Pick your trade. We will show you the questions worth asking.
You do not sit down with a blank spreadsheet either. Open the fencing page and there is the set that actually moves a fence number — linear feet, material, height, gates, tear-out and terrain, in that order and with the reason for each one. You build it once in the dashboard, in about twenty minutes, and it is yours to change from then on.
Then you set the rates. Your per-foot price, your minimum, your travel zones, your gate adder. We supply the thinking; you supply the numbers. Nobody at Tailgate Office decides what your work is worth.
A question set for every trade on this page — 33 of them, and we will walk you through yours
Same four tools underneath. Different questions, different job values, different hiring problems.
Fencing
Linear feet, material, height, gates, tear-out and slope. Five questions and a real number.
Open the Fencing pagePressure Washing
Roof, house, driveway, deck. Four surfaces, four rates, one instant quote — plus recurring plans.
Open the Pressure Washing pagePainting
Interior or exterior, rooms and coats, and prep you can finally charge for out loud.
Open the Painting pageLandscaping & Lawn
Quote the season, not the visit. Lot size in, recurring contract out.
Open the Landscaping & Lawn pageRoofing
Squares, pitch, layers and gutter footage — on jobs where an unanswered call costs five figures.
Open the Roofing pageDecks & Patios
Square footage, material, railing and stairs. A build range before you ever drive out.
Open the Decks & Patios pageCleaning Services
Beds, baths, frequency and add-ons. Recurring revenue booked straight off your website.
Open the Cleaning Services pageJunk Removal
Truck-load fractions, stairs and heavy items, priced before you burn a tank of diesel.
Open the Junk Removal pagePlumbing
What the job is, how many bathrooms it reaches and how you get at it — on a phone line whose worst call comes at two in the morning.
Open the Plumbing pageHVAC
What is being replaced, how many tons and where the indoor unit sits — and the one trade whose price honestly changes with the month, twice a year.
Open the HVAC pageElectrical
What the panel is doing, circuit count and what the house is being asked to carry — on a phone line that rings all at once the morning after a storm.
Open the Electrical pageFlooring
Square feet times a rate, plus stairs, tear-out and trim — and two services, because the material is the rate.
Open the Flooring pageConcrete
Square feet, thickness, finish and base prep — plus a winter booking rate for the four months you cannot pour.
Open the Concrete pageRemodeling
Rooms in the scope, how many of them are wet, whether a wall is moving and the year the house went up — plus a remodel that gets a site visit instead of a number, and says why.
Open the Remodeling pageWindows & Doors
Window count, frames, glass and access — plus the 7pm call with a branch through the living-room window.
Open the Windows & Doors pageGarage Doors
Door count, size, material and opener — plus the 5:40 spring call with a car shut in the garage.
Open the Garage Doors pageGutters
Feet of eave, profile, downspouts and guards — plus the October week when every gutter crew in the county is already booked.
Open the Gutters pageSiding
Wall square footage, the board she picks and every window and door to wrap — plus the one number nobody can quote until the old siding is off.
Open the Siding pageTree Service
Height, trunk, what is under it and how a chipper gets to it — plus the Saturday evening after a storm when forty people ring six tree companies at once.
Open the Tree Service pagePest Control
Two numbers rather than one — what the first treatment costs and what each visit after it costs, with the plan discount already inside the option she picks.
Open the Pest Control pagePool Service
Gallons, what you want us doing each week and what is hanging over the water — plus the two jobs either side of the season that are a date before they are a price.
Open the Pool Service pageHandyman
Book the hours, tick the list, see the number. The basket trade, priced without pretending the basket multiplies.
Open the Handyman pageMasonry
Square feet of wall face, the unit and the footing — plus the winter months when mortar will not cure and every wall has to be built tented.
Open the Masonry pagePaving
Square feet, what is on it now, how thick and what the base needs — plus a winter booking rate for the months the asphalt plants are shut.
Open the Paving pageSolar
Kilowatts against a baseline rate, then the panel, the inverter, the roof covering and the height as percentages on the whole job — and a gross number that is never net of the federal credit.
Open the Solar pageWater Damage & Restoration
What the water is, how much finished floor it reached and how long the equipment has to stay — on the one trade where the number the form prints is not the number anybody pays.
Open the Water Damage & Restoration pageAppliance Repair
The machine, the symptom and how buried it is — on the trade where the service call is the quote, and the phone rings when somebody gets home to a warm fridge.
Open the Appliance Repair pageChimney Sweep
Flues, what burns in them and how long it has been — plus the twelve weeks from October when every sweep in the county is already booked.
