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Sealcoating Calculator

Gallons, water, sand, total job cost and a bid price with your margin built in. Free, no signup.

1. Job size

Typical starting point: 2 (SealMaster recommends two coats).

2. Mix design

Typical starting point: 76 (SealMaster: 70–82). Use less on old, porous pavement.

Typical starting point: 20% (SealMaster: 15–25 gal per 100 gal).

Typical starting point: 4 lb (SealMaster: 300–500 lb per 100 gal).

Starting points from SealMaster's published guidance for MasterSeal concentrate: mix design & coats, application rate (TDS), sand volume. Other sealers (polymer-modified, coal tar, ready-mix) use different mix designs — check your product's data sheet.

3. Material costs

Prices filled in are an example: plug in your own numbers from your supplier.

4. Labor & other job costs

What a crew hour really costs you: wage plus payroll taxes and comp.

Mobilization, fuel, equipment, dump fees.

Example: plug in your own numbers.

5. Your price

True margin: profit as a share of the price, not a markup on cost. Example: plug in your own number.

The least you'll show up for. Used if the margin price comes in lower.

Your bid price

Enter the area above to see your bid.

How this is calculated
  1. mixed gallons = area × coats ÷ coverage per coat
  2. Each gallon of concentrate makes 1 + water% + sand lb per gal ÷ 22.285 gallons of mixed material. (22.285 lb of sand fills about one gallon of tank space — the same figure SealMaster's own material calculator uses.)
  3. concentrate gallons = mixed gallons ÷ that number
  4. water gallons = concentrate × water%
  5. sand lb = concentrate × sand lb per gal, rounded up to whole 50-lb bags
  6. material cost = concentrate × $/gal + bags × $/bag + crack LF × $/LF
  7. labor cost = crew × hours × $/hour
  8. total job cost = material + labor + other job costs
  9. bid price = total job cost ÷ (1 − margin%). This is true margin, not markup: at 40% margin, 40 cents of every dollar the customer pays is gross profit. Multiplying cost by 1.40 is a 40% markup, which is only about a 29% margin.
  10. If you set a job minimum and the margin price comes in under it, the bid is the minimum.
  11. price per sq ft = bid price ÷ area, gross profit = bid price − total job cost

Money is rounded to the cent at each step. Gross profit here is before overhead you don't charge to the job (office, insurance, your own salary), so set your margin high enough to cover it. Margin is capped at 95%.

How to price a sealcoating job

  1. Measure it. Wheel it or measure from aerial imagery, and take out what you won't seal: buildings, islands, concrete.
  2. Figure material from your product's data sheet, not a guess. Coverage changes with the pavement. Old, open asphalt soaks up more sealer, so drop the sq ft per gallon.
  3. Add up your real costs: concentrate, sand, crack filler, crew hours at what they actually cost you, and the job's share of fuel, mobilization and equipment.
  4. Put margin on the price, not the cost. If you want 40% of the check to be profit, divide your cost by 0.60. Multiplying cost by 1.40 only gets you about 29%.
  5. Set a job minimum. A small driveway costs almost as much to show up for as a big one.

Example: plug in your own numbers. If a lot costs you $1,000 all-in and you want a 40% margin, bid $1,000 ÷ 0.60 = $1,666.67, not $1,400.

Then check the price per sq ft against jobs you've won and lost. If it's way off, recheck your inputs before you send it.

Paving too? The asphalt tonnage calculator turns square feet and thickness into tons of hot mix.

Related: how to bid sealcoating jobs, sealcoating software and asphalt paving estimating software.

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