pick a common call to fill the spans, mil, bead, and stairs. Changing a kit never overwrites hours or material costs you have already typed.
The pool
Length is the long side. Width is the short side. Kidney uses the bounding box as a starting guess. These are starting points, not a mill quote.
Hours and counts
Water surface, perimeter, walls, hopper extra, stairs, liner, and order start from the geometry. Change them when the site disagrees.
Materials and your costs
Payroll burden covers employer taxes, workers’ compensation, liability insurance, and paid time off. A water-surface special written on the floor never sees it — or the walls.
Your bid
$—
job price
Water surface
Liner / order
Walls / hopper / stairs
Liner share of direct
Crew hours
Loaded labor
Materials
Travel, mobilization, extras
Overhead
Total cost
Profit
Price per water sf
Price per liner sf
Effective hourly rate
Walk-away price
Where the hours go
Transparent arithmetic from your own inputs. The starting spans, mil rates, hours, and material rates are common ballpark figures, not a building-code opinion, a permit, a warranty, or an engineering stamp. Time your own crews and replace them.
Common questions
Why does this price liner square feet instead of water surface area?
A published “$8/sf of water” special counts only the floor's footprint, but vinyl is sold and stretched over floor plus walls plus any hopper extra plus stairs — a hopper deep-end box or a set of wedding-cake stairs adds real liner square feet the water-surface number never sees. That's why the same water surface area can price very differently depending on depth style and stairs.
Why does an overlap or uni-bead conversion cost more than a standard bead replacement?
Standard bead / J-hook reuses the existing track, but overlap (coping-over, no track) and uni-bead/Fast-Bead conversions change how the liner attaches at the top and often require extra prep or hardware the direct swap doesn't need. Pick the bead type that matches what's actually at your pool's coping, not just the cheapest option, since the wrong choice can mean redoing the top edge.
Does a thicker mil liner (27 or 30) actually need more labor, or just cost more material?
Both — a heavier liner is stiffer to handle, stretch, and set wrinkle-free, so the calculator adds labor hours as well as the higher material cost as you move up the mil presets. It is not simply the 20-mil price times a material multiplier.
Does this check whether my pool's structure or bead track is sound?
No. It prices the liner replacement scope you describe; it does not inspect the shell, verify the bead track or coping condition, or make a structural or code determination. Confirm the receiver track and wall condition in person before quoting a bead type or ordering vinyl.
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.
Want the margin, walk-away price and overrun headroom as well, or pricing a different trade? Price this job in the Bid Price Engine, one calculator for 121 trades.