Want to know what a job in your home or on your car costs? Pick the work and pick your state. We publish the range — and show you the math behind it.
Above the high line, ask why. Below the low line, ask what's being left out.
Eight trades cover nearly everything that breaks in a house or a car. Each hub holds the price ranges, the components and how long they last, the failure modes that send a bill up, and where each dollar goes.
A price you can't check is just another quote. The index is built from public wage data, published material costs, and standard task times — then adjusted for where you live. The inputs are named, the version is dated, and you can pull the whole thing as JSON.
Every job is broken into a standard task with a unit and a typical labor time — one condenser fan motor, one 40-gallon water heater, one 12×14 room.
Wage data by trade and metro from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, loaded with the overhead a real shop carries — truck, insurance, license, unbillable hours.
Published parts and material costs, regionally adjusted, at the grade a professional actually installs.
A state and metro cost multiplier moves the
national baseline to your ZIP.
base × local_index
Never one number. The 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile — because scope, access, and age of the equipment legitimately move the price.
Homeowners submit what they actually paid. Verified submissions pull the band toward reality and are the only input that ever overrides the model.
Pricing transparency shouldn't depend on which metro you landed in. Every state gets the same eight hubs, the same task dictionary, and the same published method — adjusted for local cost, never for local secrecy.
The model gets you close. Real invoices make it true. Drop in the job, the state, and the number on the bill — no account, no name, no contractor named. Every verified submission moves the band for the next person who looks it up.
Every band is published as structured data, so search engines, assistants, and anyone building on top of it can read the same number you do. Free, versioned, and attributed.
Knowing the number is step one. Next: describe the symptom in plain words and get walked through what's likely happening, what to check yourself, what needs a licensed pro, and what the range is once you know which job it actually is.
Race-to-the-bottom pricing isn't caused by honest competition — it's caused by homeowners who have no idea what the work involves. The index doesn't tell anyone what to charge. It shows the public what a real job costs to do properly, including the overhead a fly-by-night operator skips.
Roughly ten percent. That's what a good shop clears to still be answering the phone the next time you call. Every hub shows this breakdown for its common jobs.