The calculators
Why every default says placeholder
Both calculators open with round numbers in every box, so they run the first time you load them. Those numbers are not market data. Not survey figures. Not quotes. We picked them so the tool would work out of the box. The pages say that above the form, not in a footnote.
The reason runs through everything else here. Material cost, crew cost, daily square footage, overhead, equipment and insurance all swing hard. By market, by system, by shop. A confident national figure would be easier to publish. It would also get built into somebody’s pricing and stay there. Swap every default for your own number and the output means something.
Both tools run in your browser. Nothing gets sent anywhere. Nothing gets stored. No signup in front of either one.
The math is on the page
Each calculator prints every formula it uses right under the tool. How crew days get rounded. How slab condition slows the daily rate. How overhead and margin get applied. What the payback figure ignores.
A calculator that hides its arithmetic asks you to trust a black box with your pricing. The people these tools are for spot that right away. They are right to. If you disagree with something, you can see it and change it.
The guides behind the tools
Each calculator has a guide that explains the method instead of just running it.
Want this math on every job instead of one at a time? That is what CoatHQ’s estimating engine does. Same calculation, inside the software. Then real material and crew hours land back on the job, so the next estimate beats this one.