Method change
Structural and building-envelope pages checked against the codes
About fifty pages — decks, stairs, framing, egress, additions, concrete, block, retaining walls, fences, ramps, pavers, roofs, siding, drywall, insulation, windows, doors, glass, tile and floors — were checked rule by rule and figure by figure against the 2021 and 2024 IRC and IECC, the wood council's deck guide (DCA 6), ACI 302.1R and 332, NRMCA CIP 6, ASTM F567, ANSI A108.02, the 2010 ADA Standards and the manufacturers' data the pages cite. The deck calculator now sizes its beam, posts, footings and ledger fasteners from the deck guide's tables. It was an AI-assisted check, edited by the editor; it is not a review by a structural engineer or a building inspector, and the pages do not claim one. Eleven corrections are listed on the corrections page; smaller points — door landings, roof-pitch measuring, ice barriers, attic venting, metal roof slopes, tile offsets, safety glazing, photo-eye rules, termite gaps, concrete moisture tests, nail counts, wall insulation in the energy code — were tightened without changing a figure.
Read from American Wood Council, DCA 6 — Prescriptive Residential Wood Deck Construction Guide and American Concrete Institute, ACI 302.1R, Guide to Concrete Floor and Slab Construction and ENERGY STAR / U.S. Department of Energy, ENERGY STAR window criteria by climate zone
Method change
Electrical and gas pages checked against the codes
Twenty-one pages — panel, wire size, breakers, GFCI, outlets, recessed lighting, ceiling fans, hot tubs, solar, floor and driveway heating, bath fans, thermostats, gas lines, gas fireplaces, pool heaters, tankless and tank water heaters, furnaces, boilers and range hoods — were checked rule by rule and figure by figure against the 2023 National Electrical Code, the International Fuel Gas Code and NFPA 54, and the International Residential Code. It was an AI-assisted check, edited by the editor; it is not a review by a licensed electrician or gas fitter, and the pages do not claim one. Ten errors are listed on the corrections page. Smaller points were tightened without changing any figure: hot tub receptacle distance, cord length and bonding; light fixtures over a tub; the energy code's airtight rule for recessed lights; switch-loop conductors for fans; two-pole thermostats on 240 V; the 120 per cent rule for solar on a 100 amp panel; the GFCI locations of the 2020 and 2023 codes; GFCI reset behaviour since 2006; arc-fault and emergency disconnect rules on a panel swap; sediment traps; CSST sizing; makeup air for range hoods, required where a natural-draft appliance is inside; Category I venting and chimney resizing; and the low-water cutoff on hot-water boilers.
Read from National Fire Protection Association, NEC Article 424, Parts V and IX — Heating cables and radiant heating panels and National Fire Protection Association, NFPA 70, National Electrical Code, Article 680 Parts I and IV — Spas and hot tubs and National Fire Protection Association, NFPA 54, National Fuel Gas Code / IFGC Table 402.4(1) — pipe sizing for Schedule 40 steel and International Code Council, International Residential Code, Section M1503, Domestic cooking exhaust equipment
Method change
The state labour index now comes from what the trades are paid
The factor applied to the labour half of an estimate when you give a ZIP code or a state was the BEA's Regional Price Parities, a cost-of-living measure dominated by rent. It is now built from BLS wages, May 2025: for carpenters, electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, painters and construction labourers, each state's median hourly wage over the national median, weighted by each trade's national employment. The range widens from 0.87–1.11 to 0.79–1.44, and some states move a long way: Illinois from 1.00 to 1.38, Hawaii from 1.10 to 1.44, California from 1.11 to 1.23, Florida from 1.03 to 0.90, Texas from 0.97 to 0.89. Figures shown without a location are unchanged, because they use the national median. The old index stays beside the new one on the labour cost by state table for comparison.
