Guides
Construction estimating guides
How to take off, price and check the work, written for estimators. Each guide works through real examples you can follow on your own job.
- GuideBurdened vs Direct Labor Rate: What Goes Into Each and How to Calculate BurdenWhat separates a direct wage from a fully burdened labor rate, how to work out your burden percentage, and where to carry it in a bid.Read the guide
- GuideCSI MasterFormat Divisions: A Practical Guide for EstimatorsWhat MasterFormat is, the divisions estimators use most, how section numbers work and how to organize a takeoff and estimate by division.Read the guide
- GuideCut and Fill Explained for EstimatorsHow cut and fill volumes are found, and how bank, loose and compacted yards, shrink and swell decide whether a site imports or exports.Read the guide
- GuideDigital Takeoff vs Paper and Excel: How the Work Is DoneThe same takeoff done three ways, step by step, and a practical plan for moving from paper or a spreadsheet to digital.Read the guide
- GuideDoor and Hardware Schedule Takeoff: Doors, Frames and Hardware SetsRead door tags and the door schedule, count doors and frames by type, and turn hardware sets into item counts with a worked example.Read the guide
- GuideDrywall and Framing Takeoff: Walls, Board, Studs and TrackMeasure walls by partition type, then turn length and height into board, studs, track, headers and finishing, with worked counts.Read the guide
- GuideHow to Build a Bid Summary: From Direct Cost to Bid TotalThe lines between direct cost and the bid total, the order they compound in, and a full worked bid summary that adds up.Read the guide
- GuideHow to Count Fixtures from a Lighting PlanRead the fixture tags and the luminaire schedule, count every type and variant, and catch the fixtures that hide on other sheets.Read the guide
- GuideHow to Do a Concrete Takeoff for Slabs, Footings and WallsSlab, footing and wall volumes in cubic yards, with thickened edges and waste, worked through step by step.Read the guide
- GuideHow to Read a Davis-Bacon Wage DeterminationWhere wage determinations are published, how each part of one reads, and how to turn a classification line into a bid labor rate.Read the guide
- GuideSitework Estimating Basics: From Clearing to PavingWhat sitework covers, how to break it into takeoff items with the right units, the order it is built in, and the items that are easy to miss.Read the guide
Bring your next bid set.
Upload the drawings, set the scale and measure your first item in the same sitting. Your projects live in the cloud, so the whole team opens the same set from any computer.
Start your free trial. No card required.