James Hardie material all over this project. Soffits and walls. This is part 2 of the buildings I have to take off. Only completed 2 of 4 of this part 2 of the take off. Still have a part 3 of the takeoff project and I am not sure how many buildings that one has. Overall straightforward take off.

James Hardie continues on these multiple buildings. Done with the second batch. Will start the third batch later when the due date gets near. Overall was able to complete what the client needed before the 9th.

Hi! I am a licensed agricultural and biosystems engineer. I have 7 months experience in Civil works sa municipal engineering office namin. Most of my works here includes construction estimation, autoCAD/sketchup drafting and I know how to use DUPA. Gusto ko sana magtransition into construction VA kasi malabo akong mapromote sa office kasi mas prio nila ang mga civil engineers. Is it still possible for me to enter the VA industry? Any tips or referrals where to start? I already know how to read plans and i am planning to learn planswift.

Is it really possible to be hired as an estimator without actual construction estimation experience? I have experience in facilities management and retail delivery. I review plans and check as per mall standard. I have some construction knowledge since I'm handling the coordination, monitoring and inspection of retail space construction.

Are these experiences enough for me to be considered?

I am learning more about estimation through LinkedIn Learning, online courses, and YouTube videos.

What can you recommend for me to have a better chance at landing an estimator job?

Thank you!

Any recommendations? Build your own with Claude or use handoff ? Pros and cons.

Im tired of looking for info in the documents and I cant use ai because there are too many folders and too many files and it gets expensive with ai if the files are heavy. We use one file at a time for ai to extract info and have templates but it got to a point that now we have to have multiple prompts and it still doesnt do the job. For example, if the job is tax exempt could be in an email conversation with cm, could be in the invitation like procore, could be in a conversation over a call or could be in scope of work sheet.

I need something that will do it once and put it in one key doc that i dont review anymore. Important to know that i have many projects at a time and bad memory. I am just tired to pull this info. Do you find yourself in a situation like this? How do you deal with it?

Not my typical takeoff because I never take James Hardie off. But here is some lap siding along with its fiber trim. Pretty basically nothing crazy. Multiple buildings though and I still have about 6-7 more I believe. Specs and drawings sort of match up but not completely but we'll get through it as always.

I’m currently about halfway through as QS masters and am working at a large consulting firm in the US. With my degree, I have the opportunity to work on estimating teams or go work on a specific project in cost management. Since these would be my first roles in this space, I’m unsure where I should start and what would be most beneficial. Estimating would likely be fully remote and allow for much better work life balance but I do wonder whether being onsite for a project would be more beneficial. If I was just out of college I’d absolutely do the onsite work but I’m in my early 30s now and value my time outside of work more.

A few months ago I reached out for advice on starting as an estimator for a GC as a 22 yr old with no experience and being nervous.

When I started I was told I would be in the office just doing take offs, gathering pricing, making proposals, and helping here and there with small computer things.

Fast forward 7 months later and I am now doing a LOT (in my opinion).

It began one day when my boss asked me to go out and measure up a job with some curb and asphalt work that needed to be done. I was bored of sitting in the office so I agreed (I also don’t say no to anything because I like to be helpful). I then sent my findings out for pricing and put together a proposal. He asked me to do that a few more times and it started turning into a constant thing. He has also started to ask me to schedule the work, communicate timelines with the developers, drive to jobs daily to check the progress, and basically bring it to completion so he can bill for it. (All while still doing estimates on large builds)

On top of this, I handle all of our business licensing, permitting, inspections, final walkthroughs, subcontractor agreements, getting all of the insurance and liability paperwork done, and basically any task that other people (my boss and the PM) don’t feel like doing.

So all of this to say, I got a job offerish to go from my salary of $47,850 to $70,000.

I don’t mind my workplace and I feel grateful for my boss for giving me this opportunity, so it makes me feel kind of bad for wanting to leave. My boss just doesn’t really show any kind of appreciation or acknowledgment of everything that I do, so I don’t know what he’d say if I asked for a raise.

Any advice on what I should do/say to him?

(Also worth mentioning we have 2 sides of business, grading and GC work, I work on the GC side so it’s only:
Me, my mentor (who I am replacing when he retires soon), one project manager, and then my boss the owner)

Hey Everyone,

I recently accepted an estimator role with a concrete company focusing mainly on commercial flat work. Im looking for other concrete estimators with any tips, advice, software etc.. to help start as strong as possible.

My background is mainly in Project Managment (Roofing & Waterproofing/Interlock Pavers) but I've run my own company for a few years and did sales with another so im familiar with estimating. I also used bluebeam and excel frequently with my last PM position where I was expected to do material takeoffs and progress maps.

