Last updated October 31, 2026

How much to charge for general contractor work in 2026

The hourly rate a one-truck general contractor needs to charge, built from what general contractors actually earn, a price list for 13 common jobs with the arithmetic shown, what moves the number, and the mistakes that cost the most.

Short answer: a one-truck general contractor business that pays its owner what the median construction manager earns, carries normal overhead, and keeps a 20 percent margin needs about $140 an hour. To pay yourself like the top quarter of general contractors, charge about $165. Top ten percent, $195. Below $120 you are subsidizing the customer with your own wages. Every number on this page is built from published wage data and a model you can see, and the price list further down uses the $165 rate.

A general contractor sells coordination: the schedule, the subs, the permits, the dumpster, the thing that goes wrong on Tuesday. The wage data for the closest occupation, construction managers, is far above the trades because that is what the market pays someone to carry a whole project, and a one-person general who does their own carpentry and subs the licensed trades is wearing both hats. The rate has to pay for the manager hours as well as the tool-belt hours, and most small generals only charge for the second.

General contracting money is made in the markup on subs and material, in the fee for managing, and in change orders written before the work. It is lost in allowances set too low, in schedule slips nobody charged for, and in the month between the last payment and the final invoice. Pricing a remodel is really pricing the phases, each with a sub quote or your own hours, plus the overhead and profit that cover the coordination.

What general contractors earn, and what that means for your rate

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 380,360 people working as construction managers in its May 2025 survey and published what they are paid. That is the wage an employer pays an employee, which is the floor for what an owner-operator should pay themselves. A rate is built on top of it: the hidden cost of an hour of labor, the overhead of running a truck, the hours you cannot bill, and a margin. The model here uses a 22% labor load for payroll taxes, workers comp and the liability share, $48,000 a year of overhead for the truck, insurance, phone, software, tools and licenses, 1,100 billable hours a year, and a 20% margin. Change any input and the rate moves; the hourly rate calculator runs it with your numbers.

If you pay yourself like the	BLS wage	Loaded	Overhead per hour	Rate to charge
Bottom quarter	$43	$52	$44	$120
Median	$55	$67	$44	$140
Top quarter	$73	$89	$44	$165
Top ten percent	$91	$111	$44	$195

Rate = (wage × 1.22 + $48,000 ÷ 1,100) ÷ (1 − 0.2), rounded to $5. Wages: BLS OEWS May 2025, construction managers, national.

The $48,000 overhead is a truck, the general liability and builder's risk coverage, the license and bonding where required, the software, a storage unit and the marketing a general needs to keep a pipeline. The construction manager wage drives the owner's rate; the construction laborer wage, shown as the second row, is the honest floor for the hours you spend swinging a hammer yourself, and many generals carry both rates on the bid as separate lines.

A general contractor price list, with the math

Flat prices for the jobs general contractors quote most, built the same way every time: hours at the $165 rate, plus materials at cost with a 30 percent markup, rounded to $5. The hours and material costs are example inputs for a typical job in a typical market, stated so you can swap in your own. A job with a crew of two doubles the labor line. These are the common phases on residential remodels, priced as your own hours where a one-person general typically self-performs, and as a sub quote plus markup where a licensed trade is required. Sub costs are typical quotes for a mid-size market and are examples, like everything on this page.

Job	Labor	Materials at cost	Price	What it assumes
Project management and coordination, per project week	8 h	none	$1,320	Scheduling subs, inspections, customer updates; priced at the manager rate
Demolition, kitchen or bath, per project	24 h	$450	$4,545	Two people three days; dumpster in material
Dumpster, 20-yard, each	0 h	$550	$715	Delivery, pickup, one ton
Framing changes, per linear foot of wall	1 h	$16	$185	Non-bearing; bearing walls need an engineer and a beam line
Drywall, hang, tape and texture, per sq ft	0.035 h	$1	$5	Own crew or sub
Interior painting, per sq ft of wall	0.03 h	$0	$5	Two coats
Plumbing rough-in, bathroom, sub quote plus 20% markup	0 h	$3,800	$4,940	Licensed sub; fixtures separate
Electrical rough-in and trim, kitchen, sub quote plus 20% markup	0 h	$4,200	$5,460	Licensed sub; new circuits, lights, devices
Tile, floor and shower, per sq ft	0.09 h	$2	$15	Setter or sub; tile is an allowance
Cabinet installation, per linear foot	1 h	none	$165	Cabinets as an allowance; install labor only
Countertop, quartz, per sq ft, fabricated and installed, plus markup	0 h	$75	$100	Fabricator quote; sink cutout extra
Permit and inspections, per project	6 h	$450	$1,575	Your hours to pull and meet; fee varies widely
Final clean and punch list, per project	12 h	$80	$2,085	One person a day and a half

Price = hours × $165 + materials × 1.3. Trip or diagnostic fees, permits and disposal are extra lines.

