Remote preconstruction support for contractors
You price the job. I’ll prep the bid.
- Takeoffs
- Bid preparation
- Bid support
- Procurement research
Send me the plans. I’ll turn them into a bid-ready package — takeoffs, material lists, scope, exclusions, clarifications and RFQ support. You handle your final pricing. No new hire. No software to learn.
I don’t set your final selling price. You do. I build the package you need to get there.
Standard turnaround is three business days. Rush work is possible — tell me the bid date.
The actual problem
You know exactly how this goes.
- Four invitations to bid came in this week. You can price two of them properly.
- The takeoff gets done after dinner, because the day belongs to the jobs already running.
- Your PM was going to help with the bid, and then a truck went down and a super called out.
- An addendum dropped Tuesday and nobody has opened it yet.
- Two hours went into chasing material pricing on a job you probably will not get.
- The bids you did not have time for went out light — or did not go out at all.
None of that is a discipline problem. It is a capacity problem. Estimating is a full-time job and you are doing it with the hours left over.
What I do
The bid work, off your desk.
Use me for one piece of it or the whole thing.
I measure it. You get the quantities.
I set the scale, measure what is drawn, and hand back quantities item by item — linear feet, square feet, counts, gates and openings, assemblies — with the assumption written next to every line.
Your numbers, laid out to bid from.
Labor, material, equipment, subcontractors, and the other costs laid out where they belong. Your rates and your markup, or blank columns for you to price. The number is yours.
The paperwork that loses bids, handled.
Plans, specs, scope, exclusions, clarifications, RFQ and sub requirements, addenda and bid deadlines — organized in one place so nothing goes out with a hole in it.
Material list out, quotes back.
Material list built from the takeoff, vendors researched, RFQs written and sent on your behalf so you get quotes back instead of chasing them. Supplier comparisons laid side by side.
Estimating help, month to month.
For contractors bidding steadily: I hold your assemblies, waste factors, vendors and format, and run your bid calendar week to week. Same person every project.
A Preconstruction Bid Package.
One file, eight tabs, with your company on the header of every one: project summary, takeoff, material list, scope of work, exclusions, clarifications, RFQ list, and a direct-cost structure. Quantities plus the scope, the exclusions and the questions — which is what it actually takes to bid a job. See a complete one →
How it works
Four steps. That is the whole process.
Send the plans
Upload the plan set, drop in a plan-room link, or forward the invitation to bid. Tell me the trade and the bid date.
I build the package
I read the drawings and the specs, do the takeoff, write the scope, and flag anything the plans do not answer.
You get it back
One organized file, in Excel or your own template, with every assumption written down so you can check it in ten minutes.
You bid more work
You put your rates and your markup on it and send it out. Your name, your number, your job.
Start here
Have a bid sitting on your desk right now?
Send it to me for $99 and see what comes back. One project, one trade. No contract, no monthly commitment, no onboarding call.
The fine print, all of it: new customers only, one per company. One project, one trade, plan sets up to 20 sheets, three business days, one round of revisions. You provide usable project documents — a link to plans and specs I can open. Bigger sets and rush work are quoted normally, and you get that price before any work starts, not after.
5 first-project slots this month
What comes back
- Quantity takeoff, with the assumption behind every line
- Material list
- Scope sheet — included, excluded, clarifications, assumptions
- Vendor and RFQ list, where the scope calls for it
- Estimate framework, ready for your rates
- Open questions — what the plans cannot answer
I work from the documents you send. Link me to the plans and specs — plan room, Drive, Dropbox, or the link off the invitation to bid. Nothing to upload.
I do the work and I check it before it leaves here. If it is not useful to you, tell me what was wrong and I will fix it or refund the $99.
Who I work with
Contractors with more bids than estimating hours.
Typically 5 to 30 people, where the owner or a PM is still doing the takeoffs personally. Some of the trades I work in:
- Fence
- Concrete
- Sitework
- Excavation
- Paving
- Roofing
- Flooring
- Painting
- Drywall
- Masonry
- — and other specialty trades
I am strongest on the work that gets bid off the civil drawings — fence, concrete flatwork, sitework and paving — because it is all the same set of sheets and I read them every day. If your scope is outside that, ask. I would rather tell you no than take a job I cannot do well.