Open the Chimney Sweep pageInsulation
Square feet of attic floor, the depth and the material — plus a spring shoulder rate, and a number that is the price of the job before any rebate.
Open the Insulation pageSeptic Service
Tanks counted rather than lids, roughly how big, how long it has been and whether anybody can still find the lid — plus a drain field that never gets a number, because the soil and the health department decide that one.
Open the Septic Service pageMoving
Home size, the stairs at both ends and a mileage band she declares herself — plus the sixteen weeks from mid-May when every truck in the county is already spoken for.
Open the Moving pageLocksmith
A lockout is a $75 to $150 call decided in ninety seconds by whoever answers first, so the widget is not there to price it — it is there to take the details fast and put them somewhere you see them.
Open the Locksmith pageSnow Removal
Driveway length, surface and trigger depth settle a whole winter in September — and then the storm itself is the one thing the form refuses to quote, which is the honest answer.
Open the Snow Removal pageWhy trade-specific questions are the whole ballgame
A quote form that asks the wrong questions produces a number you have to walk back. That is worse than no number at all.
The right variables, or the range is fiction
Quote a fence without asking about tear-out and you are 20% light on half your jobs. Quote a house wash without asking how many stories and you priced a ladder day like a driveway. These pages exist so the range you show is one you can stand behind.
Homeowners answer questions they recognize
People will tell you "about 140 feet, cedar, two gates." They will not fill in a blank box labelled "project details." Trade-specific questions get finished; generic forms get abandoned.
It screens the tire-kickers before you drive
Someone who sees $4,200–$4,900 and still hits "lock in my quote" has made a decision. Someone who wanted a $900 fence is gone before you ever loaded the truck. Both outcomes save you a Saturday.
It is faster than the phone call it replaces
The five questions you ask on every intake call go in once and get asked forever. The homeowner answers them at 9pm. The answers are in your inbox before you have put the phone down, and you call back knowing the job.
Your prices, not a market average
Every rate is a field you own. Per foot, per square foot, per room, per yard, flat adders, percent bumps, a job minimum, and travel zones by ZIP. Change one and every quote from that minute forward uses it.
It keeps working when the season turns
Pressure washing in February and fencing in January price differently than in June. Set a seasonal date range once — "1 April to 31 August, plus 10%" — and it repeats every year. Winter and waitlist routing and a seasonal pause on the plan itself do the rest, so the widget follows your year instead of fighting it.
What each trade should be asking
The short version, and none of it is fixed — add a question, delete one, reorder them, whenever you like.
| Trade | Questions that drive the price | Typical job |
|---|---|---|
| Fencing | Linear feet, material (cedar / vinyl / chain link / aluminum), height, gate count and type, tear-out and haul-away, terrain and slope, post setting | $2,500–$9,500 |
| Pressure Washing | Square footage, surface type, roof vs. driveway vs. house wash, number of stories, water access, recurring plan interval | $250–$1,200 |
| Painting | Interior or exterior, room count or square footage, ceilings, trim and doors, prep and drywall repair, number of coats, color change | $1,200–$8,000 |
| Landscaping & Lawn | Lot size, one-time vs. recurring, mow / mulch / cleanup, bed square footage, equipment access and gate width, seasonal contract length | $60/visit – $6,000 |
| Roofing | Roof squares, pitch, existing layers, material, gutter linear feet, guards, chimney and skylight count | $6,000–$25,000 |
| Decks & Patios | Square footage, material (pressure-treated / composite), height off grade, railing footage, stairs, demo of existing | $4,000–$20,000 |
| Cleaning Services | Bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, frequency, add-ons (fridge, oven, windows), pets, first-time deep clean | $120–$450 |
| Junk Removal | Truck-load fraction, item list, stairs or elevator, heavy or hazardous items, same-day surcharge | $150–$800 |
| Plumbing | Job type (water heater, one run, whole-house repipe, main water line, tankless), bathrooms the new pipe reaches, pipe material (PEX, CPVC, copper), access (open crawlspace, finished basement ceiling, through finished walls, under a slab), grey polybutylene supply flagged by an insurer, drywall patched and painted afterwards, how soon she needs somebody, travel zone | $1,750–$15,000 |
| HVAC | What is being replaced or added (a ductless head, one half of a system, a matched changeout, a second system), tons of heating and cooling, efficiency tier, where the indoor unit lives, a gas or oil furnace changing to a heat pump, duct sealing and a bigger return, a system still running on R-22, time of year — two peaks that never overlap — travel zone | $5,000–$18,000 |
