What this calculator compares
List each exact box model, quantity and condition, including supplied hinges, lid supports and any missing components. Confirm the carrying route, lid clearance and ready final surface. Walk-in sheds, fitted cupboards, garage racks, base construction and structural fixing design are separate scopes. Use provider-confirmed hours and crew, including the agreed time allowance for a fixed job or package. Task quantities describe the work; they do not predict assembly time. For hourly quotes, confirm the minimum billed hours and whether the rate covers each technician or the whole team. For changing hourly rates, request a written scenario total and choose fixed job total. Mark products, fixings and extras already in the entered package as included, not added again.
This tool calculates from your entered quotations; it does not estimate a market tariff or verify a provider. Blank prices, unknown tax terms and unresolved extras keep the result incomplete. You must confirm the topic-specific scope checks before a cost difference appears.
How the arithmetic works
For a single hourly rate, labour = rate × the greater of quoted scenario hours or minimum billed hours. A per-technician rate also multiplies by technician count; a whole-team rate does not. Enter hours after applying the provider’s agreed billing increments. First-hour premiums and changing rates are not modelled: ask for a written scenario total and enter it as a fixed amount.
Fixed-job and time-package amounts are added once, regardless of the entered hours and technician count. Both details remain required for a useful comparison. Task labels and quantities are a common work brief, never a source of predicted durations. A booked-time comparison does not guarantee completion or cover unapproved overtime or return visits.
Provider amount = labour/package + separately charged provider parts + visit + extras − eligible visit credit. A credit cannot exceed either the charged visit fee or the entered provider work excluding that visit. It cannot offset customer-bought parts. An included or no-charge visit is not deducted again. This model does not handle a separate cash refund arrangement.
The standard UAE VAT rate is 5%. VAT is added once to VAT-exclusive provider amounts, and not added to amounts already including VAT or confirmed not charged. Enter all of one provider’s amounts on the same VAT basis.
Project cost = provider total after its VAT treatment + your separately purchased parts at their final retail total, including any retail VAT and delivery. This keeps customer-supplied parts visible without taxing them twice. Already-owned parts count at the value you explicitly enter; entering zero deliberately excludes their historic purchase cost. No deposit or prior payment is deducted, so the result is not a remaining balance.
A worked example
Illustrative arithmetic, not a market price: a written AED 200 whole-job labour quote plus AED 30 of separately charged provider-supplied fixings totals AED 230 before VAT, or AED 241.50 if both exclude 5% VAT. The booked time and crew are confirmed, and every other required cost is confirmed included or not needed. The fixed amount is added once, not multiplied by hours, people or task quantities. Customer-bought items use their final paid total; do not tax them again.
Assumptions and limits
Money is entered in AED with up to two decimal places. Each monetary field is limited to AED 1,000,000; item counts to 100; handyman lists to 12 rows; hours to 100; and technicians to 20. These are input-error safeguards, not market, capacity or safety limits. Invalid values are not silently rounded into valid inputs. Calculated monetary lines, VAT and totals are rounded to two decimal places.
Unentered damage, scope changes and future work are excluded. The known-provider subtotal uses the amounts as entered, without adding unconfirmed VAT or customer purchases; it is not an all-in quote. Even a complete cost comparison does not certify suitability, workmanship, insurance or approval.
Children must never climb or play inside a storage box. Do not stand on the lid, improvise a lid support or use a box with a falling lid or damaged support; seek the manufacturer's remedy. Follow the exact model's seating and storage restrictions. Keep the box away from balcony guards; anchoring is model- and site-specific, not an instruction to drill through a base or waterproofing.
Read the related Dubai cost and scope guide·Outdoor storage box assembly