What Are Construction Cost Estimating Services?
Construction cost estimating services calculate the expected cost of a building project from its drawings and specifications. An estimator measures every quantity of work in the documents, prices those quantities using current material, labor and equipment rates, adds the indirect costs of running the job, and delivers a breakdown a contractor can bid from or an owner can budget against.
The output is not a single number. It is a cost breakdown, usually organised by CSI MasterFormat division, showing what each part of the work costs and why.
Our Construction Cost Estimating Services
We handle the full range of cost estimation services a project needs, from the first feasibility question through to the final bid.
Bid Estimates
If you are chasing more work than your team can price, we prepare the bid estimate for you. That includes the quantity takeoff, priced materials, labor hours and rates, equipment, and a breakdown of the subcontracted scopes so you can level incoming quotes against a like for like baseline. We flag scope gaps and unclear details in the documents, and we account for addenda issued during the bid period rather than pricing an outdated drawing set.
Preliminary and Conceptual Estimates
Early in a project you rarely have complete drawings, and you still need a number. Our preliminary estimates work from schematic drawings, sketches or a defined program, using square foot rates and historical costs from comparable projects. These are decision estimates: enough to test feasibility, size a loan, or decide whether a scheme is worth developing further. We tell you what the number is based on and where the uncertainty sits.
See our preliminary estimate services for early stage work.
Design Phase Estimates and Cost Planning
Our estimating team works with architects and designers through the design phase, pricing design options as they develop. This lets a design team test alternatives against the owner’s budget while changes are still cheap to make, instead of discovering an overrun at bid time. We reconcile each stage estimate against the last one and explain what moved, so nobody is surprised by a shift between schematic design and construction documents.
Budget Estimates and Cost Control
For owners, developers and construction managers we prepare the budget estimate that sets the project’s financial framework, then support cost control against it as the work proceeds. That includes checking contractor pricing against independent numbers, reviewing bid submissions, and testing value engineering proposals so cost reductions do not quietly remove scope the owner assumed was included.
Change Orders, Claims and Expert Witness Support
Disputes usually come down to what a scope of work should reasonably have cost. We price change order requests, review claimed costs, and prepare independent cost opinions for owners, contractors and attorneys. For insurance and damage work we also prepare estimates in Xactimate.
What Is Included in a Construction Cost Estimate?
A complete construction cost estimate covers direct costs, indirect costs, and markup. Leaving out any one of the three is the most common reason a bid loses money after it wins.
Direct Costs
Direct costs are the costs of physically building the work.
Materials. Priced from the quantity takeoff, including waste and lap factors where the trade requires them, at current supplier and database pricing.
- Crew hours by trade, priced at local wage rates with labor burden applied. Burden covers payroll taxes, insurance, workers compensation and benefits, and it is a substantial addition to base wage that inexperienced estimates often miss.
- Owned or rented plant, delivery, fuel and operator time.
- Subcontracted work. Priced scopes for trades you do not self perform, set out clearly so you can compare them against the quotes coming in.
Indirect Costs and General Conditions
Indirect costs do not attach to a specific piece of work but the project cannot happen without them. General conditions typically include site supervision, project management time, temporary power and water, temporary fencing and site security, sanitation, dumpsters and cleanup, safety provisions, small tools and consumables, and temporary access or protection. Permits, inspection fees, bonds and project specific insurance sit alongside them. On most building projects general conditions are a meaningful percentage of the total, and the percentage varies with project duration, site constraints and location.
Markup, Contingency and Escalation
Three items sit on top of the cost of the work itself.
- Overhead and profit. Your company’s cost of doing business plus your margin, applied as markup.
- An allowance for what the documents do not yet resolve. Contingency covers uncertainty in the design, not poor estimating, and it should shrink as the drawings develop.
- On projects where procurement is months away, prices move. Long duration projects need an escalation allowance on the materials most exposed to it. Ignoring escalation on a twelve month job is a budget risk, not a conservative choice.
We set out allowances and exclusions explicitly, so you can see what has been priced, what has been assumed, and what has been left out.
Types of Construction Cost Estimates by Design Stage
The accuracy of any estimate depends on how much of the design exists when it is prepared. No estimator can produce a bid grade number from a concept sketch, and any firm that tells you otherwise is selling something.
| Estimate type | Typical design information | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|
| Order of magnitude or conceptual | Program, area schedule, sketches | Go or no go decisions, early feasibility |
| Schematic design estimate | Early plans and elevations, outline scope | Setting the project budget, supporting financing |
| Design development estimate | Partially developed drawings and specifications | Budget control, testing value engineering options |
| Detailed or bid estimate | Construction documents, full specifications | Hard bids, GMP proposals, subcontractor buyout |
AACE International, the body that publishes the cost estimate classification systems used across the industry, sets out its guidance for building and general construction in Recommended Practice 56R-08. It notes that the earliest class of estimate for building work can carry an accuracy range as wide as minus 30 to plus 50 percent, depending on project complexity, the cost data available and how contingency has been handled. Ranges tighten as design definition improves. We tell you which stage your estimate sits at and what that means for the number, rather than quoting a single figure of accuracy for every job.
