Tariffs Are Hitting the Trades Hard. Here's How to Protect Your Pricing.

Category: Business Operations  |  Tags: pricing, tariffs, materials, BC trades

If you've priced a job lately and felt like the numbers didn't add up the way they used to, you're not imagining it. Steel and aluminum tariffs have been layered on throughout 2025, and by the time they worked through Canadian supply chains, the cost of doing business in the trades went up; quietly, consistently, and without warning. You need to protect your pricing in the Trades.

This isn't a political post. This is a practical one. Because the way most tradespeople handle material costs when they get started is the exact reason tariffs can wipe out their margin before the job is even finished.

What's Actually Happening

In 2025, the U.S. imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, later raising some of those to 50%. Canada responded with its own retaliatory measures. The result: higher costs for HVAC equipment, fabricated steel, copper pipe, wire; the stuff you're buying to get work done. The Altus Group estimates roughly 40% of HVAC and mechanical equipment used in Canadian construction is imported from the U.S. If you're in mechanical, electrical, or any trade that relies on imported components, that hit is real and ongoing.

The Problem With How Most Operators Price Jobs

Most tradespeople starting out price jobs one of two ways: what they think the client will accept, or what a competitor is charging. Neither of those accounts for what the job actually costs you. When material costs shift, operators who don't have a system get squeezed. They quoted a number two weeks ago. Materials went up. They eat the difference because they don't have a change order process, and they don't want to look unprofessional. That's not a tariff problem. That's a business systems problem that tariffs just made visible.

Three Things You Can Do Right Now

1. Stop using fixed material pricing on quotes that take more than a week to go to contract.

Build an expiry clause into every estimate. "This quote is valid for 14 days from the date of issue." That's it. When material costs move, you're not locked into a number you wrote before the shift.

2. Separate your labour from your materials on every quote.

If a client asks why the price went up, you need to be able to point to something specific. Bundled quotes make that conversation impossible. Line-itemized quotes make it straightforward: "Material costs for copper and fittings have increased 18% since my last quote, here's the updated breakdown."

3. Build a materials buffer into your overhead calculation.

If you're not already pricing in a materials buffer (typically 10–15% depending on trade) you're absorbing market volatility as profit loss. That buffer isn't padding. It's protection against a cost environment you can't fully control.

The Bigger Picture

Tariffs come and go. Material prices fluctuate. What doesn't change is whether you have a business that can absorb market pressure or one that breaks under it. The operators who weather these shifts aren't the ones with the best luck on pricing, they're the ones with systems. If you're building your business right now, this is the environment you're launching into. That's not a warning. It's just reality, and reality is easier to deal with when you have the right tools.

→ TradesKraft helps BC tradespeople build the pricing systems, change order processes, and cost tracking that hold up when the market moves. Explore the programs at TradesKraft.com