| Electrical | Panel work (subpanel, replacement, or a 200-amp service upgrade with meter base and mast), new circuit count, the new load the house has to carry (EV charger, heat pump, range or dryer, hot tub), age of the branch wiring, aluminum branch wiring flagged by an insurance inspection, generator interlock and inlet, a panel buried in a finished wall, travel zone | $1,800–$15,000 |
| Flooring | Square footage, material family (plank / laminate / carpet on one rate, hardwood / tile / stone on another), rooms and areas, stair treads, tear-out and square feet removed, subfloor prep, furniture moving, trim and transitions, travel zone | $2,000–$12,000 |
| Concrete | Square footage, slab thickness, finish (broom / integral color / exposed aggregate / stamped), mesh or rebar, base and grading prep, tear-out of the old slab, pump or tight access, right-of-way apron, travel zone | $1,750–$20,000 |
| Remodeling | Rooms in the scope, how many of them are kitchens or bathrooms, whether a wall, a ceiling line or a structural opening is involved, the year the house was built, whether measured drawings, a plat or an as-built already exist, how soon you want a number in your hand, travel zone | $15,000–$80,000 |
| Windows & Doors | Window count, frame material, glass package, how high the openings are, full-frame or insert, exterior capping and interior trim, entry and patio door count, travel zone | $950–$26,000 |
| Garage Doors | Door count, opening size, material and insulation, opener type, windows and hardware, haul-away of the old door, tight headroom or side room, travel zone | $1,750–$14,000 |
| Gutters | Linear feet of gutter, profile and material (5-inch K-style / 6-inch / half-round aluminum or copper), one story or two, downspout count, buried downspout runs, guards and guard type, fascia repair, tear-off and haul-away, travel zone | $1,700–$8,700 |
| Siding | Material family as its own service (vinyl and insulated vinyl / fiber cement, engineered wood and cedar), wall square footage, board grade within the family, one story or two or a walkout, windows and doors to wrap, linear feet of soffit, fascia and frieze, what is coming off and how many layers, tear-off and haul-away, known rot behind the wall, how cut up the elevation is, lift access, travel zone | $3,500–$34,000 |
| Tree Service | Tree count, height band, trunk diameter at chest height, what is standing underneath, chipper and truck access, a lane closure at the street, stump count, where the wood goes, how soon they need you, travel zone | $450–$7,500 |
| Pest Control | On the plan visit: what the regular visit covers (outside only, general pests, plus mice and rats, plus German roaches), home size, how often — a negative-percent frequency discount of 25 / 16 / 8 — what is under the house, how much of the outside is treated, a detached garage or shed, rodent stations checked each visit; on the initial treatment: what brought them, home size, foundation, exterior scope, sealing the ways in, treating the attic; travel zone. No season on either service. | $45/visit – $1,200 |
| Pool Service | Pool volume in gallons, what each visit covers (water only, water and baskets, or full service with brushing, vacuuming and a filter check), visit frequency including a negative band for every other week, sanitizer (chlorine, a saltwater generator at a discount, or bromine and mineral systems), a spa or water feature plumbed in, tree cover over the water, a weekend stop that raises the monthly floor, travel zone; the closing and the opening carry no rate card at all — they are routed by service mode, waitlist and winter, because a shut season is a mode and not a percentage | $110–$450/mo |
| Handyman | Hours booked and the two-hour minimum, fixture / fan / switch count, TV and wall mounting, small plumbing, drywall patch and paint, doors and weatherstripping, shelving and flat-pack, ladder work above the first floor, haul-away, travel ZIP | $185–$1,100 |
| Masonry | Square feet of wall face, what is being built (veneer, freestanding or retaining), the unit (block, brick or manufactured thin stone veneer), masonry step count, existing or new footing, demolition of what is there now, access for a mixer and a pallet, travel zone | $1,450–$20,000 |
| Paving | Square footage, what is there now (bare ground, gravel, old asphalt milled off, old concrete broken out), compacted thickness, base and grading, access for a paver and a loaded tri-axle, standing water and drainage, a new county entrance with a culvert, sealcoating square footage, crack filling, one coat or two, travel zone | $4,000–$18,000 |
| Solar | System size in kilowatts, panel tier (standard mono, high-efficiency mono, premium all-black), inverter type (string, DC optimizers, microinverters), roof covering (asphalt shingle, corrugated or standing-seam metal, flat EPDM or TPO, concrete or clay tile, slate), storeys and roof pitch, a main electrical panel and meter upgrade, whether the homeowner will claim the federal credit (asked, and priced at nothing); on the service call, what the system is doing, panel count, roof access, feet of critter screen, how soon; travel zone | $15,000–$35,000 |
