Tool 1 of the Get Paid Kit · For aerial installers

Aerial Installer Hourly Rate Calculator

This free calculator works out the hourly rate a self-employed aerial installer should charge for their time, starting from the income you need, then builds the per-install prices clients actually pay out of the hours each rooftop honestly holds. Clients buy a picture that does not break up when it rains — and pay one price for it. Inside that price hides an hour structure they never see: the signal survey, the ladder and roof work, the alignment, the cable run through lofts and eaves, and the testing in every room the new point serves. The hardware is a visible part of every ticket — aerials, dishes, poles and amplifiers — which is exactly why it must not hide inside the labour rate. With the honest presets below the rate lands near $69 an hour, $550 for a full day — and the work built from it: a standard rooftop aerial install at about two hours of labour, $138; a satellite dish installed and aligned at about an hour and a half, $103; a multi-room distribution job at about three hours, $206; a signal fault traced at the one-hour minimum, $69 — with aerials, dishes and hardware billed as their own lines on every job.

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The pricing reality for aerial installers

Aerial work is bought per install and quoted from the doorstep, and earned at height: survey the signal, get the ladder up, mount and align, run the cable, test at the point. The address decides half the job before you arrive — a strong-signal street where almost any aerial works, and a valley where the mast height, the amplifier and the alignment are the whole craft — which is why the honest quote is built from hours first and expressed per install second: two identical aerials on two different roofs are two different jobs.

It sits near the electrician’s work without being it. The electrician’s trade is the mains installation — power, lighting, certification. The aerial installer’s is the signal path: reception, distribution and the picture at the end of it, low-voltage work done largely outdoors and at height. It also neighbours the solar installer’s roof work — but a panel is a fixed array fitted once to a plan, while an aerial is aligned to a transmitter the client cannot see, and judged that same evening on the sofa.

The numbers below are starting presets, not a survey: a $46,000 target income, $8,000 a year of expenses — vehicle and fuel leads, with ladders, roof access and safety gear, signal meters, tools and test equipment, working-at-height liability insurance, phone, booking and admin, marketing, the cable, fixings and hardware float, and training and certification — a 25% tax estimate, four weeks of vacation, a 40-hour week and 60% billable time. With those starting numbers the calculator lands near $69 an hour. The billable share is the road talking: small jobs scattered across a town, roofs that weather cancels and surveys that lead nowhere all take hours no invoice carries, and every install pays for a slice of them.

Your numbers — aerial installer presets

Your recommended rate

$0 / hour
$0Day rate (8 hours)
0Billable hours per year
Income + expenses needed$0
Grossed up for tax$0
With profit margin$0
Working weeks0
Total working hours0
Billable hours0

Your rate is saved on this device only, so the Proposal Generator can show it when you price a project.

Easy to miss

Costs aerial installers forget to put in the rate

  • Weather at height. Wind and rain cancel roof work a diary had already sold. Those lost mornings are inside the billable share because they are inside every aerial year — the rate is what makes a cancelled Tuesday survivable.
  • The survey that leads nowhere. Some houses need a taller mast, an amplifier or a satellite answer you do not sell, and the visit still took the ladder off the van. A stated call-out minimum keeps honest advice from being unpaid advice.
  • Access time. Lofts, eaves, chimney stacks and awkward cable routes are working time, not obstacles between you and the work. An install priced from the doorstep that ignores the loft is underpriced by exactly the loft.
  • Height insurance. Working-at-height liability cover costs what it costs because the risk is real. It sits in these expenses undiluted — the solo installer who skips it is not cheaper, just uninsured forty feet up.
  • The second visit. A bracket the chimney rejects, a cable run the house hides, a signal that shifts with the weather: some installs finish on the second call, and a per-install price built honestly from hours already expects some of them.
The maths

How this calculator works

Start with the hours you can genuinely sell. Take 52 weeks, subtract your vacation weeks, multiply by your hours per week, then multiply by your billable percentage. With the aerial installer presets — four weeks off, 40 hours a week, 60% billable — that is 1,152 billable hours a year: the roof and fitting time clients can pay for, once travel, weather and quoting have taken theirs.

Next, work out what those hours must bring in. Add your desired income and your annual business expenses together — $54,000 on the presets — gross the total up for tax by dividing by one minus your tax rate — at a 25% estimate, divide by 0.75 to get $72,000 — then add your profit margin to reach $79,200 and divide by your billable hours. That final number, $69, is the rate below which the year stops adding up.

