Shop rate or job rate

Welding estimates start with a rate decision. Shop work bills at your shop hourly rate, with material on top. Field work bills higher because you are hauling a rig, working in worse conditions, and losing shop time to the drive. Many welders quote field work as a day rate or with a service-call minimum so a one-hour gate repair still covers the trip.

Say which rate applies on the estimate. A customer comparing your field price to someone's shop price is not comparing the same thing.

Material and prep are half the job

Material goes in at your cost: steel or aluminum by length or weight, plate by the piece, plus cutoff waste. Then the prep nobody sees: cutting, beveling, cleaning to bright metal, and fit-up. On repair work especially, removing rust, paint, or the old failed weld can take longer than the weld itself.

Estimate prep as hours like any other task. If you have ever finished a job and realized the grinding took all afternoon, that time belonged in the estimate.

Process, joints, and consumables

The process sets the pace. Stick and MIG run faster on heavy repair and fabrication; TIG is slower and goes into the estimate hours accordingly. Count the joints or measure weld length, estimate time per joint from your own work, and add consumables: wire, gas, electrodes, discs, and tips are real cost on every job. Recovering those costs is a markup question, and the contractor markup guide covers how contractors build one.

Consumables are small per job and big per month. A per-job consumables line or a shop-supplies percentage keeps them out of your pocket.

Travel, setup, and minimums

Field work has logistics: loading the rig, drive time, setup, and sometimes a second trip when the fit is wrong. Price mobilization as its own line, and set a minimum charge for field calls so short jobs do not cost you money to perform.

If the job needs certified welds, special procedures, or inspection, check what the customer and local requirements call for and price the extra time and testing into the estimate.

Mistakes that eat a welder's margin

  • Quoting the weld time and forgetting the prep
  • Charging shop rate for field work with a two-hour drive
  • No minimum, so small repairs lose money on every trip
  • Leaving wire, gas, and discs out of the price
  • Pricing from a photo and finding rust, paint, or bad fit-up on site
  • No line for a second trip or rework outside the original scope

Putting it on paper for the customer

The estimate should show material, prep, welding labor by task, consumables, and mobilization as separate lines, with the minimum charge stated where it applies, the total, and how long the price holds. On repairs, note your assumption about the condition of the base metal, because what you find after grinding can change the job.

EstimateBook can draft it from the truck: describe the job by voice or attach a photo of the work, review and edit line items, quantities, and markup, and send the PDF before you drive away. The draft is a starting point; your joint count and prep estimate are the real numbers.