Read from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics — state estimates, May 2025 and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities by State
Method change
The rest of the labour figures are now hours times the BLS-based rate
A further 156 labour-only figures — per foot of trim, fence, gutter guard and railing, per square foot of painting, sanding, flagstone, slab, sod and floor heating, per step, per cabinet, per door, and per job for vanities, toilets, tubs, shower doors, glass, mini splits, humidifiers, GFCIs and breakers — are now hours times the trade's BLS rate: 102 at the crew rate, 54 at the service-visit rate. The typical figures did not move; the low and high ends now follow the BLS spread of wages, so most ranges widened. Every one is listed, with its hours, on the labour rates and hours table. Left as they were: installed prices that include materials, whole-service prices such as cleaning and mowing, trip charges and minimums, dealer and retailer prices, and garage door labour, for which the BLS has no matching occupation.
Read from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics — national estimates, May 2025 and MaterialsEstimator, Billing multiple on trade wages — editorial estimate
Figure revised
Last typed hourly rates replaced with BLS-based ones
Six hourly rates had been missed: a handyman at $65 on the bathroom fan, ceiling fan, dishwasher and garbage disposal pages, an HVAC technician at $105 on the thermostat page, and a hearth installer at $100 on the gas fireplace page. They are now $72 (BLS general maintenance and repair workers) and $88 (BLS HVAC mechanics), both at the service-visit multiple. The handyman pages rose by $3 to $9, the thermostat page's figures fell by $9 to $51, and the gas fireplace insert fell from $8,620 to $8,452.
Read from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics — national estimates, May 2025 and MaterialsEstimator, Billing multiple on trade wages — editorial estimate
Method change
Template glossaries, step lists and pre-visit checklists removed
Every calculator page carried the same three blocks whatever the job: a glossary of terms, a numbered how-to, and a checklist of things to do before the contractor arrives. They are gone from 142 pages — 142 glossaries, 138 how-to lists and 47 checklists that repeated the mistakes list beside them — along with the HowTo and glossary markup that described them. The 96 checklists that carry something only that page says, and the four step lists written for their page (the NEC load calculation, the wire temperature columns, ramp landings and the kitchen sequence), stay. No figure changed.
Method change
Labour per square foot is now hours times the BLS-based rate
Seventy-six per-unit labour figures — per square foot of tile, flooring, drywall, paint, insulation and roofing, per foot of fence and drain, per square of siding, per block, step and fixture — are now written as hours per unit times the trade's rate from BLS wages. The typical figures did not move: the hours were derived from the previous rates, so they are still our estimates, and they are now published task by task on the labour rates and hours table so they can be checked. The ranges now follow the BLS spread of wages for the trade.
Read from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics — national estimates, May 2025 and MaterialsEstimator, Billing multiple on trade wages — editorial estimate
Figure revised
Hourly labour rates now start from BLS wages
Twenty hourly rates across eighteen calculators were our estimates and did not agree with each other — a carpenter was $85 on one page and $90 on another, a plumber $115 or $120. Each is now the BLS median wage for the trade (May 2025) times a billing multiple of 3.0 for a service visit or 2.2 for a production crew, with the BLS 10th and 90th percentiles as the range. Typical rates now: carpenter $87, electrician $91, plumber $92, HVAC technician $88, painter $71, roofer $80 (crew $59), cement mason $82 (crew $60), plasterer $83, carpet installer crew $53. Plumbing pages fell most — a kitchen faucet with the shutoffs changed from $570 to $528, a new sump pit and pump from $1,450 to $1,312 — and most other pages moved by under 5%.
Read from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics — national estimates, May 2025 and MaterialsEstimator, Billing multiple on trade wages — editorial estimate
Method change
Our own price ranges relabelled as editorial estimates
The 145 price and practice figures that are ours, not a manufacturer's, a code's or a government agency's, were listed as surveys. They are now listed as editorial estimates set by the editor, and their method notes no longer describe a collection of price lists or quotes that did not take place. No figure changed. They are being replaced with sourced data, labour first, each replacement logged here.