Now translate the hour into the prices clients actually buy. The install is the quoted unit, built from hours: a standard rooftop aerial at about two hours, $138 of labour; a satellite dish installed and aligned at about an hour and a half, $103; a multi-room distribution job at about three hours, $206; a fault traced at the one-hour minimum, $69; a full day at $550. Aerials, dishes, poles and amplifiers arrive on the invoice as themselves, at cost or with a stated mark-up. Quoted that way, the client can see what they are buying: a picture that holds in bad weather — and the quote that hides its hours inside the hardware stops looking cheaper.

Next: build a proposal with this rate Use the general rate calculator
Questions

Aerial Installer rate questions

Because the client is buying an outcome — a picture that holds — not a quantity of ladder time. The per-job price is still built from hours, as this page shows: the survey, the roof work, the cable run and the testing each hold time, and the honest installer knows roughly how much before quoting. Quoting the job hides the arithmetic from the client, not from yourself.
No. Hardware is billed as its own lines at cost or with a stated mark-up. A galvanised pole, a high-gain aerial and an amplifier vary too much to hide: one weak-signal install’s hardware would bend the price of every straightforward rooftop job around it. The rate prices your survey, your roof time and your alignment; the hardware arrives on the invoice as itself.
Neighbouring jobs on the same ladder. An aerial is aligned to a land-based transmitter and forgives a degree or two; a dish is aligned to a point in the sky and forgives almost nothing — the craft is finer, the mounting often heavier, and the signal meter earns its keep. They price from the same rate and the same hour logic, which is why one calculator carries both.

Rates differ by trade — the same maths runs with different presets for graphic designer rates, freelance writer rates, web developer rates, marketing consultant rates, photographer rates, video editor rates, virtual assistant rates, social media manager rates, bookkeeper rates, translator rates, business coach rates, illustrator rates, copywriter rates, UX designer rates, SEO consultant rates, data analyst rates, motion designer rates, technical writer rates, podcast editor rates, email marketer rates, life coach rates, proofreader rates, event planner rates, voice actor rates, online tutor rates, personal trainer rates, interior designer rates, music producer rates, grant writer rates, UX researcher rates, book editor rates, transcriptionist rates, presentation designer rates, brand strategist rates, video producer rates, art director rates, WordPress developer rates, mobile app developer rates, 3D artist rates, game developer rates, Shopify developer rates, online business manager rates, podcast producer rates, data entry specialist rates, UX writer rates, copy editor rates, wedding photographer rates, resume writer rates, data scientist rates, instructional designer rates, business analyst rates, email designer rates, interpreter rates, audiobook narrator rates, landscape designer rates, wedding planner rates, wedding videographer rates, personal chef rates, dog trainer rates, music teacher rates, florist rates, cake baker rates, tour guide rates, pet groomer rates, house painter rates, handyman rates, locksmith rates, home organizer rates, pressure washer rates, carpet cleaner rates, chimney sweep rates, pool cleaner rates, window cleaner rates, tattoo artist rates, massage therapist rates, barber rates, makeup artist rates, hairstylist rates, nail technician rates, tailor rates, house cleaner rates, electrician rates, plumber rates, pest control technician rates, ppc specialist rates, content strategist rates, wedding DJ rates, dog walker rates, audio engineer rates, caterer rates, mover rates, appliance repair technician rates, nanny rates, piano tuner rates, garage door technician rates, bicycle mechanic rates, house sitter rates, upholsterer rates, jeweller rates, cobbler rates, blacksmith rates, sign writer rates, farrier rates, mobile car detailer rates, genealogist rates, saddler rates, arborist rates, travel agent rates, watch repairer rates, doula rates, sleep consultant rates, home stager rates, wedding officiant rates, college admissions consultant rates, mobile notary rates, personal shopper rates, welder rates, carpenter rates, glazier rates, plasterer rates, tiler rates, roofer rates, bricklayer rates, HVAC technician rates, dressmaker rates, concrete finisher rates, drywall installer rates, flooring installer rates, gardener rates, fence installer rates, gutter installer rates, solar installer rates, stonemason rates, deck builder rates, insulation installer rates, cabinet maker rates, paving installer rates, furniture restorer rates, blind installer rates, driving instructor rates, picture framer rates, car mechanic rates, clock repairer rates, oven cleaner rates, smart home installer rates, alarm installer rates, drain cleaner rates, curtain installer rates, irrigation installer rates, shutter installer rates, artificial grass installer rates, fireplace installer rates, bathtub refinisher rates, snow removal professional rates, landscape lighting installer rates, radon mitigation specialist rates, home inspector rates, mold remediation specialist rates, window tint installer rates, paintless dent repair technician rates, home energy auditor rates, knife sharpener rates and mobile tyre fitter rates, or start from the general freelance hourly rate calculator.