Costs
Price the job from your own numbers.
One source YardPermit has read publishes an installed price for one of these projects: an industry report’s estimate for a defined deck, which the deck page gives. None does for the others, so their pages give none. All four give the quantities, what the trades earn and how to put quotes side by side.
| Project | Compare quotes per | Lead trade | U.S. median wage, May 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fence | linear foot | Fence erectors | $23.07/hr |
| Deck | square foot of deck | Carpenters | $29.12/hr |
| Patio | square foot | Cement masons and concrete finishers | $27.41/hr |
| Driveway | square foot | Cement masons and concrete finishers | $27.41/hr |
4 projects have cost pages so far. The shed field guide carries the same method in brief: the unit to compare quotes by and the trade’s wage.
How to price a project here
Start with the quantity, not the price. The calculators count what a job needs — posts and bags for a fence, joists and linear feet of decking for a deck, tons for a gravel base — and multiply each by a price you enter from a store shelf or a quote. A line left blank stays out of the total instead of counting as free.
What the public data covers
Three federal figures appear on these pages, each with its period and scope: the wages the Bureau of Labor Statistics measured for fence erectors, carpenters, cement masons and construction laborers (May 2025); what benefits added to pay in the construction industry (June 2026); and the average value of crushed stone and of sand and gravel sold by U.S. producers, from the U.S. Geological Survey (2025). The deck page adds the Cost vs. Value report’s estimate for one fully specified deck. None is a price for your project. A wage leaves out benefits, overhead and margin, and a producer’s average is not what a yard charges for a delivered load. The four trades’ wages for every state are in one table.
What moves a real bid
Three things move a quote more than the material does. Access — whether a machine can reach the yard or every bag comes through a gate by hand. Geometry — corners, gates, stairs and multi-level shapes add edges and labor without adding footage. And scope creep — an old fence to remove, a ledger to flash, a slab to thicken. The cost pages list the lines to ask for so three contractors price the same job.
Why most of these pages give no national price
A national price per foot would have to come from somewhere. The federal surveys measure wages and materials, not finished residential jobs, and averaging retail listings or contractor blogs would publish someone else’s unsourced number as ours. The deck is the exception: a report estimates one deck with every part of its scope stated, so the deck page gives that estimate with the scope beside it. The rule is in the methodology: a price appears only when a primary source publishes it, with its year and scope.