How the Bid Fairness Checker calculates true cost.

Every True Cost Calculator result on TheFatBook is built from a v3 Bill of Materials model: labor hours from Craftsman references × regional wage from BLS OEWS × burden rate, plus material costs adjusted with FRED PPI, permit facts from PermitCalculator.com where available, and contractor overhead benchmarks. Contractor markup is calculated as the gap between cost-to-deliver and market average.

Cost-index version: 2026.Q2
Update cadence: source review before each published cost-index refresh; visible pages currently updated May 2026
Primary references: BLS OEWS wages, FRED Producer Price Index materials, Craftsman labor-hour references, PermitCalculator permit facts where available
Cost index author: David Olson, Founder of TheFatBook
Methodology reviewer: Leonard "Chuck" Thompson, LC Thompson Construction Co.