What home improvement projects actually cost
Most cost guides give you one national range and never say where it came from. These calculators do two things differently: they size the job from published code rather than guessing, and they price the labour using federal wage data for your metropolitan area, not the national average. Where a number is our estimate rather than a sourced figure, the page says so on that line, with how far it could be off.
- Calculators
- 100
- Metro areas priced
- 530
- Trades costed
- 31
Find your project
Roof, siding and windows
The envelope: what keeps water out and heat in.
Water, damp and hazards
Basements, drainage, mould, radon and the materials you should not disturb.
Heating and cooling
Furnaces, heat pumps, ductwork and what a repair really buys you.
Plumbing, septic and water heating
From a water heater swap to a whole drain field.
- Drain field replacement cost
- Sewer line repair cost
- Septic tank pumping cost
- Septic tank inspection cost
- Water heater replacement cost
- Tankless water heater installation cost
- Water softener installation cost
- Well pump replacement cost
- Toilet installation cost
- Sewer line replacement cost
- Septic tank replacement cost
Electrical, solar and backup power
Panels, chargers, generators and what the amps really allow.
Kitchen
Whole remodels, cabinets, countertops and the extractor above them.
Bathroom
Remodels, showers, tubs, and the question of what lasts how long.
Flooring
Hardwood, laminate, vinyl, tile, carpet and resin, priced in the unit the trade buys.
Walls, ceilings and paint
Drywall, plaster, popcorn ceilings and what paint costs by the room.
Adding space
Room additions, garage conversions and finishing what you already have.
Garage and doors
Doors, openers, springs and the repair-or-replace line.
Concrete, driveways and patios
Slabs, driveways, pavers and retaining walls.
Pools and hot tubs
What they cost to buy, and what they cost to own.
Yard, trees and fencing
Trees, turf, fences and the pests that get in.
Why the numbers change with your ZIP code
A plumber’s median wage varies by more than 50% between US metropolitan areas, and labour is roughly half the cost of most projects. We use the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey covering 530 metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas (May 2025) to adjust the labour part of every estimate — and only the labour part, because a concrete tank costs much the same wherever it is poured.
Every calculator publishes its dataset as a readable table, with each line marked sourced or estimated and every source linked and dated. Read how the calculation works, including what it deliberately leaves out, or check when each dataset was last reviewed.