Construction Estimating Guide, Blog & Industry Resources

Our construction estimating blog contains articles that are not written by copy writers, but by construction estimators. Recent topics covered here are reading structural drawings to make accurate takeoffs, comparison between the manual quantity surveying and digital quantity surveying and the top ugly bid day pricing mistakes that strip away the contractor margins. These posts are not intended to be a page long and are meant to assist the contractor in making faster estimates and bidding smarter, not a page long.

Not to mention topics that are less hard and have an impact on the bottom line such as the process for determining if you should respond to a bid invitation before trying to determine the hours, the process for pricing a change order and how to package an estimate that will make your client feel good about your work and not question your work.

We have a wealth of resources available, one of our most popular being our extensive how to do construction takeoff guide, which covers everything from reading drawings, to defining scope by trade, quantity takeoff and sourcing unit costs. We do the same thing as our estimators do, in order to enable the contractors to create an in-house estimation workflow that’ll scale as their number of bids increase.

This guide also incorporates software shortcuts, common measurement errors and counting the jobs in take off against the order sheet to ensure materials are ordered before ground breaking. Real examples of residential and commercial projects are provided; steps are also relevant to your BID packages and not just hypothetical situations.

In addition, we outline the trades that are easier for contractors to self-estimate accurately and those that must be reviewed by a specialist (like MEP systems and structural steel) before they can bid on the project.

The platform is as significant as the estimator that is using it. Our construction estimating software guide will delve into the best takeoff and pricing software, pricing, learning curves, and best software that integrates with popular project management software. We continually update this estimating best practices construction resource as new releases and features are released so that you are bidding with the latest tools.

It also outlines the pros and cons of cloud vs. desktop takeoffs depending on team size, how takeoffs are shortened in cloud-based plan rooms and what additional software should be included in larger takeoff bids.

The construction cost trends USA and construction industry news USA is constantly changing because materials cost, availability of labor and code changes are always in flux. Tracking lumber, steel and concrete prices as well as the flow of labor around the region to allow contractors to adjust in time for the bid day.

We also mark upcoming code changes which can impact the cost of imported materials, tariff changes that can impact the cost of materials from certain regions and seasonal demand fluctuations which may influence pricing in certain areas — all of the context that can bring a bid closer to the actual cost of a project.

Download preconstruction checklist USA resources are used to house all the necessary documentation required for a project before an estimate can be started, with complete drawing sets, addenda, site visit notes and scope letters to send out to subcontractors. Add our construction bid strategy articles on bid sequencing, contingency and bid package presentation to the mix.

The resources should be used as a guide to help you on any future project to make sure you are ready to give your company a bid on any project, regardless of who’s leading the project!

The information below is designed to address specific questions regarding takeoff and construction estimating FAQ library that contains dozens of detailed answers covering takeoff accuracy, software compatibility, takeoff price information sources and how to interpret an estimating quantity survey you didn’t write yourself. It’s a useful guide for project managers who are considering price estimates without actually putting them together!