The number a homeowner wants is a published “$450 pump swap” special, or a price they saw for a replacement on a coupon site. That number is not a takeoff. A 1/3 HP swap in an existing pit with fifteen included feet of discharge is not the same job as a new basin cut through a concrete slab, a 1/2 HP pump, forty feet of discharge, a battery backup, and a high-water alarm. The trip is the same. The hours are not.
Open the free bid calculatorBasement-waterproofing calculators price interior drain tile, French drains, and crawl encapsulation. Well-pump calculators price depth, a pitless adapter, and a pressure tank. A sump install is a different job: the pump, the pit, the discharge past the included first fifteen feet, and the backup that is not in the coupon. Quoting all of that from a published swap special is how the first saw cut eats the field margin.
Each extra foot of discharge past the included first fifteen is time that never appears on the coupon. A new pit is billed as its own hours. A concrete slab cut, a battery backup, and an alarm are adders that get forgotten on a brochure special. On the sample rates a new-slab 1/2 HP install with forty feet of discharge, a battery backup, and an alarm prices about $3,455.03 (12.2 crew-hours, walk-away $2,418.52). The same shop’s existing-pit 1/3 HP swap prices about $738.90 (2.5 hours, walk-away $517.23). Matching the brochure job’s $450 special on the slab house is how that job becomes a loss — the $450 special already loses $67.23 even on the brochure swap.
Adding a battery backup and an alarm to the existing-pit swap is not the $450 special plus 15%. On the sample rates that package prices about $1,644.70 (3.9 crew-hours). A new dirt-crawl 3/4 HP install with a water-powered backup, fifty feet of discharge, freeze protection, and a permit prices about $3,443.62 (11.9 hours). Treating either as a blended add-on is how the special that looked fine turns into a loss after the first basin set.
A $42/h installer loaded at 34% payroll burden is $56.28. Margin is a share of the price you send, not a markup on cost. The walk-away price is total cost — below that the job makes nothing before you take a dollar home. Replace every rate with your invoices before you send either number.
This is not a waterproofing design, a drainage plan, a building-code determination, a permit, an engineering stamp, or a recommended market price. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. Pump size, pit type, discharge, backup, alarm, and freeze protection are yours to confirm. It does not price a basement waterproofing system or a well-pump replacement.
Charge from the trip, the pump swap, a new pit versus an existing-pit swap, extra discharge past the included first fifteen feet, battery or water-powered backup, alarm, freeze protection, loaded labor, overhead, and a margin that is a share of price. A default 1/3 HP existing-pit swap with fifteen included feet of discharge, at the sample rates in this calculator, prices around $739 — about 2.5 crew-hours.
Homeowners count a pump. Pit excavation, a concrete slab cut, extra discharge, and the backup that is often more than the primary do not scale with that number. Matching a cheaper special written for an existing-pit swap is how a new-pit-and-battery job becomes a two-day loss. On the sample rates the $450 special is already $67 under the walk-away cost of the brochure swap.
A new basin cut through a slab with a 1/2 HP pump, forty feet of discharge, a battery backup, and an alarm is not a swap special. On the sample rates that job prices around $3,455 (12.2 crew-hours, walk-away $2,419), while the existing-pit 1/3 HP swap prices around $739 (2.5 hours).