Contractor Profit Calculator for Pahrump, NV Builders Pricing a Job

Overhead is every cost that does not belong to one job: yard or shop rent, insurance, trucks, phones, the office and the owner's own pay. A construction overhead rate spreads it across jobs. Illustration only, invented figures: $96,000 of yearly overhead against $480,000 of expected direct job costs is an overhead rate of 20% of direct cost.

The calculator on this page does not compute profit or overhead. It answers the next question: what carrying a job costs when materials or a payment gap are financed. Some jobs also require a performance or payment bond, and the surety that writes it reviews the contractor on its own terms; this page does not cover bonding, but it shows how much cash a job ties up before the owner pays, which is worth knowing before any bonded bid.

Electrical contractors (NAICS 238210) pricing that kind of job had 16 employer establishments in Nye County, NV in 2023, and plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors (NAICS 238220) had 13, 10 of them with fewer than five employees (CBP 2023).

Illustration only, invented figures: a $64,000 job carries $24,200 of materials, $14,500 of labor, $3,000 of equipment rental and $6,500 of subcontractors, $48,200 of direct cost in all. At the 20% overhead rate, the job's overhead share is $9,640, leaving a profit of $6,160, or 9.6% of the price.

Markup and margin are not the same number. On this job the price sits 32.8% above direct cost (markup), while the gap between price and direct cost is 24.7% of the price (gross margin).

If the materials are financed for 6 months, the calculator on this page shows these results for the same inputs:

The $782.32 of interest comes out of the job's profit, which drops to $5,377.68, or 8.4% of the price. A contractor who wants funding partners to see the real materials figure can start on the apply page and walk through the job estimate on the callback.

Retainage means the project owner keeps back part of every progress payment, releasing it only after the work is complete and signed off. Illustration only, invented figures: under 10% retainage on a $153,000 contract, the project owner sits on $15,300 until closeout; the contractor's estimated profit, at 9%, is only $13,770. The amount held back is larger than the whole profit on the job.

Whether that gap is better covered by a short loan or a credit line depends on how often it repeats; the working capital page covers both shapes.

Progress billing pays for work in stages, and each invoice can take weeks to clear. Illustration only, invented figures: a crew with $6,200 of biweekly payroll starts a job whose first payment arrives 45 days later. Depending on where the first payday falls, 3 or 4 payrolls come due in that wait; with $5,000 of materials, the cash out before the first check is $23,600 to $29,800. Sizing the financing at $30,600 covers the high end of that range with a little to spare.

Nonemployer Statistics counted 48 building finishing contractors in Nye County, NV with no paid employees in 2024 (NAICS 2383); a one-person finisher faces the same wait on its own materials.