What this site is
CostNumbers is a set of cost calculators for home projects, plus a way to reach local professionals when you want a real quote. It is free, it does not require an email address to see a number, and it is not a contractor, an appraiser or a licensed professional of any kind.
An estimate here is a planning figure. It tells you the range to expect and what drives it, so you can tell a reasonable quote from an unreasonable one. It cannot tell you what your job costs — only someone who has seen it can do that, which is why every calculator says so.
Where the numbers come from
Labour is the largest single cost in every trade on this site, and it varies more by geography than anything else. So rather than publishing one national figure, each calculator adjusts for what that specific trade earns in your state, using the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics series published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Each calculator uses the occupation that actually does the work. This matters more than it sounds: the four trades here differ by nearly two to one in what they earn, so borrowing one trade's wages for another would put a real citation underneath an invented number.
- Tree removal and trimming — SOC 37-3013, Tree Trimmers and Pruners. National mean $25.94/hr across 49 states.
- Piano moving — SOC 53-7062, Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand. National mean $20.38/hr across 51 states.
- Land surveying — SOC 17-1022, Surveyors. National mean $38.57/hr across 50 states.
- Home inspection — SOC 47-4011, Construction and Building Inspectors. National mean $36.1/hr across 51 states.
A ZIP code we cannot place, and a state the Bureau does not publish for a given occupation, both fall back to the national average — and the calculator says so on screen rather than implying a local figure it does not have.
What is not yet sourced. The base costs each calculator starts from — what a medium tree or a two-thousand square foot inspection costs before any adjustment — are industry-typical figures, not measurements. We are collecting real quotes to replace them. Until that is done, treat the geography as the reliable part and the base as an informed starting point.
How we make money
When you ask for quotes, we pass your request to professionals who pay to receive it. That is the entire business model, and it is worth saying plainly because it is the thing most sites like this bury.
Two consequences follow, and we would rather you hear them from us. First, the calculators are free because the quote requests are what earns; nothing you are shown is influenced by what a professional pays. Second, a listing on this site is not a recommendation — we check licensing and insurance where a trade requires it, but you should still get more than one quote and check references yourself.
What we will not do
- Invent reviews, ratings or testimonials.
- Show a professional as verified when we have not verified them.
- Sell your details to anyone you did not ask us to contact.
- Publish a figure we cannot explain when asked where it came from.
Contact
Questions about a figure, a correction, or a professional listing: hello@costnumbers.com. If you think a number here is wrong, tell us what you were quoted and where — that is exactly the data we need.