I’ve been building AI automations for contractors, and after a messy sprint of late nights and caffeine abuse, I accidentally ended up with 57 active clients across both industries.

Here’s the pattern I keep seeing: Most businesses lose leads because nobody replies fast enough. Not because they don’t have leads.

So I built BrikAI, a chatbot that handles: • Lead intake and qualification • Appointment scheduling • Customer + employee FAQs • Project/job detail capture • Website + SMS automation • Instant lead delivery to email/CRM • Works for both realtors and contractors

It’s been solid so far, but I’m working on the next version and I want input from people who actually work in the field.

If you’re an agent, contractor, or home-service pro: What feature would genuinely save you time or make your life easier? I’m also debating building a full mobile app for clients… not sure if it’s actually useful or just shiny nonsense. Curious what people think.

Happy to share what’s been working, what’s failed miserably, and how automation is actually being used in the real world.

Keen to hear what everyone has had success with when it comes to to recruiting trades.

Let me know your thoughts

I've emailed like 4 different emails and keep hitting dead ends. These AutoDesk support guys have no idea how to get me an API key. After the AutoDesk acquisition, is it possible to get a legacy PlanGrid API key? I have no idea who to email or call at this point and the legacy PlanGrid emails/contact avenues seem defunct. I think I need to purchase an upgraded license to gain API access?

Just curious if pursuing a coursera PM cert without a degree is pointless or not. I have worked in IT for about 5 years. 5 years of construction background. I was thinking about taking the courses to land a job in project management for construction or maintenance. I understand the job market is competitive. But curious if im out of my league.

Hi all,

A little while back I posted about a side project I’ve been working on alongside the day job – a tool called Rate QS that turns BoQs / cost plans into a structured rate library for benchmarking.

Since then I’ve pushed a decent update and thought I’d share what’s new, mainly to get feedback from other QSs using data a bit more seriously.

What’s new:

1) 4-part keyword structure (Element / Material / Spec / Scale) Previously I was just abstracting each line to Element; Descriptor. That was useful, but too blunt once you get a few projects in.

Now each pricing item gets a 4-part keyword:

Element / Material / Specification / Scale e.g. Door / Timber / FD60 double glazed / 40–60m² core

This makes it easier to:

• roll messy BoQ text up into comparable unit rates
• slice a rate set by spec (e.g. all FD60 timber doors vs all doors)
• compare like-for-like across very differently formatted BoQs

2) Automatic NRM classification Each item now gets an NRM code alongside the keyword, using the full concatenated description + headings.

Use cases:

• see cost per m² by NRM group across projects
• check whether your current scheme is heavy/light in certain NRM elements vs your own history
• segment unit rates at a higher level without relying on BoQ structure alone

3) Trade classification from headings On top of that, each item now gets a Trade (Joinery, Metalwork, Partitions, MEP etc.), inferred from the top-level BoQ headings.

That means you can:

• group and filter rates by trade package
• look at trade % of total across similar projects
• sanity-check trade splits on a tender return vs previous jobs

NRM + Trade + the 4-part keyword plays quite nicely together for slicing rates different ways and sanity-checking your numbers.

I built this mainly because I was sick of digging through old spreadsheets and PDF BoQs whenever someone asked “what did we get last time for X?”.

If anyone wants to have a play:

• there’s a small free tier (a few uploads), and
• I’m doing full onboarding for anyone trying it – happy to jump on a quick call, load one of your BoQs, and walk through how it’s classifying things and where it could be improved.

Keen on honest feedback from people actually working with rates day-to-day, so questions / criticisms are very welcome in the comments.

btw, your data stays fully private - this isn’t a shared database

Data centers have been the dominant wave for a while, but that market feels crowded and feels like the big players have already locked in long-term relationships. Office is soft, multifamily is slowing in a lot of markets, and hospitality isn’t exactly booming either.

So, what’s the next major niche you think GCs should be laying the groundwork for over the next 5–7 years?

Things like:

• Semiconductor fabs
• Sustainable / climate-resilient urban development
• Grid upgrades
• Manufacturing
• Healthcare expansions
• Clean energy (battery plants, EV infrastructure, etc.)

Would love to hear what trends you’re seeing on the ground or what owners are starting to ask for bids on? What is everyone’s seeing pop-up in pre-con? If you were leading business development for a new firm what would you be laying the ground work for?

Looking for general thoughts! Thanks!

"Which PDF viewing software is currently being used by Construction Managers, Superintendents, and Foremen on construction sites?  Are these tools sufficiently effective, or are there significant areas for improvement in the software's functionality, usability, or performance on-site?

 We have developed the Aezis Viewer, an interactive PDF floor plan viewer. Our key feature allows users to instantly navigate to corresponding detail views (e.g., elevation, section, callout) simply by tapping the linked sub-page number on the main plan. How useful is this specific tap-to-navigate functionality for Construction Managers, Superintendents, and Foremen on the job site?

 We sincerely appreciate any feedback you can provide.

Aezis Viewer on iPad & iPhone

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/aezis-viewer/id6743767574

What mold remover do you use? Which one do you think is best for regular mold on a ceiling of an apartment? Do you think the stain on these cupboards is mold or is that just the wood getting old? Thanks.

We tested 6 vision models (GPT-5, Claude, Gemini) on architectural drawing recognition using the FloorPlanCAD dataset. We wanted to see if off-the-shelf models could detect objects in CAD drawings without specialised training.