Why me
Quantities are not the same thing as a bid.
A takeoff answers one question: how much
It does not tell you what is excluded, where the drawings contradict the specification, or what you still have to get priced. Those are the things that cost money after the bid goes in — so they get their own tabs, with a reason written next to every one.
The same person, every project
Not a rotating pool. One person who learns your assemblies, your waste factors, your vendors and your format, and keeps them. You are not re-explaining your business every time you send a job.
Built by someone who ran the equipment
I spent my working life on machines, from skid steers up to tower cranes, before I ever priced a job. I am not an estimator who learned construction from drawings. I am a construction guy who learned estimating.
Nothing goes out unchecked
I use software to move fast. I review every number myself before it leaves here, and anything the drawings do not answer gets flagged as a question instead of filled in with a guess.
One project or ongoing
Use me for the one bid you cannot get to this week, or hand me the whole bid calendar. Both are normal. There is no minimum to find out whether this works.
No new hire
A full-time estimator runs $65,000 to $95,000 in base salary before benefits, software and management time. This is estimating capacity you turn on for one project and off again.
Questions
Straight answers.
What types of plans can I send?
PDF plan sets, civil drawings, architectural sheets, spec books, scanned prints, even a photo of a marked-up sheet. If it is what you were sent to bid from, send it. If all you have is a scope narrative and an address, say so — I will tell you what else I need before I start.
What does a takeoff include?
A Preconstruction Bid Package: project summary, quantities item by item with the source sheet and the assumption behind each one, a material list at order quantities, the scope split by how certain the documents are, exclusions with a reason on every line, the questions the drawings do not answer, an RFQ list, and a direct-cost structure for your own rates. It comes back in a spreadsheet you can open and change, with your company on the header of all eight tabs. Here is a complete one, worked from the plan sheet all the way through.
Can you work with commercial plans?
Yes — most of what I do is commercial. I am strongest on scopes that get bid off the civil drawings: fence, concrete flatwork, sitework and paving. I take building interior scopes too.
Do you provide material pricing?
I build the material list and put together vendor RFQs so you get real quotes back, and I will organize and compare pricing you already have. What I will not do is invent a number for a material I have not actually priced. Anything I cannot confirm comes back marked as needing a quote.
Can you work with my existing estimating software?
I deliver in Excel, which imports into most estimating systems. If you would rather have your own template filled in, send it with the first project and that becomes the standard format for your account.
How quickly can you turn around a project?
Standard is three business days from the point I have everything I need. If your bid date is sooner than that, say so when you send it — rush work is possible and it is priced higher. Either way you get a yes or a no from me before you are counting on it.
Do I have to sign a monthly contract?
No. Most contractors start with one project and decide from there. Monthly plans exist for contractors bidding steadily, and they run month to month.
Do you only work with certain trades?
No, but I am honest about where I am strongest. The civil-drawing trades are my home ground. I take work in other trades as well, and if a scope is outside what I can do well I will tell you that instead of taking the job and figuring it out on your bid.
Can you handle multiple bids at once?
Yes, within a capacity I will tell you honestly rather than taking four projects and delivering two. If you are running steady bid volume, the monthly plans are built for exactly that.
Do you bid the job for me?
No, and that is deliberate. I produce documents. The bid goes out on your letterhead, in your name, with your rates and your markup. I do not contact the general contractor, the owner, or your competitors, and I do not hold a contract with anybody but you.
Is the $99 first project available to everyone?
New customers only, one per company. One project, one trade, plan sets up to 20 sheets, three business days, one round of revisions. After that it is normal per-project pricing, which is on the pricing page.
Who actually does the work?
I do — Jack Hughes. You deal with one person, in your time zone, who has been on jobsites his whole working life. Not a rotating pool of estimators you never speak to.
Send me the next one.
Whatever is sitting on your desk right now with a bid date on it. Takes about two minutes to hand off, and the first one is $99.