Every home project cost, drawn to the same scale.

A single number is impossible to judge. So nothing here appears on its own: 12 trades share one axis, 20 metros share one measured labour index, and every range is drawn from zero with nothing truncated.

12 trades, one axis

national · typical marked · $0 – $60,000

Basement

$32,000 Bathroom

$17,750 Roofing

$15,400 HVAC

$8,750 Concrete

$8,500 Landscaping

$8,250 Fencing

$5,750 Flooring

$4,750 Painting

$3,750 Tiling

$3,410 Plumbing

$2,575 Electrical

$2,075

$0$15k$30k$45k$60k

6 of the 12 trades fit inside the first tenth of the axis. That is the honest shape of home improvement: a few large projects and a long tail of ordinary ones.

Material choice moves the other half of the bill — fencing , flooring and roofing materials are compared side by side.

Trades priced on a page or two so far — plumbing: Pipe Repair ; electrical: EV Charger Installation , Whole-House Rewiring ; roofing: Asphalt Shingle Roof Replacement , Metal Roof Installation ; fencing: Vinyl Fence Installation ; painting: Exterior House Painting , Room Painting ; landscaping: Sprinkler System Installation ; concrete: Asphalt Sealcoating , Concrete Slab Pour ; hvac: Central Air Installation ; basement: Basement Finishing .

Price a project

Pick a trade, a project and a metro; the index for that city is applied to the published range.

Cost Calculator

Trade

City

Project Type

$370

$185$615

estimated total cost

Labor$125 – $430

Materials$37 – $310

Total$185 – $615

23% above average in New York

Compare to Other Cities

To get exact pricing for your project, request written quotes from at least three licensed contractors in New York.

20 metros on one index

0.85 – 1.33 · the line is the national baseline

One measured labour index per metro, applied to every figure on the site. 10 metros sit above the national baseline and 10 below it.

Chicago, IL

1.33 Seattle, WA

1.29 Minneapolis, MN

1.27 New York, NY

1.23 San Diego, CA

1.15 Portland, OR

1.15 Los Angeles, CA

1.14 Philadelphia, PA

1.12 Denver, CO

1.07 Las Vegas, NV

1.01 Phoenix, AZ

0.99 Austin, TX

0.95 Houston, TX

0.93 Nashville, TN

0.93 Atlanta, GA

0.92 Charlotte, NC

0.92 Miami, FL

0.91 Dallas, TX

0.89 Tampa, FL

0.87 San Antonio, TX

0.85

0.800.951.101.251.40

How a number is produced

One. Every project carries a low, typical and high figure, split into materials and labour, in the trades dataset.

Two. Each metro carries one labour index from BLS wage data for 8 to 10 construction occupations — the chart above is the whole of it.

Three. The index multiplies the range, figures above $100 are rounded to the nearest $5, and the result is dated. Full method →

Estimates, not quotes. This site sells nothing, lists no contractors and takes no payment for placement.

How the scale is built

Base ranges

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025
Published contractor and industry pricing ranges
Manufacturer and retailer material pricing

Metro adjustment

Labor adjustment factors are measured from BLS metropolitan wage data: the median ratio of local to national hourly wages across the ten trades this site prices.

Drawing rules

Every chart on a page shares one axis unless its caption says otherwise. Bars are drawn from zero and are never truncated. Full method →

Last updated: October 2026

Estimates, not quotes. These cost estimates are based on aggregated data from public sources. Actual costs vary by project scope, contractor, and local conditions. Always obtain multiple written quotes from licensed professionals. This site sells nothing, lists no contractors and takes no payment for placement. Methodology →