This is a sample. The free price book builder prices the full general contractor book, 32 jobs, with your own wage, overhead and margin, and gives you the PDF for the truck and the spreadsheet that keeps the formulas.

What moves the price

Allowances. Tile, fixtures, cabinets, counters and lighting are the customer's choices. Set each allowance at a realistic retail number and state it, so the upgrade is their money and not your margin.
Bearing walls and the unknown. Opening a wall, moving plumbing in a slab, and anything structural needs an engineer's letter and a line that says the price assumes what the drawings show.
Sub markup. Fifteen to twenty-five percent on subs is standard and pays for scheduling them, standing behind them and the week they do not show up. It is not optional.
Schedule. A remodel on the customer's calendar for six weeks that takes nine is a dispute. Build the schedule by phase with inspections as milestones and put it on the bid.
Payments. Deposit, then progress payments at visible milestones: demo done, rough-in passed, drywall up, cabinets set, final. A general who waits for the end is financing the customer's kitchen.

Hourly, flat rate, or by the unit

Phase by phase, with your own hours at your rate for what you self-perform, sub quotes with a stated markup for the licensed trades, allowances for the customer's selections, and a management line that pays for the coordination. Add it up, apply overhead and profit if they are not already in the rate, and present one number with the phases visible and the allowances named.

Cost-plus, where the customer pays actual costs plus a percentage, works for customers you know and for jobs nobody can scope, with weekly cost reports. Fixed price wins more work and makes more money for the general who estimates well. Either way the change order is written and signed before the work.

A worked general contractor bid

A hall bathroom remodel, 50 square feet, same layout, new everything. Management: 4 weeks at 8 hours. Demo: 16 hours and a dumpster. Plumbing sub for rough and trim, $3,800 plus 20 percent. Electrical sub for fan, lights and a GFCI, $1,400 plus 20 percent. Drywall repair and paint, own hours. Tile floor and shower, 120 square feet at 0.09 hours and $1.70, tile as a $900 allowance. Vanity, toilet and fixtures as a $2,200 allowance, install at your hours. Permit as a line. Clean and punch, 8 hours. Own hours at the top-quarter manager rate from the table for management, and the laborer-row rate for the hands-on hours.

Most markets see $14,000 to $24,000 for this bathroom, and a bid with the allowances named and a payment at each milestone is the one the customer trusts. The sample bathroom remodel estimate shows the finished bid.

The pricing mistakes that cost the most

No management line. Forty hours of phone calls and inspections went unpaid because they were not on a tool belt.
Allowances set low to win the bid. Every selection becomes a change order and the customer feels tricked by the third one.
One payment at the end. Nine weeks of subs paid from your own account.
Change orders by text. "Sure, we can do that" with no price is a gift.

Writing the price into a bid that gets signed

The number is half the job. The other half is a bid the customer can say yes to from their phone: the scope in lines, one price, the deposit and payment terms, the warranty, a date it expires, and a signature. The free general contractor estimate template is laid out that way in PDF, Word and Excel, and How to bid remodeling jobs covers the scope lines that keep you out of arguments. If you want the typing done for you, BidWriter Pro turns your notes into a clean bid your customer signs on their phone, with the deposit paid by card. $29 a month, 30 days free.

Sources and method

Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Construction managers, national percentile hourly wages and employment.
Also: Construction laborers, median $23 an hour, 1,096,780 employed.
Rate model: labor load 1.22, overhead $48,000 a year, 1,100 billable hours, 20% margin. Hours and material costs in the price list are example inputs, not survey data. Prices are examples, not advice for your market.

Questions contractors ask

How much do general contractors charge in 2026?

Most generals price remodels as a fixed price with 15 to 25 percent markup on subs and materials and a management fee or rate for their own time. Built from BLS construction manager wages, a one-person general needs about $140 an hour for management hours at the median wage and $165 to earn like the top quarter.

What percentage should a general contractor charge?

Fifteen to twenty-five percent on subcontractors and materials is standard for residential remodels, plus the general's own labor hours at their rate. Cost-plus jobs commonly run 15 to 20 percent over actual cost.

How do I set allowances on a remodel bid?

At a realistic retail price for a mid-grade selection, stated on the bid by item. If the customer picks higher, they pay the difference; lower, they get the credit.

How should a general contractor structure payments?

A deposit at signing, then progress payments at visible milestones such as demo complete, rough-in inspection passed, drywall up, cabinets set, and a balance at the punch list.

Should I charge for project management?

Yes, as a line or inside the rate. The coordination hours are the service a general sells, and they are real hours.

Write a general contractor bid from your notes

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