Construction cost estimating services
A complete, bid-ready estimate across every active division, structured so you can read it, edit it and defend it line by line.
What cost estimating covers
A full cost estimate is the whole package: every division measured, priced and rolled up into a number you can submit. Quantities carry their own wastage, labour is built from a production rate in hours per unit and priced at the crew wage for your market, and material sits in its own column.
The bid build-up ships pre-built with contingency, overhead and profit, tax and bonds as separate lines, so your final number is a percentage change rather than a rebuild. Everything traces back to a colour-marked sheet, which is what turns a client question into a two-minute answer.
Turnaround
3–7 working days on a full multi-division estimate
Who it is for
General contractors, design-build firms and developers pricing a complete project.
Cost estimating
- All active CSI divisions, with empty divisions omitted rather than zero-filled
- Quantities measured by system and location, not as running totals
- Wastage applied per item rather than once at the bottom
- Labour from production rates, priced at regional crew wages
- Material and equipment priced on separate columns
- Bid build-up: contingency, overhead and profit, tax, bonds
- Written assumptions, exclusions and scope-gap log
- Second-estimator review before release
The deliverable.
Consistent whatever the engagement, so it drops into how you already work.
Editable Excel workbook, or your own template populated
Colour-marked PDF drawing set with count legends
Assumptions and exclusions list
Planswift source file on request
Common cost estimating mistakes
These are the errors that turn up most often when work of this kind is checked. None of them are exotic, and all of them are cheaper to find before the number goes out than after.
For a longer list with examples, read nine takeoff mistakes that only show up on bid day.
- One blended labour rate per trade, so neither the productivity nor the wage assumption can be checked or changed
- A single waste percentage at the bottom of the estimate, too generous on some materials and too thin on others
- General conditions taken as a percentage rather than priced against the programme duration
- No written exclusions, so the number is read downstream as covering the whole job
- Markups applied to the wrong base, or bonds calculated before the lines they are meant to cover
Common questions on cost estimating
Typically 3 to 7 working days depending on sheet count, scope density and drawing quality. You get a firm delivery date with the fixed quote, before any work starts, rather than an optimistic estimate that slides.
Yes. Send the template with the drawings and we will build into it. Our standard CSI workbook is included either way, so you can compare the two.
We price what exists and write down what we assumed for the rest, flagging anything that genuinely needs an RFI. That is a far better position than a number that looks complete and quietly is not.
As a fixed project fee, quoted from the drawing set before work starts. The fee depends on sheet count, scope density, the number of divisions, drawing quality, turnaround and output format. It is never billed by the hour.
Work that usually sits alongside this
Most engagements combine more than one of these.
By trade, by sector, and further reading
Trades this applies to
- Concrete estimating & takeoff servicesDivision 03
- Structural steel estimating & takeoff servicesDivision 05
- Electrical estimating & takeoff servicesDivision 26
- HVAC & mechanical estimating servicesDivision 23
- Plumbing estimating & takeoff servicesDivision 22
- Drywall & metal stud estimating servicesDivision 09
Estimating by sector
- Residential construction estimatingHomes, villas & apartments
- Commercial construction estimatingOffices, retail & warehouses
- Industrial & process estimatingProcess, structural & plant MEP
- Civil & sitework estimatingLand clearing to final grade
Further reading
- Construction estimating methods comparedEstimating
- Labour: hours, not lump ratesEstimating
- Reading an estimate you did not writeEstimating
Tell us what you need priced.
A fixed fee, a firm delivery date and a written scope statement, usually back the same working day.
Fixed project fees · Written scope before work starts · Unlimited revisions within scope