Shed dealers get shopped on a published $2,499 installed 10×12 Facebook special. Those numbers cannot see the pad or the delivery. A factory-built drop-and-set onto an existing pad with a forklift is a different job from a 12×16 lofted kit with a new gravel pad, a 40-mile crane set, a ramp, extra windows, and old-shed haul-away.
Open the free shed install bid calculatorA backyard shed is a footprint, then a pad, then how it arrives. Length times width is the shed. The pad is that rectangle plus an overhang on every side. An existing pad is a set. New crushed stone is trucks. A new slab is ready-mix. Fifteen forklift miles is not forty crane miles.
The cheap special is almost always a factory-built unit dropped onto a pad the owner already has. A kit is assembly hours on that pad. Stick-built is lumber and more hours still. For the lumber line on a stick-built gable shed, Shed Designer frames it board by board and prices the cut list, so the number is the shed's own and not a per-square-foot guess. Matching a drop-and-set per-foot number on a kit-plus-pad job is how a sold shed becomes a two-day loss after the first gravel ticket.
A ramp is a half-hour and an invoice. Extra windows and a second door are framed openings. A loft is a floor inside the shed. Old-shed haul-away is a dump ticket. The calculator prices the same shed three ways — existing pad, new gravel, new slab — so you can see which pad still keeps the margin when the owner asks you to “just match the other guy.”
Load the wage with payroll burden. Add overhead as a share of direct cost. Then take margin as a share of the customer’s price, not a markup on cost. The walk-away number is total cost. A proposed price under that number loses money before you take anything out of it.
This page is a walkthrough of the arithmetic in the shed install bid calculator. It is not a structural specification, an engineered stamp, or a price you should copy onto a contract.
Charge from pad, delivery miles, access, and extras — not a published drop-and-set special. A factory-built 10×12 on an existing pad with a forklift is a different job from a 12×16 lofted kit with a new gravel pad, a crane, a ramp, and old-shed haul-away.
Yes. An existing pad is a set. A new crushed-stone pad is trucks and a spread. A new concrete pad is ready-mix and a crew day. Matching an existing-pad special on a kit-plus-pad job is how a sold shed becomes a two-day loss after the first gravel ticket.
Trip hours plus miles, then the delivery invoice. A 15-mile forklift drop is not a 40-mile crane set. The miles do not live in a published 10×12 dump.
No. Drop-and-set is a unit invoice plus a short set. A kit is assembly hours on the pad. Stick-built is lumber and more hours still. The cheap special is almost always a drop-and-set onto a pad the owner already has.