| Water Damage & Restoration | Water category and where it came from (a supply line, water heater or appliance hose, rain or ground water through a wall, a sewage backup), wet finished floor in square feet, what is on that floor (bare concrete or tile, carpet and pad, engineered wood or laminate, solid hardwood saved on drying mats), how far up the wall the water went and whether the drywall opens for a flood cut, stored contents to move and block, water left standing more than 48 hours, equipment-days — blowers and dehumidifiers multiplied by the days they stay, because the engine adds answers rather than multiplying two of them together — whether it is going through insurance, which deliberately changes nothing, travel zone; on the mold report, air sample count, what the report is for, how much of the building is inspected, a borescope probe and the insurer's own form | $2,000–$40,000 |
| Appliance Repair | Which appliance it is (washer, dryer, dishwasher, refrigerator or freezer, range, cooktop or wall oven, over-range microwave, ice maker), what it is doing (will not start, will not drain or spin, not cooling or not heating, leaking, noisy, an error code, a door, latch or gasket), how old the machine is, any OTHER appliance repaired on the same trip — the service call is charged once however many machines we open, access (open floor, down a stair, stacked in a closet or under a counter, built into cabinetry or behind a panel-ready front), the make and therefore the parts channel (mainstream, Samsung or LG, European, premium built-in), how soon she needs somebody, travel zone; and on the diagnostic service the same machine, access and count with no repair in it | $89/call – $850 |
| Chimney Sweep | Flue count, what burns in it (open fireplace, wood stove or insert, gas log set, oil or wood furnace flue), years since the last sweep, roof height and pitch, a stainless cap or multi-flue chase cover fitted on the visit, a top-sealing damper, a nest or blockage that raises the job floor, the first-fire season from October to December; on the inspection service, flue count in the report, what the report is for, how soon it is needed; travel zone | $200–$6,000 |
| Insulation | Square feet of attic or crawl floor, target depth (R-30, R-38, R-49 or R-60), material (blown cellulose, blown fiberglass, fiberglass batts or mineral wool), removing the old insulation, eave baffles, air sealing the top plates and can lights, the attic hatch or pull-down stairs, travel zone; spray foam is a second rate card, by foam type and depth, where it is going, strip-out and thermal barrier | $975–$13,000 |
| Septic Service | How many tanks are being pumped (tanks and not lids: a two-compartment tank is one, a pressure-dose system or a mound is two), tank capacity from 750 gallons to 1,500 and up, years since the last pump-out, whether the lid is at grade, buried, or lost altogether, cleaning or replacing the effluent filter, fitting a watertight riser and lid while the hole is open, a tank backing up or sewage surfacing (which raises the job floor rather than adding a fee), travel zone; the inspection for a sale or a loan is a second rate card, by tank count, what the report is for, how much of the system can be reached, the county's or the lender's own form and how soon it is needed; drain fields, failed systems and new installs are never priced from the form | $300–$25,000 |
| Moving | Home size from a studio to four bedrooms or bigger, the declared mileage band between the two addresses, how the crew reaches the truck at the address being loaded, how they get in at the address being delivered to, rooms packed, anything over 300 pounds (treadmill, gun safe, upright or grand piano, pool table), a Saturday or month-end date, a building wanting a reserved elevator and a certificate of insurance, furniture to dismantle and reassemble, the moving season from 15 May to 10 September, travel zone read as the deadhead to the pick-up | $395–$7,500 |
| Locksmith | On a lockout: what she is locked out of (a house or apartment door, a garage, shed or padlock, a car or truck, a shop or storefront, a safe or gun cabinet), how soon she needs somebody — later today, right now at the door, or the middle of the night, which she declares rather than the clock deciding, because the engine has no hour — whether a key is broken off in the cylinder, whether it is a high-security cylinder, whether she wants a spare cut on the doorstep, travel zone. On lock work: door count, which is the only per-door rate, what goes on them (rekey the existing cylinders, new deadbolts and levers, Grade 2 hardware, a keypad deadbolt) as a percentage on the whole job, keying the house alike, the building type, whether a door has to be bored for a bolt, and whether a mortise lock is in any of them — which adds nothing and raises the floor under the finished job. | $89/call – $3,000 |
| Snow Removal | Driveway length from the road (the only answer that multiplies), width — single, double or a turnaround, surface (asphalt, gravel, pavers), trigger depth at two, three or five inches, salt on the apron or on everything, walks and steps, whether there is anywhere at the edge to push the snow, a before-6am commitment that raises the job floor; on the per-storm service nothing is priced at all, because winter mode routes before a rule is read; travel zone | $345–$2,400/season |
Typical job ranges are industry ballparks for a residential single-family job, offered to show the scale of what a missed call costs. Your market and your rates will differ — that is why every number is yours to set.
