How Our Pricing Works
Every project is quoted individually from your drawings. There is no rate card on this page, and that is a deliberate choice rather than an evasion — so here is exactly how the number is arrived at.
Why There Is No Price List
A rate card would have to be either wrong or useless. A 12,000 SF office fit-out with two trades in scope and a complete drawing set is not the same job as a 240-unit multifamily podium with fourteen divisions and three rounds of addenda. Any per-square-foot figure that covered both would be so wide it would tell you nothing, and any figure narrow enough to be useful would be wrong for most projects that landed on it. Firms that publish a rate card generally caveat it into meaninglessness or quote off it anyway. We would rather look at your drawings and give you a real number.
You will have that number quickly, and it will be fixed. That is the part that actually matters.
What Drives Your Quote
Project size. Square footage, unit count, or the relevant measure for the project type.
Number of divisions. A single-trade takeoff is a fraction of a full multi-trade estimate. Tell us the divisions you actually need and do not pay for the ones you do not.
Estimate level. A conceptual budget from schematics and a bid-ready estimate from construction documents are different products.
Takeoff or estimate. Quantities only costs meaningfully less than quantities with pricing applied. If you have your own cost data, take the cheaper one.
Drawing quality and completeness. A current, scaled, complete set is faster than a partial set with superseded sheets and three addenda.
Turnaround. A compressed deadline costs more. We will tell you the premium before you commit, not after.
What Is Fixed
The price. Quoted flat, in writing, before you approve. We do not bill hourly and we do not return mid-project asking for more because the job turned out bigger than it looked. If we misjudged the scope at quote stage, that is our problem.
The delivery date. Confirmed in writing with the quote.
Turnaround depends on the size of the package and how many trades are in scope — which is why you get a firm delivery date with your quote rather than a generic promise.
- Revisions outside the agreed scope. Adding a division after delivery is new work.
- Re-pricing after post-delivery addenda. If the drawings change after we deliver, updating the estimate is quoted separately.
- Redesign or value engineering. We can tell you what things cost. Deciding what to change is a different service.
- Bid submission. We produce the numbers. Bid estimating covers bid-day support if you need it.
How to Get a Quote
Upload your plan set and tell us three things: which divisions you need, whether you want quantities only or full pricing, and when you need it.
You get back a flat price and a delivery date. Nothing starts until you approve both.
Get a Free QuoteWhat You Are Actually Paying For
A quote is not a number pulled from project value. It is priced from the work the project will take, which breaks down into four things.
Measurement time. The largest component, and the one that scales with division count rather than contract value. A $40M warehouse with two scopes can be less measuring than a $3M interior renovation with eleven, which is why dollar-per-square-foot pricing misleads in both directions.
Pricing research, where pricing is in scope. Localizing labor rates to your market, checking current material pricing, and applying prevailing wage where a project is subject to it. On a takeoff-only job this component is zero, which is exactly why a takeoff costs less.
Review before delivery. Schedules reconciled against plans, quantities cross-checked against the marked-up set, and the arithmetic verified. The findings this produces — a hardware set assigned to no opening, a circuit on a panel schedule that appears nowhere — are part of the deliverable.
Documentation. The assumptions and exclusions schedule, the marked-up drawing set, and the scope summary. This is the part most estimating firms leave out, and it is the part that protects you in a scope dispute six months later.
How a Quote Is Built
We read the set before quoting. Completeness, scale, legibility and which revision governs. On a scan we check whether there is anything to calibrate scale against. This is why a quote is not instant, and why it is worth waiting for.
The scope is written down, not implied. Which divisions, at what level, in what units, delivered in what format. A quote against an unwritten scope is the origin of most disputes in this industry, so the scope statement comes with the price.
One flat price, not an hourly estimate. Hourly billing transfers every risk of a difficult drawing set onto you, and it rewards slowness. A flat price puts that risk where it belongs — on the party who read the set and quoted it.
The delivery date is part of the quote. Not a target. If a date is not achievable at a quality we would stand behind, we say so at quote stage rather than accepting it and delivering late.
We will point you at the cheaper product. If you have your own cost data, a quantity takeoff is less than a full estimate and will be more accurate than anything we could price for you. Saying so costs us revenue on that project and is still the right answer.
What Is Not Included
Named explicitly, because an exclusion discovered after delivery is worth a great deal less than one stated before you approve.
Redesign or design advice. We quantify and price what is drawn. Value-engineering suggestions and alternative assemblies are a different service and a different conversation.
Revisions outside the agreed scope. Small clarifications we absorb. A material change to the scope is quoted before we do it, so nothing lands on your invoice that you did not agree to.
Re-pricing after post-delivery addenda. Addenda that arrive after delivery change the drawings the estimate was built from. Updating for them is quoted at the time rather than absorbed quietly and recovered in your next quote.
Bid submission and bid-day support. We produce the numbers. Submitting the bid, leveling subcontractor quotes and handling bid-day scope questions is bid estimating, and it is priced separately.
Shop drawings, CAD drafting and engineering. Not part of an estimating or takeoff engagement. Where a project needs them, they belong with a drafter or an engineer rather than an estimator.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a construction estimate cost?
It depends on project size, division count, estimate level, drawing quality and turnaround. Send the plan set and you will have a real number rather than a range that would not apply to you anyway.
Do you charge for the quote?
No. Reviewing your drawings and pricing the work is free, and there is no obligation.
Do you require a deposit?
{DEPOSIT_TERMS} — not yet confirmed.
What if the project is canceled after I approve?
Tell us as early as you can. If we have not started, there is no charge. If work is underway we will bill for what has been done and send you what exists.
Is there a minimum project size?
No. Small single-trade takeoffs are a routine part of our work.
Do you offer volume or repeat-client pricing?
If you send regular work, tell us and we will be straight about whether a different arrangement costs you less.
Can I get a rough range before sending drawings?
Tell us the project type, approximate size and the divisions you need, and we will give you an order-of-magnitude figure. It will be a wide range until we see the set, and we will say so.
Send your plans. Get a flat quote.
Upload your plans or tell us what you need. We’ll reply with pricing and a delivery date.
Need to add trades, ZIP code, target date or project state? Use the full quote form ↗