Imperial takeoffs structured in CSI MasterFormat, labour built from production rates and priced at the wage for the project’s region, and a bid build-up you can finish in minutes rather than rebuild.
A US estimate from us is organised by CSI MasterFormat division so it reconciles against your accounting, your subcontractor packages and your schedule of values without translation.
Quantities are measured in the units the trade buys and installs in: cubic yards of concrete, pounds of rebar and ductwork, tons of asphalt and steel, square feet of board and roofing, each for devices and fixtures. Labour is a production rate in hours per unit multiplied by the crew wage for the project’s market, so a wage change is one edit.
The bid build-up carries contingency, overhead and profit, sales tax, and performance and payment bonds as separate lines. Sales tax on materials varies by state and by how the contract is structured, which is why it sits on its own line rather than inside material rates. Bond requirements differ between public and private work for the same reason.
See construction cost estimating for the full scope, or quantity takeoff services if you price from your own rates.
Every other division is available. Empty divisions are omitted, not zero-filled.
Anonymised. Client names, project numbers and drawings are never published without written permission.
Complete build estimate across fifteen active divisions, from strip footings and slab through framing, roofing, finishes, plumbing, HVAC, electrical and exterior improvements. Every line carried its own production rate and wastage factor.
Service, panel schedule, branch circuits, device counts, fixtures and low-voltage rough. Every device covered by a colour bubble on the reflected ceiling plan, with counts carried into a legend the installer used at rough-in.
Structural and miscellaneous metals alongside a complete electrical takeoff for a public elementary school, produced for a subcontractor bidding both packages against the same deadline.
Waste transfer facility combining heavy slab and retaining structures, a steel enclosure, tipping floor and the site interface. The boundary between building and sitework scope had to be defined before anything could be measured.
Ongoing steel takeoffs measured by member and connection type, so tonnage, shop hours and field bolt-up could be priced independently against a shop rate that moved through the year.
Piping measured line by line against specification and service rather than aggregated by diameter, with valves, fittings, supports and specialty items counted individually and priced apart from installation hours.
Each trade page covers how that trade is measured, the units, and the errors we look for.
Yes. Wages and material rates are set for the project’s actual market, cross-checked against current supplier levels and recent comparable work, rather than a national average. On retained arrangements the library is built from your own historical costs, which is more accurate again.
Yes. Pricing follows the project’s location rather than where we are, so tell us where the job is when you send the drawings. Recent examples include work in California, Texas, Florida, Georgia and Oregon.
Yes, as standard. Divisions with no scope on the project are omitted rather than zero-filled. If you send your own estimate template, we build into that and include the CSI workbook as well so the two can be compared.
Office hours are Mon to Fri, 9:00 to 18:00 EST, with bid-week cover outside those hours by arrangement. Packages sent at the end of your working day are measured while you are offline, which is what makes 24-hour turnaround on a single-trade takeoff realistic.
A fixed fee, a firm delivery date and a written scope, usually back the same working day.
Imperial · CSI MasterFormat · USD · Unlimited revisions within scope