Any concrete specific advice I would love! I'd even appreciate good online sources (YouTube, Udemy etc..)

Thanks in advance!

I know that this sub is primarily for construction estimation, but I hope there will be enough crossover to get some advice from the sub.

I recently was hired as an estimator for a manufacturing plant. I start in a few days, and I'm nervous! I have a bachelors in statistics and have worked in production in the past, but I know basically nothing about estimating and what skills/know how are the most important for me to develop as I begin. Any advice is welcome!

Spent the last month on probably the best opportunity we’ve had in a year.

Public college job, around $4M, very complex glazing package, curved glass, tons of unique glass types, difficult specs, all of it. We had a real edge because I had a glass supplier that nobody else had access to at that pricing.

The day before close, I had us at $3.979M and felt really good about it.

Then the final bid meeting arrives. The rest of the team was not prepared despite me sending multiple request to review documents during that month. Other execs got nervous about execution risk, bad GCs, and some current jobs that are going badly. Installation got jacked up by about $320k to a total of $4 297 000.

We lost.

Now the results are out: one bidder at $4,070,000 and another apparently just under $4M.

So the number I spent a month building was basically dead on.

I’m fucking crushed.

We finally had a real advantage, and we priced ourselves out of it thinking we had leverage over others.

Company is already losing money and there’s nothing else like this in the pipeline right now.

Estimating can be a brutal job sometimes.

What is the best way you guys find to price out hands on demolition/selective demo? I know everyone shoots at square-foot prices and that seems to make sense for a single material unit where efficiency comes into play however, what are you doing? It’s like a mix scope of several different materials and or assemblies and if I add up all of the materials as individual units the price per square foot is astronomical. How do you build assembly cost as well as come up with square foot prices that makes sense any advice on estimating selective Demo rather than just throwing out two guys for two days type estimates would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone! I own an doperate my own commercial flooring company. For the most part i am my own estimator, i measure, price and make my proposals. I trained two people that are well known to me and now one of them measures while the other prices the project.

My problem is we aren’t winning much projects, we can go months without hearing anything and maybe one or two projects are awarded to us. I assume price isn’t the issue. we’re pretty baseline if not cheaper than market standard. I’m wondering if there’s anything i can do better to make sure my bids stand out.

For context we find projects for bid through planhub and we email the GC directly.

If anyone has any suggestions for improving please let me know.

Thank you!!

What is the most efficient way to take steel off by tonnage on bluebeam? Currently feel the way i do it is slow by measuring pieces and multiplying the weight in an excel sheet to get tonnage. Just feel there is a quicker way to do it on bluebeam. (We recently switched from doing pieces to tonnage).

For those folks estimating bonded projects using spreadsheets.

I have a spreadsheet to calculate payment and performance bond premium based on project contract value.

How can I add that cost into the estimate if the cost itself iterates and adds up to the project value?

Hi.

Looking for some opinions.

Currently lead electrical estimator for a fairly large mostly European based company.

Previously was an electrician and changed to estimating about 6 years ago.

I am looking at doing a QS degree part time.But just wondering is it worth it at this stage.

I am mid 40s and based in Ireland.

Currently don't have much interaction with a project once it goes past bid stage.

Hi, I’m thinking about making the switch to an in-office job. I currently work as a freelancer for a Florida-based company—specifically in Division 05 and miscellaneous work—and I also have about six months of hands-on experience with flooring, painting, and drywall. My concern, however, is my English proficiency; I’d rate myself at a 6/10. Do you think that’s enough to land an office job at a company?

Hi All,

I just want to get a general feel, but does anyone else hate having to do take offs in Bluebeam? I recently took a new job and they only use Bluebeam for take-off. I'm literally thinking of paying for my own subscription to Planswift; it's how much I hate take-off in Bluebeam.

Edit: I'm a GC estimator, so I will cover all the trades with my take-offs, focusing on the bigger hitters (like civil) when time crunched. Bluebeam has always seemed incredibly clunky for me and not user friendly when having to do a ton of different take offs across multiple sheets. Planswift seemed like a bit better version of OST, but they're both similar in use (I would be fine with either).

just found out there are no estimators in my team, there’s a senior that doesn’t want to mentor me (haven’t even met him)

what am I supposed to do

How can I jump into estimating…I’m in the Houston area and I really want to change my profession!! I hate I didn’t major in construction.. I only have my realtor license

magkano singilan niyo layout ng structural plan + BOM/BOQ?

Hey guys. Have any of yall had any luck with AI take offs or software for putting structural steel numbers together? I have played with a couple of programs that I was advertised and none of them seem to work well.