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Commercial roofing takeoff services

You send the plan set. You get back a full quantity takeoff, an RFI register, a material order list, and a client-ready proposal. Forty-eight hours, priced with your own costs, not somebody else's averages.

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. The quantity takeoff

Every quantity carries three things a number alone does not: how it was derived, how confident we are, and the evidence behind it. A roof area that came off a printed dimension string is marked Measured. A drain count that came off symbols is marked Counted, and counted quantities never claim high confidence, because symbols on a busy sheet are the one thing worth verifying by eye.

2. The RFI and verification register

Every question the drawings could not answer, 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. These are the items that turn into change orders when nobody catches them at bid time.

3. 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.

4. A client-ready proposal

Formatted to forward. Scope, inclusions, exclusions, and the assumptions written in plain language so nobody argues later about what was in the number.

Priced with your costs, or not priced at all

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. You supply a price book once, or send us the spreadsheets and price sheets you already have and we extract them. Anything you have not priced comes back marked UNPRICED with the quantity shown, excluded from the subtotal, and listed as an open item. It never becomes a zero, and it never becomes a market average quietly standing in for your number.

What we cover

How it works

1. Upload the set. PDF or ZIP, up to 2 GB per file. Architectural, structural, mechanical, plumbing, and the spec book if you have it. Big files upload in pieces so a dropped connection costs you one piece, not the whole set.
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. A human reviews it. Every package is checked before it goes out. Counts get verified against the roof plan. Nothing ships on autopilot.
4. Package back in 48 hours. If something in the set is going to slow that down, you hear about it on day one, not day two.

What it costs

First takeoff free, on a real live bid, 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. A further run on the same job is $50, in two cases only: you had us run it before you answered the questions, or you have already used the included re-run and want another pass.

Starter is $1,495 a month and covers 5 takeoffs, then $325 a job. Shop is $2,500 a month and covers 10 takeoffs, then $275 a job. Three seats on either plan, extra seats are $49 each a month, and 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, so size the plan to a slow month rather than a good one. The free first takeoff and the $50 same-job run sit outside the plan and use no credit.

Do the arithmetic on your own volume rather than taking our word for it. Three sets a month at $395 is $1,185, which is less than Starter, so at three you are better off paying per set. Four sets is $1,580 against $1,495 for Starter, which is where a plan starts to make sense. Eight sets on Starter is $1,495 plus three at $325, or $2,470, against $2,500 on Shop. Nine sets on Starter is $2,795 against $2,500, so from nine a month up, Shop is the one to be on.

Both plans are set up by email rather than by checkout: tell us which one at [email protected] and nothing bills until that is done. Sending more than 10 a month is quote only, at the same address. There is deliberately nothing above Shop to sign up for here, because at that volume the right number depends on what you actually send.

Common questions

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 automatically deleted 90 days after upload.