How We Prepare Your Estimate
Cost Data and Local Pricing
Prices are not national. Labor rates in St. Louis are not labor rates in San Francisco, and the same is true of materials once freight is in the number. We price using RSMeans together with our own in house cost database, applied at zip code level so the rates in your estimate reflect the market your project is actually being built in.
How We Check the Numbers
Every estimate is reviewed by a senior estimator before it leaves the office. The reviewer checks the takeoff against the drawings, tests the unit rates against comparable recent projects, and confirms that the assumptions, allowances and exclusions written into the estimate match what the documents actually show. Where we have made an assumption because the drawings do not resolve a detail, that assumption is written down in the estimate rather than left implicit.
We do not claim a fixed accuracy percentage. Accuracy depends on the completeness of the documents you send us, and we will tell you honestly what to expect from the set you have.
Estimating Software We Use
Software does not replace an estimator’s judgement, but it removes arithmetic errors and makes a takeoff auditable. Our team works in PlanSwift, Bluebeam Revu, Trimble, Xactimate, Quest Estimating, FastPIPE, FastDUCT, RSMeans CostWorks and RFMS, and we can work in your platform or template if your workflow requires it.
CSI Divisions and Trades We Estimate
We estimate across all CSI MasterFormat divisions, so a single estimate can cover the whole project rather than leaving you to assemble it from separate trade packages.
Sitework, earthwork, masonry, concrete, finishes, drywall, painting, flooring, roofing, lumber, millwork, metals, rebar, structural steel, doors and windows, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, HVAC, ductwork, thermal and moisture protection, insulation.
Projects and Clients We Estimate For
Residential Construction Cost Estimating
Single family homes, custom builds, multifamily, additions, remodels and renovations. Residential estimating services for builders, remodelers, architects and homeowners planning a build.
Commercial Construction Cost Estimating
Retail, restaurants, offices, warehouses, healthcare, education and hospitality projects, including tenant improvement work. Commercial estimating services for general contractors, developers and owners.
Industrial Construction Cost Estimating
Manufacturing facilities, processing plants and heavy civil scopes where the mechanical and structural content drives the cost. Industrial estimating services are quoted individually because the review takes longer.
What You Receive
Every estimate is delivered as an Excel workbook, in our template or yours, containing:
- Line item descriptions organised by CSI division
- Quantity, unit of measure and unit rate for each item
- Separate material, labor and equipment columns
- Subcontracted scopes shown separately from self performed work
- General conditions, overhead, profit and contingency broken out
- Assumptions, allowances and exclusions stated in writing
- Colour coded marked up plans showing exactly where every quantity was measured
The marked up plans matter more than most buyers expect. They are what lets you check a number you disagree with instead of taking it on faith. You can view sample estimates before you send us anything.
Turnaround Time and Pricing
Most estimates are delivered within 24 to 48 hours of accepting the quote. Large commercial packages and complex industrial projects take longer, and we tell you the delivery date up front rather than after you have paid.
Pricing depends on the scope, the number of divisions and the quality of the documents, not on the value of the construction. A single trade takeoff is typically around 200 dollars, and small scopes that take a few hours are less. Residential, commercial and industrial packages are quoted from your drawings, usually within minutes of receiving them. Monthly packages are available for contractors bidding regularly. Full details are on our pricing page.
Where We Provide Cost Estimating Services
We work with clients in all 50 states from our office in St. Louis, Missouri. Because everything is done from your drawings, location affects the pricing data rather than the delivery. We apply the material and labor rates for your project’s zip code, which is why an estimate for a job in Boston and an identical job in Phoenix come back with different numbers.
If you are searching for construction cost estimating services near you, the practical question is not whether an estimator is local but whether their cost data is. Ours is.
How to Get Started
FAQs
How accurate will my estimate be?
Accuracy follows the documents. A conceptual estimate from sketches carries a wide range; a bid estimate from complete construction documents is priced line by line and is tight enough to bid from. Every estimate states which drawing set and addenda were used, what was assumed and what was excluded.
How long does an estimate take?
Most single-trade takeoffs and small residential or commercial estimates are delivered in 24 to 48 hours. Larger multi-division and GC bid packages take longer, and you get a firm delivery date in the quote before you pay. Send us your bid due date and we schedule backwards from it.
What do you need from me to get started?
Drawings in PDF, whether that is a bid set, construction documents, schematic plans or conceptual sketches, sent directly or as a Dropbox or plan-room link. Specifications, addenda, the trades you want priced and the project zip code make it faster. If specs are not ready, we price from the drawings and list every assumption.
Do you price for my location or use national averages?
Everything is priced for your project's zip code: current local material rates, local crew wage rates with labor burden applied, and subcontractor pricing for that market. On projects where procurement is months away we also carry an escalation allowance on the materials most exposed to price movement.
What do I actually receive at the end?
A line-item Excel estimate organised by CSI MasterFormat division, with quantities, unit costs, labor hours, subcontracted scopes kept separate, and allowances and exclusions listed. It comes with a colour-coded takeoff showing where every quantity came from, in our template or your own bid template.
Does the estimate include general conditions, overhead and profit?
Yes, and each sits on its own line. General conditions cover supervision, project management, temporary utilities, fencing, sanitation, cleanup, safety and small tools, plus permits, fees and bonds. Overhead, profit and contingency are applied on top using your markup percentages, or rates we recommend if you do not have them.