How to Set a Minimum Job Charge
A small floor costs what it does because of the trips, not the square feet. Build your minimum from what it costs to turn up, put your margin on top, and let it set the price on any floor too small to cover it.
Work out what the smallest job you would take costs you just to do: every visit's drive, set up and clean up, the hours on the floor, all of it for the whole crew at wage plus burden, the vehicle cost of each trip, and the material you have to open whole. Put your margin on top. That is your minimum job charge, and on any floor where your usual price per square foot comes to less, the minimum sets the quote.
Why small jobs lose money at your usual price
A price per square foot is an average. It spreads the cost of turning up (the drives, the set ups, the clean ups, the kits you open whole) across enough floor that each square foot carries a small share. On a small floor there is not enough area to carry it, and the cost of turning up does not shrink with the floor.
On coating work it is worse than in most trades, because the number of visits is set by the system, not the size of the job. A system that needs a base coat on one day and a topcoat on the next needs two trips whether the floor is a closet or a warehouse, because the recoat window decides the timing. The first 24 hours after coating covers why a floor cannot simply be rushed.
A worked example
The inputs below are round illustration numbers chosen to show the method. They are not market rates, and this site does not publish wages, prices or margins it cannot defend. Use your own in the minimum job charge calculator.
A crew of 2, a system that needs 2 visits, a round trip drive of 1.5 hours and 2 hours of set up and clean up each visit, and 6 hours per person actually working the floor across the job.
| Line | Cost | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Labor | $780.00 | 26 crew hours × $30.00 wage |
| Overhead | $520.00 | The same 26 hours × $20.00 burden rate |
| Travel | $70.00 | 2 round trips × $35.00 |
| Materials | $400.00 | The smallest quantity that has to be opened, at cost |
| Cost floor | $1,770.00 | Sum of the four lines; below this the job loses money |
| Minimum charge | $2,723.08 | $1,770.00 ÷ 0.65, the share of the price left for cost at a 35% margin |
Each row is one part of the smallest job: the Cost column is what that part costs you and the last column shows the arithmetic. The 26 crew hours are 13 hours per person (2 visits × (1.5 drive + 2 set up) + 6 on the floor) × a crew of 2.
The number worth staring at is not the charge. It is that 54% of each installer's hours are spent driving, setting up and cleaning up rather than coating. That share is what a price per square foot quietly assumes away.
Count visits, not square feet
Because the visits drive the cost, they are also the biggest lever on it. The same job done in one visit has a minimum of $2,130.77, $592.31 less, purely from one fewer drive, set up and clean up. That is the real economic case for a fast curing system on small floors, and it is why the visit count belongs in the quote conversation: a customer choosing between systems is also choosing how many times you have to come back.
Take the count from the data sheets of the system you are quoting, not from habit. Recoat windows decide which coats can share a day, and a one-day polyaspartic system exists precisely to remove visits.
Every hour carries overhead, including the drive
The easy mistake is to cost a small job at wage alone, or at wage for the floor hours and nothing for the drive. Both undercount. An hour in the van is paid, and it carries your insurance, your equipment and your office exactly as an hour on the floor does. Your burden rate is that overhead per crew hour; baking your overheads into every quote explains where it comes from, and the hourly burden rate calculator works it out.
- Travel is the vehicle cost of each round trip: your real cost per mile times the distance. True vehicle cost per job covers why fuel alone is not it
- Materials are the smallest quantity you have to open, not the quantity the floor needs. A tiny floor still uses whole kits, and an opened kit cannot go back on the shelf
- Fixed job costs are anything the job costs whatever its size: disposal, permits, the consumables a set up uses
Where the minimum takes over from your area price
Price every job the normal way first, then compare it with your minimum and quote whichever is higher. The two meet at one floor size. At an illustrative $5.00 per square foot, the example's $2,723.08 minimum is reached at about 545 ft²: any floor smaller than that is priced by the minimum, and any floor larger is priced by the area. The calculator shows this break even size when you enter your own usual price.
Put the minimum on your quotes in writing, before a customer asks for a price on a small area. Stated up front it reads as a policy; added afterwards it reads as a surcharge.
Lowering the minimum without discounting it
A minimum charged below cost is a small job paid for by your other customers. The way down is to lower the cost behind it, and the calculator's breakdown shows which lines are worth working on:
- Fewer visits. A faster curing system, or coats combined in one day where the data sheet allows it
- A shared drive. Book the small job next to a larger one in the same area
- Less set up and clean up. A van kitted for small jobs, so a visit does not unload the whole truck
- A smaller material minimum. Smaller kits where the product range offers them
What this guide does not cover, and where those answers live
- Pricing a full sized job. Pricing an epoxy job for a real profit margin covers cost, margin and markup on the normal path
- Market prices. This site does not publish what other contractors charge, so there is no typical minimum here, only the method for building your own
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I work out my minimum job charge?
Count the visits the smallest job you would take needs, then cost every hour of them for the whole crew (driving, setting up, cleaning up and working the floor) at your wage plus your burden rate. Add the vehicle cost of each trip, the smallest quantity of material you have to open, and any fixed job costs, then put your margin on top. In the worked example on this page that comes to $1,770.00 of cost and a minimum of $2,723.08 at a 35% margin. The minimum job charge calculator does the arithmetic with your own figures.
Should the minimum charge be on my quotes?
Yes, in writing, before the customer asks for a price on a small area. A line saying the minimum charge applies to any job priced below it reads as a policy rather than a surcharge, and it stops a small job being negotiated down to your area price. It also explains itself if the customer later adds a second small area that could have shared the same visits.
Is a minimum charge the same as a trip charge?
No. A trip charge covers the drive and is added on top of the job price. A minimum charge covers everything the smallest job costs, including the drive, the set up and clean up, the overhead, the whole kits and your margin, and it replaces the job price when the job price is lower. A minimum is the more complete answer for coating work, because the drive is only part of what a small job costs.
Why is my minimum so much higher than a small floor at my usual price?
Because your usual price per square foot assumes a floor big enough to spread the cost of turning up. In the worked example, 54% of each installer's hours are spent driving, setting up and cleaning up rather than coating, and that time costs the same on a small floor as on a large one. The area price only covers it once the floor is large enough, which is the break-even size the calculator shows.