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Commercial roofing takeoff services

You send the plan set. You get back a four-file package: START HERE, marked-up drawings PDF, Takeoff.xlsx with a Questions tab, and the material order list. Preview the four files in a sample package. Usually within one business day. Delivered within 48 hours*.
Pricing is optional. Send your cost data and we apply your prices to the quantities. Any line you have not priced comes back marked UNPRICED.

*Clock starts once any questions we send you are answered.

The problem this solves

Most commercial roofing contractors have more bid invitations than they have people who can bid them. The estimator is one person. The invitations are twenty a month. So jobs get sorted into a pile nobody talks about: the ones you could have won, if anyone had time to price them.

That pile is expensive. A contractor turning down six bids a month at an average of $180,000 with a 25% hit rate is walking past roughly $3.2 million in annual revenue. Not because the work was bad, because nobody had a free evening.

What you actually get back

1. START HERE

A one-page opener with the headline numbers and how to read the rest of the package. Open the START HERE first so you know what landed and where the open items live.

2. Marked-up drawings PDF

Your drawings with every measurement drawn on the sheet it came from. Field area, edge, penetrations, drains: you can check any number against the markups without opening a separate tool.

3. Takeoff.xlsx with a Questions tab

Every quantity carries two things a number alone does not: the sheet it came from and its basis. From the drawings means it is read or measured on the sheets listed beside it. Our default means the drawings do not give it, so we carried our standard, and the Questions tab says what we used. Not found means the set does not answer it, and the Questions tab asks you. Every question the drawings could not answer sits on that Questions tab, written the way you would send it to the GC: parapet heights that were never dimensioned, a taper layout that says "by others," a detail that references a spec section that is not in the set. Reply by email to [email protected] (or as the package instructs) and we update the takeoff.

4. The material order list

Quantities converted into what you actually order: boards, rolls, buckets, boxes, sticks. Fastener lengths chosen from the stack thickness, not guessed. Coverage rates from the manufacturer data sheets unless you have told us your own.

Your prices on the quantities, UNPRICED where you have none

This is the part most services get wrong. An estimating service that prices your job with regional averages is producing a number you cannot bid. Your negotiated membrane price, your crew's real production rate, your overhead, your margin: those are the whole ballgame.

So we carry no pricing of our own. Pricing is optional. Send your cost data and we apply your prices to the quantities. Any line you have not priced comes back marked UNPRICED. UNPRICED lines still show the quantity, stay out of the subtotal, and are listed as an open item. A missing price never becomes a zero, and it never becomes a market average standing in for your number. You still get the four-file package either way.

What we cover

Standing seam or shingle on the same building as a TPO or EPDM field? Here is how to take off a mixed-system roof.

Bidding a tear-off or recover on an existing building? Here is what changes in a commercial re-roof takeoff.

Bidding a coating restoration on an existing roof? Here is how to take off a roof coating restoration.

Bidding spray polyurethane foam? Here is how to take off an SPF roof.

New to the terms on a commercial roof set? Here is the commercial roofing estimating glossary.

Need a printable miss list before the bid goes out? Here is the commercial roofing takeoff checklist.

Need edge metal by profile (coping, gravel stop, fascia, drip)? Here is the edge metal roof takeoff guide.

Ready to turn quantities into rolls, boards, buckets, and fasteners? Here is takeoff to material order.

Wondering how far to trust an AI takeoff? Here is how accurate AI roofing takeoffs are.

Training a new estimator? Here is how to learn commercial roofing takeoffs on real plan sets.

Want the full list of what comes back? Here is what a commercial roofing takeoff includes.

How it works

1. Upload the set. PDF or ZIP. Up to 20 files, 2 GB each. Large files upload in pieces, so a dropped connection only costs you one piece. Architectural, structural, mechanical, plumbing, and the spec book if you have it.
2. Every page gets read. Not the roof plan alone. Elevations for parapet heights and downspout runs. Structural for the deck. Mechanical and plumbing for curbs and penetrations. Division 7 for the system.
3. Usually within one business day. Delivered within 48 hours*.

