9 articles · updated as we learn something

Construction estimating guides: Estimating notes

Not thought leadership. These are the notes we keep for ourselves: the tables we reach for, the mistakes we keep finding in other people's work, and the arithmetic behind decisions contractors make every week.

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The facade of a multi-storey residential block

Latest · Takeoff

Quantity takeoff, material takeoff and estimate: what each one actually is

Three documents that get used interchangeably and are not the same thing. What each contains, who uses it, and which one to ask for.

13 Sept 20268 min read

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Everything else

The rest of the desk notes.

Most are written for people who already estimate for a living. A few are primers for the people who buy estimates rather than write them, and they are labelled as such.

A newly completed modern house at design stage

Estimating

Construction estimating methods compared

Four ways to put a number on a building, each honest at a different stage of design. Which to use when, what accuracy to expect, and where each one breaks.

13 Sept 20269 min read

A contractor on the phone in front of a timber-framed house

Running a bid room

What to send for an estimate

The quality of a takeoff is capped by the set it was measured from. What a complete package looks like, what can be missing, and what to do when it is.

13 Sept 20267 min read

A technician working on boiler-room pipework

Reference

Waste factors by material

A flat 10% across the sheet is the most common shortcut in estimating and one of the most expensive. Here is the table we work from, with the site conditions that move each figure.

12 Aug 20269 min read

Roofers working together on a standing-seam roof

Takeoff

Nine takeoff mistakes

None of these are exotic. They are the ordinary errors we find when a contractor asks us to check a takeoff that already feels wrong, ordered roughly by how much they cost.

15 Jul 202610 min read

Estimating

Labour: hours, not lump rates

A composite rate hides the two things you most need to change: how long the work takes and what an hour costs. Splitting them takes an afternoon and pays for itself the first time wages move.

17 Jun 20268 min read

A suburban house exterior with garage and front lawn

Estimating

Reading an estimate you did not write

A twelve-hundred-line workbook lands in your inbox two days before the bid. You have about forty minutes. Here is the order to read it in.

19 May 20268 min read

Reinforcement and formwork laid out across an open site

Trades

Swell, shrink and earthwork volumes

Cut equals fill on the drawing and never on site. The reason is that soil occupies three different volumes depending on where it is, and most earthwork estimates only track one of them.

22 Apr 20269 min read

Running a bid room

What a bid actually costs

Estimating feels free because it is salaried. It is not free, and once you put a number on a bid the question of which jobs to chase starts to answer itself.

11 Mar 20268 min read

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