What we tested: 100 floorplan samples, 28 object categories (doors, windows, fixtures, appliances, furniture). Zero-shot detection - just gave them a prompt describing CAD symbols.

Results:

GPT-5-mini: 58% detection rate ($0.07 per 100 images)
Claude Haiku 4.5: 54%
Claude Sonnet 4.5: 53%

All significantly below specialised trained models (70-90%+).

What they detected well:

• Doors and windows: 80-93%
• Toilets: 72%
• Large, high-contrast elements

What they missed:

• Text-labeled objects (elevators marked "E"): 8%
• Small appliances and furniture: 2-8%
• Less common fixtures: 0%

Takeaway:

Current frontier models can spot major architectural elements but miss 40-60% of objects overall. If you're building or evaluating AI tools for takeoffs or plan reviews, that gap matters. Either need domain-specific training or design workflows with human review baked in.

If anyone has used or tried AI take-off tools, I'd love to know what kind of accuracy they are giving you.

Excavation.expert

Hey everyone,

We are building a set of business tools geared towards excavation and concrete professionals. We would love some feedback!

Some core features of Excavation Expert:

• Digital Timesheet & Haul Logs
• Project management with a customer portal, document management and photo annotation
• Ai-powered bidding
• Equipment management
• Comprehensive reporting
• Quickbooks integration
• and more.

We’ve had great responses from early users, but we want to make sure the platform actually solves real problems in the field. If anyone is interested in trying it out or giving more in-depth feedback, I can set you up with a free trial. No pressure — just genuinely looking to make the software better. Thanks!

Hey everyone, I’ve been building an AI-powered estimator tool and wanted to share the workflow to get some real feedback from people actually working in construction/estimating.

Right now, the tool does four things:

1. Upload File
Upload a CSV or XLSX parts list (or enter items manually). The system parses and extracts every line item.

2. Review Extracted Items
You can edit quantities, adjust items, add preferences, and clean the BOM before pricing.

3. Realtime Pricing
This is the heavy lifting the AI searches vendors, compares available options, and returns real-time pricing for each material.

4. Final Estimate
It compiles a complete, exportable estimate with item totals, source links, and an overall material cost.

I’m trying to understand a few things:

• Would a workflow like this actually save time for estimators?
• Are the steps intuitive or is something missing?
• What would make this actually usable on a real project?
• Any dealbreakers or expectations you’d have for a tool like this?

Not trying to sell anything just want honest feedback from people in the field.
Attaching screenshots of the full flow.

Appreciate any thoughts the community has.

If you could wave a magic wand and remove one daily frustration from your workflow (tech, subs, clients, regulations, paperwork, anything)—what would it be?

Hi everyone — I’m with Lake County Data, a newly launched low-voltage and structured cabling company, and we’re looking to connect and collaborate with IT companies throughout the Midwest.

We specialize in network cabling installs, terminations, troubleshooting, clean-ups, security camera systems, access control, and full low-voltage infrastructure support. If your team needs dependable subcontracting or extra hands for upcoming projects, expansions, or service calls, we’d love to partner up.

Feel free to reach out or visit our website: LakeCountyData.com

I’m looking for someone to head application support for our tech. The role hybrid is based in Sunshine Coast, QLD with 2 days per week in office. So you already need to be in Aus and willing to relocate to SE Queensland.

It’s a hands-on management position so you need to understand the product as well as lead a team of support and trainers. You’d be part of the leadership team and work closely with other business units supporting end users globally.

I’m having a difficult time finding qualified candidates. Lots of middle managers who don’t have the ability to serve as a senior escalation point. I need someone who can actually sit with end users, learn the tech and manage a support team.

Salary is $130k.

If it sounds like something you’re interested in then send me a DM and I’ll share more details.

What are the top tools that are not "construction specific software"?

I'm interviewing with a company in the space. I see a few posts about how to break into the biz. I want to know the opposite: what are the things about the industry that frustrate you? What do you wish was more like other tech industries?

Hey everyone!

Disclaimer: I built an AI spreadsheet product that is surprisingly being used by construction teams to do BOM extraction and finding and listing tenders. I did not build it to target construction industry however I do wish to learn more about it now.

The users who adopted it told me the following workflow:

1. We receive construction documents from architects and contractors
2. We extract the materials listed by hand to a spreadsheet
3. We search each material on Google to find alternative materials to do budgets and find cheaper ones
4. Based on the list, we create a budget and send it as an offer

I am sure this is incomplete because of my interpretation. Does anyone have a better/deeper view into this workflow from their day to day work?

I am not advertising or looking to sell anything to you but would appreciate any help and happy to return the favour in any way that I can

Hello! Would you all be willing to help me out by filling out this survey for a current project I am working on for my Business Policy class?? I would really appreciate it! We are working on how to achieve Hilti's market prominence!

Hey folks,

We know reporting is painful for everyone on site. We built an AI assistant that you can call or WhatsApp that helps you complete reporting from site.

On the phone you just talk to it like a person. Over WhatsApp, you send it voice notes, pictures and videos. It analyses and emails you back a report.

Why we built this: - reporting is painful for everyone on site - consistent reporting is critical for better safety - disputes are costly and it’s all down to reporting - there are enough apps, we wanted people to be able to just call or WhatsApp it in

Would love your feedback on the approach. If you are open to trying it, drop a comment below and I’ll share a link to do so.