How Does ISI Construction Price Remodeling Projects?
When you’re planning a home repair or remodel, understanding how your contractor sets prices is just as important as choosing finishes and fixtures. Clear pricing helps you compare estimates, set a realistic budget, and feel confident about where your money is going.
This article explains how ISI Construction structures project costs, what our pricing includes, and what homeowners should focus on when reviewing an estimate. For broader context on typical contractor fees and markups, you can also explore our General Contractor Pricing Guides and Home Remodel Contractors resources.
How Contractor Pricing Works in General
Most professional contractors—ISI included—build their prices from the same three ingredients:
Direct Costs
Trade partners (plumbers, electricians, tile installers, painters, etc.)
Materials (fixtures, cabinetry, flooring, tile, lumber, drywall, etc.)
Project-specific items (dumpsters, specialty equipment, some permits)
Overhead & Operations
Project management and coordination
Office staff and administration
Insurance, licensing, and taxes
Vehicles, tools, and equipment
Software, scheduling, and communication systems
Warranty support and callbacks
Profit
A modest profit keeps the company healthy enough to retain good people, stand behind its work, and be available for future projects.
Different contractors organize and display these costs in different ways. Some show a smaller visible “contractor fee” percentage plus additional markups on other line items. Others use a single, all-inclusive markup on direct costs rather than listing separate management or overhead fees.
How ISI Structures Pricing
At ISI Construction, we use a single, all-inclusive markup on the direct costs of your project (materials and trade partners). That markup is designed to cover:
The time our team spends managing and coordinating your project
The overhead required to run a licensed, insured construction company
A modest net profit so we can stay stable and stand behind our work
After paying for direct costs and overhead, our goal is to end up with a net profit typically in the 8–10% range of the total project price. This is in line with what many professional residential contractors aim for.
The key difference is how we show it, not that we are trying to earn dramatically more than other contractors.
What You See (and Don’t See) on an ISI Estimate
One of the main advantages of our approach is simplicity on the estimate.
What you see on your estimate:
Line items that describe your project:
Demolition
Framing and drywall
Plumbing and electrical work
Flooring, tile, cabinetry, paint
Cleanup and related project tasks
Each of these line items already reflects the full price for that portion of the work.
What you won’t see as separate line items:
“General contractor fee”
“Project management fee”
“Overhead & profit” add-ons
Miscellaneous or vague “management charges”
Those costs are not missing—they’re simply baked into the pricing you see, rather than being broken out as a stack of separate fees. This means you can focus on your project scope and total price, instead of trying to interpret multiple layers of contractor charges.
A Simple Way to Think About Different Pricing Models
It can help to think about two homeowners completing the same project:
Same house layout
Same materials and finishes
Same level of quality
One contractor might show:
A base “job cost”
Plus a visible contractor fee (for example, 15–20%)
Plus other add-ons or markups
Another contractor—like ISI—might show:
A list of project line items
Each already priced with an all-inclusive markup that covers management, overhead, and profit
No additional contractor fee added on top
Even though the paperwork looks different, the total project price and the contractor’s net profit can end up being very similar. They’re simply organizing the same basic components—direct costs, overhead, and profit—in different ways.
Do You Charge Separate Management Fees or Hourly PM Rates?
For our home repairs and remodels, we do not:
Charge a separate hourly rate for general project management, or
Add an extra “management fee” or “GC fee” on top of your estimate
The time we spend:
Visiting your home
Communicating with you
Coordinating with trade partners
Ordering and staging materials
Handling inspections and issues
…is built into the way we price the project overall. In other words, you’re not sifting through a list of extra management charges—we’ve already accounted for the work required to manage your project properly.
If your project includes additional services like design consultations or 3D renderings, we’ll outline those clearly and separately so you know exactly what you’re paying for.
What Should Homeowners Focus On?
Percentages can be confusing on their own, and different contractors label their fees differently. When you’re comparing estimates—ours or anyone else’s—it’s more helpful to look at:
What should homeowners focus on?
– The total project price for a clearly defined scope
– What is included (management, cleanup, warranty, communication, permits)
– The contractor’s track record, licensing, and reviews
– How clearly they can explain their pricing when you ask
Two proposals can use different fee or markup language and still land at a similar overall cost if they are providing comparable service, quality, and support. The real question is whether the estimate is complete, transparent, and aligned with your expectations.
Why ISI’s Pricing Is Built This Way
Our pricing structure is designed to balance three priorities:
Quality
Making sure we can work with reliable trade partners, allocate enough time for supervision, and use appropriate materials.Stability
Covering the real costs of running a legitimate construction company so we can honor warranties and be here for future work.Clarity
Keeping your estimate focused on the actual project—without a maze of separate management fees—while still being honest about the fact that overhead and profit exist and are built into the price.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to see the numbers behind the scenes, we also offer a more detailed explanation of how contractor markup and net profit work together. You can think of this article as the “big picture” version, with a deeper dive available for those who want it.
Ready to Talk Through an Estimate?
If you’re considering a repair or remodel and want to understand how our cost structure would look for your specific project, we’re happy to:
Provide a written estimate with clear line items
Walk through what’s included and how pricing is organized
Answer any questions you have about how we arrived at the numbers
Clear, understandable pricing is the foundation of a smoother project. When you’re ready, contact us to discuss your home and explore options that fit your goals and budget.