Not on the list? Build your own in an afternoon
There will never be a page here for every trade in America, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. If your trade has no page above, nothing about the four tools changes — a missed call and an applicant do not care what is written on the truck, and the quoting is yours to build either way.
What we did write is the builder underneath every trade page here. Add a question, choose its type — number, slider, pick-one, yes/no, photo prompt — and tell it what it does to the price. Multiply per unit, add a flat fee, apply a percentage, trip a minimum. Those four rules are the whole engine, which is exactly why it is explainable to a homeowner. Fifteen questions is the practical ceiling; most trades need five.
If you get stuck, send us your last ten invoices and what you charged. We will build the first version of your question set for free during the trial. Not an upsell, not a “professional services engagement.” A guy with your invoices and a text editor.
Build Your Own Question Set Ask If Your Trade FitsWhat a custom question looks like
Run more than one trade?
Plenty of crews do fencing and decks, or washing and window cleaning. Run as many services as you like on one account and let the homeowner pick which one she wants before she answers anything. No extra charge per service.
Quoting is one quarter of it
Quoting is the visitor who found you. The other three handle the ones who called, the crew you need to do the work, and the review you ask for once the job is done.
NapkinPrice™
Instant quotes · $99/mo
Your questions and your rates live here. Homeowner answers, leaves a number, sees a range. The spec is in your inbox before she closes the tab.
See NapkinPriceCallMitt™
Missed-call text-back · $49/mo
About 62% of contractor calls go unanswered and voicemail gets a callback about 3% of the time. Write the reply once, with business-hours, after-hours and vacation versions. Delivery starts when your carrier registration clears.
See CallMittCrewFunnel™
Keyword hiring · $69/mo
“Text CREW to (555) 010-4477” on the tailgate — your texting number, your keyword. Six screening questions, knockouts, a fit score, interviews booked in a tap. No resume, no login. Answered on a web screening page until our carrier registration clears.
See CrewFunnelHurraBell™
Review requests · $49/mo
Mark the job done and, once review requests are switched on for your account, that customer gets one request for a Google review in your words — an email, and a text carrying your own review link once your carrier registration clears. One reminder, nothing offered in return, and every customer asked, because Google and the FTC say so.
See HurraBellAll four, one login, $199/mo — 25% off buying them separately. In fencing, roofing and decks, one recovered job pays for well over a year — 22 months on a single $4,500 fence. In the smaller-ticket trades on this page it is a handful of jobs, not one, and we would rather say so.
Start Free TrialQuestions we get on the trade pages
No, and you cannot — there are no prices of ours to inherit. You enter your own questions and your own rates, and a quoting service will not go live until it carries a real base fee or minimum above zero (a site-visit or waitlist service does not need one, because it never shows a number). We do not know what lumber costs in your county and we are not going to guess for you.
Fine. Set a base fee on the service and use pick-one questions for the size tiers, each carrying its own dollar amount. Junk removal and cleaning are usually built exactly this way — a quarter truck, a half truck, three bedrooms, four bedrooms.
It scares off the ones who were never going to buy, which is the point. The homeowner who is serious wants to know if you are in the neighborhood of their budget before they spend an hour on an estimate visit. Ranges keep you honest and keep your Saturdays free.
Yes, per service. Insurance work, commercial bids, anything with a scope you refuse to price sight-unseen — put that service in site-visit mode. The visitor answers every question and gets your own "we will come look at it" message instead of a number, and the whole spec still lands in your inbox. You can also set a ceiling on a service that does quote: anything over it routes the same way automatically. Not everything should get a number online.
The missed-call text-back and the hiring tool do not care what trade you are in at all — a missed call is a missed call. NapkinPrice does not care either: the builder is the same one behind every page here, and every question in it is written by you regardless of the trade. What you lose by not having a page here is our opinion about which questions matter, and you can get that on the phone.
Yes — add, delete or reorder any question at any time, and the same for your rates, your travel zones and your seasonal date ranges. Changes apply to every quote from that moment forward. Nothing you have already captured is touched: a quote keeps the rates, zone and season it was priced with, so the number you gave someone in April still explains itself in September.
Pick your trade. Be quoting tonight.
Thirty days free, no credit card, no setup fee. Cancel from the dashboard without calling anyone.