Built for small commercial roofing shops

If you run a small commercial roofing shop and you don't have a full-time estimator, this is built for that workload. You can send one job at a time. Pay as you go is $395 per new set of drawings, or a new address, with no plan, no minimum, nothing to cancel (see pricing). Your first takeoff is free, one per contractor, on a job you're bidding or quoting. You get the same four-file package as a larger shop. Four files: START HERE, marked-up drawings PDF, Takeoff.xlsx with a Questions tab, and the material order list. We take off steep slope (standing seam, shingle) and commercial low slope (TPO, EPDM, PVC, mod bit, BUR) from the full set. Pricing is optional. Send your cost data and we apply your prices to the quantities. Any line you have not priced comes back marked UNPRICED.

If you're weighing a hire against sending the work out, see hire a roofing estimator vs outsource. If you're comparing providers, see how to vet an outsourced roofing estimating service.

What it costs

First takeoff free, one per contractor, on a job you're bidding or quoting, because a demo on a sample set proves nothing. After that, pay as you go or pick a monthly plan. Nothing bills until you choose.

Pay as you go is $395, and $395 covers a new set of drawings or a new address. Answer the questions we ask and one re-run of that same job is included in the price. That included re-run is also how a number we got wrong gets put right, at no cost to you. Another pass after that counts as a new takeoff ($395, or one plan takeoff), unless the miss was ours, in which case it is free.

Shop 12 is $2,750 a month and covers 12 takeoffs, Shop 25 is $5,500 a month and covers 25, and Shop 60 is $11,000 a month and covers 60. Each can also be paid once a year, at $30,250, $60,500 and $121,000, which is 12 months for the price of 11, about 8% off. A yearly plan still counts 12, 25 or 60 takeoffs per month. A takeoff past what your plan covers is $250. Every plan includes three seats, and extra seats are $49 a month each. A shared login is fine. A new set of drawings or a new address uses one takeoff. Unused takeoffs end with the month and do not roll over, on monthly or yearly billing, so size the plan to a slow month rather than a good one. The free first takeoff sits outside the plan and uses no credit.

Do the arithmetic on your own volume rather than taking our word for it. Here are some examples. Six sets a month at $395 is $2,370, which is less than Shop 12, so at six you are better off paying per set. Seven sets is $2,765 against $2,750 for Shop 12, which is where a plan starts to make sense. Twenty-three sets on Shop 12 is $2,750 plus 11 at $250, or $5,500, the same as Shop 25. Twenty-four sets on Shop 12 is $5,750 against $5,500, so from 24 a month up, Shop 25 is the one to be on. The same step sits between Shop 25 and Shop 60: 47 sets on Shop 25 is $11,000, the same as Shop 60, and from 48 a month up, Shop 60 is the one to be on.

Plans are paid by card from the pricing section, monthly or yearly, and monthly billing is month to month with no cancellation fee. Or start with a $395 takeoff and move to a plan when the volume is there. Questions first? Email [email protected]. Sending more than 60 a month is quote only, at the same address. There is deliberately nothing above Shop 60 to sign up for here, because at that volume the right number depends on what you actually send.

Comparing more than one provider? See how to vet an outsourced roofing estimating service.

Common questions

Do you take off jobs for small commercial roofing contractors?

Yes. Small commercial roofing shops can send one job at a time. Pay as you go is $395 per new set of drawings, or a new address, with no plan, no minimum, nothing to cancel. First takeoff free, one per contractor, on a job you're bidding or quoting. You get the same four-file package as any other shop.

Do you need the spec book?

Not strictly, but without it the membrane type, thickness, attachment method, insulation R-value, and warranty term are all unconfirmed, and those drive most of the price. Send it if you have it. If you do not, those items come back as open questions rather than assumptions.

What if the set is incomplete?

We tell you exactly what is missing and exactly what it costs you in certainty. A takeoff without the structural set cannot confirm deck type, which means fastener selection stays open. You get the takeoff and the honest limits, not a silent guess.

Who sees my plans and my pricing?

Your plans are used for your takeoff and nothing else. Your cost data prices your estimates only. Plan sets upload directly to secure storage, never through an inbox, and are deleted whenever you ask by email to [email protected].