Carpentry Estimating Software for Finish & Framing Carpenters

Why carpentry jobs are hard to price

• Lots of small pieces. Baseboard, casing, crown and shoe each have their own count and cuts.
• Material comes in fixed lengths. You buy whole boards, so waste depends on the room.
• Old houses aren't square. Coping, scribing and shimming take longer than in new work.
• Doors and hardware. Each door hang, slab swap or hardware install is its own task.

How Trades HQ helps carpenters

• Price book with framing and finish carpentry items. Keep your prices and reuse them on every bid.
• Measure from blueprints. Measure walls and runs right off a blueprint PDF.
• Labor-rate guidance by state. See typical carpenter wages in your state, then set your own rate.
• Material price requests. Send one price request to your lumber suppliers and turn the best quote into a purchase order.
• Change orders when the customer adds rooms or upgrades trim.
• Live job profit as labor and materials come in.

A trim estimate, step by step

1. Measure each room's perimeter.
2. Subtract door openings for baseboard.
3. Add a waste factor for cuts; many carpenters add about 10%.
4. Divide by the length of the boards you buy, and round up.
5. Count doors, windows and other pieces that need casing.
6. Estimate your hours, then apply your overhead and profit.

Example (illustrative): baseboard for a 12 × 14 ft room with one 3 ft door.

Pricing tip: Count cuts, not just feet. Older houses with walls that aren't square take longer. And remember that markup and margin aren't the same number: a 20% margin needs a 25% markup. The Estimating Basics guide walks through the math, and the free markup and margin calculator does it for you.