Trades & Local Services
Good tradespeople measure twice. These courses help with both halves of the work: the technical calculations on site and the numbers that decide whether a job pays. You set up the calculation in a spreadsheet, the checker confirms each cell, and you finish with a sheet you could reuse on your next quote.
The 15 courses include electrical loads and voltage drop, pipe offsets and fixture units, HVAC heat loads and duct sizing, carpentry, concrete and masonry takeoffs, machining and welding maths, landscaping quantities, auto mechanics, construction estimating, time-and-materials billing, and the economics of cleaning businesses, car washes and laundromats.
Trades & Local ServicesTake off quantities, price labour, materials and equipment, build a bid with overhead, profit and contingency, then bill, forecast and measure job profit, all on one clinic project in 8 graded labs.
Trades & Local ServicesRun an express tunnel wash by the numbers: cars per hour and utilisation, package mix and average ticket, cost per wash, unlimited club economics and churn, membership mix scenarios, rain-day effects, equipment payback, NPV and IRR, and a monthly dashboard – 8 graded labs on a fictional wash.
Trades & Local ServicesTape fractions and millimetres, 45° and rolling offsets, drain fall and grade, pipe volume and water weight, Q = V × A, fixture unit sizing, water heater first-hour rating and a job quote with a chart: 8 graded labs for apprentices and DIY planners.
Trades & Local ServicesInch/mm and fraction conversions, spindle RPM from SFM and m/min, feed rates and cut times, limits and fits with PASS/FAIL, bolt circle coordinates with SIN and COS, tapers with ATAN, drill point depth, sine bar stacks and a job quote with charts: 8 graded labs for apprentices and CNC learners.
Trades & Local ServicesOhm's law and the power wheel, series and parallel circuits, single- and three-phase power with √3 and power factor, a dwelling load calculation with demand factors, conductor sizing with temperature and bundling factors, voltage drop with a 3 % size pick, conduit and box fill, and motor overload and breaker sizing with a chart: 8 graded labs for apprentices and license-exam practice. Illustrative tables, not affiliated with NFPA or any code body; your local code applies.
Trades & Local ServicesConvert BTU/h, tons, kW and °F/°C, calculate conduction and infiltration loads, sum a room-by-room load to size equipment, split 400 CFM per ton over the rooms, size round ducts by velocity, check superheat and subcooling against targets and compare SEER, EER and COP with an operating-cost chart: 8 graded labs for HVAC apprentices and exam practice. Illustrative tables, not copied from Manual J or ASHRAE; your local code and manufacturer data apply; not affiliated with any trade association.
Trades & Local ServicesRead decimal feet as feet, inches and 16ths, price lumber by the board foot, count studs, plates and headers, find rafter lengths with Pythagoras and pitch angles with ATAN, lay out stairs against code-style limits, order sheet goods and decking with waste and fasteners, and price the job with markup and a chart: 8 graded labs for apprentices, builders and serious DIYers. Illustrative values; your local building code applies.
Trades & Local ServicesWeigh plates and bar from dimensions and density, calculate fillet and groove weld areas, weld metal volume and deposited weight, filler metal with deposition efficiency, heat input in kJ/in with a WPS check, arc time and cost per joint, saw cut lists with kerf and remnants, and a full job cost with a chart: 8 graded labs for welders, fabricators and estimators. Illustrative values; follow the applicable welding code and safety rules. Not affiliated with any welding society.
Trades & Local ServicesRun a self-service laundromat by the numbers: machine turns, revenue per machine and per square foot, utility cost per cycle, size-based pricing and payment costs, wash-dry-fold margins, equipment financing, Saturday peak capacity and valuation at a cash-flow multiple – 8 graded labs on a fictional store.
Trades & Local ServicesMeasure irregular beds from rectangles, circles and triangles, turn depths into cubic yards, m³ and bags vs bulk, count pavers with cut waste and order base in tonnes, space plants on square and triangular grids, order sod and seed, set sprinkler run times from the precipitation rate, estimate crew hours and price a job with markup and a maintenance contract: 8 graded labs for landscapers, garden designers and serious DIYers. Illustrative prices; supplier and local data apply.
Trades & Local ServicesEngine displacement in cc, litres and cubic inches, compression ratio and a head-milling what-if, horsepower and torque with a dyno chart, gear ratios to road speed, tyre codes and speedometer error, mpg ↔ L/100 km and fuel cost, brake and tyre wear limits with conditional formatting, and a full repair quote: 8 graded labs for apprentices and service advisers.
Trades & Local ServicesTake off a fictional builder's concrete and masonry work: slab and footing volumes with waste, ready-mix trucks versus bags, rebar grids and weights, formwork, block and brick counts, mortar, cement and sand, and a priced pour quote with a chart, with every cell checked as you go.
Trades & Local ServicesBill daywork like a contractor who gets paid: burdened labour cost, billable hours and charge-out rates, daywork sheets with night call-outs and quarter-hour rounding, overtime and weekend premiums, tiered material markups, minimum charges, a weekly invoice under a not-to-exceed cap and a job review with a chart, with every cell checked as you go.
Trades & Local ServicesQuote homes and offices from production rates, price recurring plans, plan supplies and crews and see the monthly profit, with every cell checked as you go.
Trades & Local ServicesMeasure and quote a roof: pitch multipliers, true roof area, bundles with waste, edge materials, tear-off weight, gutters and the job price, with every cell checked as you go.
Board feet formula with examples: thickness × width × length ÷ 12, nominal sizes, a lumber list in Excel, price per MBF and the order total with tax.
The engine displacement formula from bore, stroke and cylinders in cc, liters and cubic inches, plus compression ratio and overbore. Worked Excel example.
Markup vs margin explained: both formulas, how to convert one into the other, a price from a target margin and a conversion table, in an Excel example.
No. Codes differ by country and region, so the labs use illustrative limits and clearly say so. Always check your local code and regulations before you work.
Yes. Many courses end with a quoting or job-costing sheet whose structure you can rebuild with your own rates and materials.
Each course is a single purchase of $9.99. That covers every lesson and lab, the final exam and the certificate, with no subscription and nothing that renews.
Start with the recommended course and build your first result in the lab today.
