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Commercial roofing takeoff services

You send the plan set. You get back a full quantity takeoff with its open questions (RFI) list, a material order list when the takeoff supports one, and a client-ready proposal when you send us your costs. Delivered within 48 hours*, and priced with your own costs, not somebody else's averages.

*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. The quantity takeoff

Every quantity carries two things a number alone does not: the sheet it came from and a confidence grade. Confident means the drawings state it or it was measured directly. Likely means it is supported but not spelled out. Needs confirming means we want a second look before it is priced.

2. The open questions (RFI) list

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

3. The material order list, when the takeoff supports one

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, when you send us your costs

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

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

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. Every takeoff is reviewed before delivery. Counts get verified against the roof plan. Nothing ships on autopilot.
4. Delivered within 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. 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. 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.

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 deleted whenever you ask by email to [email protected]. Automatic deletion 90 days after upload is being rolled out.