Frequently Asked Questions — Blaze Estimating LLC

It's pretty easy, to be honest. Upload those plans of yours, let us know what you're after, and we'll send over a quote. Usually, that takes us 5-10 minutes to review the project and get back to you. Once you give us the green light on the quote and make the payment, we get started right away. No contracts, no commitments, just straightforward — no hassle.

We just need your project plans in PDF format — that's it. If you've got any specs, details of the scope, or any special requirements, send those our way too. Don't worry if it's not perfect or complete — we've worked with everything from rough sketches to full architectural drawings. The more detail you give us, the more accurate the quote will be.

No worries at all. We work with what you've got. If you've only got preliminary drawings or a conceptual plan, that's fine. We'll let you know if we need a bit more detail for certain bits of the project. Sometimes we even get contractors who come to us with just a scope of work and some measurements to go off. We figure it out!

Absolutely — we'd love to talk with you! Give us a call or send us an email and we'll walk you through the whole process. We'll answer any questions you've got about your project and make sure we're the right fit for what you need. No hard sell, no pressure.

We cover all bases — construction cost estimates, material takeoffs, quantity surveys, bid estimates, budget estimates, preliminary estimates, detailed estimates... whatever stage your project is at, we can help. Whether you just need a quick ball-park figure or a line-by-line breakdown for bidding, we're on it.

All 50 CSI divisions — we're talking concrete, masonry, structural steel, wood framing, thermal protection, roofing, doors and windows... and all the rest. Most projects don't need the whole shebang though. We focus on what your project actually needs and price it accordingly.

Yeah — we do both. Single-family homes, custom builds, renovations on the residential side. Office buildings, retail, restaurants, warehouses, tenant improvements on the commercial side. Industrial too. Our estimators have experience across all project types.

Either way's fine with us. Subcontractors come to us often for single-trade takeoffs — drywall only, electrical only, plumbing only, framing only. Whatever you need. General contractors usually want the whole project, but we're flexible.

Material takeoff gives you the quantities — how many sheets of drywall, linear feet of pipe, cubic yards of concrete. All the counts and measurements. An estimate adds on the pricing — labor costs, material costs, equipment, overhead, everything priced out and totaled. We do both, either separately or together — however you need it.

Well, it depends on the project. Small residential jobs might run $150-300. Commercial projects typically range from $500-2,000+. Complex industrial jobs can get pretty pricey too. We quote every project individually based on scope, number of trades, and drawing complexity — no hidden fees, no surprises. You'll know the price before we even start work.

Not really. We've done estimates for single-room renovations and estimates for 50-story high rises. Every project gets the same level of care, regardless of size.

Yeah, we do. Contractors who send us regular work get better pricing and we also offer monthly packages for companies bidding on multiple projects. If you're bidding 5, 10, 15 projects a month, let's talk — we'll put something together that makes sense for your volume.

We're happy to take credit cards, debit cards, ACH bank transfers, PayPal... whatever works for you. Payment is due when you approve the quote, before we get started.

If you cancel within 60 minutes of payment and we haven't started work yet, we'll give you a refund. Once we've started the estimate, we can't offer refunds since the work's already underway. If we don't deliver what we promised, though, we'll make it right.

It depends on a few things — the complexity of the project, the amount of information you've given us, and how busy we are at the time. We'll give you a better idea of timeframe once you send over your plans and let us know what you need.

Most of the time we're able to deliver estimates within 24-48 hours. Smaller residential projects often come back the same day, while larger commercial jobs that are a bit more complicated might take 3-5 business days to complete. We'll give you an idea of how long that will take when we first quote the project.

Yeah, we can turn it around fast if you're up against a deadline. We've had cases where contractors needed an estimate in under 12 hours, and we've done it. We offer rush service for an extra fee — just let us know what your deadline is and we'll let you know what we can do.

We do Excel spreadsheets for the detailed breakdown — easy to edit, add your own pricing, send to suppliers. Plus, you'll get PDF reports and colour-coded plan markups showing exactly where the quantities came from. If you need some other template or format, just ask — we can usually accommodate that.

Yep, every takeoff comes with marked-up plans showing what we measured and where. Colour coded by trade or section — makes it really easy to verify quantities, explain the estimate to clients, and double-check our work against yours.

You sure can. We give it to you in Excel so you can adjust unit prices to match your suppliers, add your markup, tweak quantities if you see something different. It's your estimate to work with however you like.

We're usually pretty close — about 95-98% accuracy on final costs compared to actual construction costs. That's based on feedback from contractors who've used us and compared our estimates to their job costs. We're not just guessing — we're using up-to-date pricing data, regional adjustments, and real construction knowledge to give you the best possible estimate.

We use PlanSwift & Bluebeam for digital takeoffs, RSMeans and our own cost databases for pricing, and Excel to deliver the goods. Industry-standard tools that produce reliable results — and our estimators know how to use them properly.

Every estimate goes through a quality check with someone else looking at it before we send it out. Two pairs of eyes looking at everything to make sure quantities, pricing, and overall completeness are all good.

No worries if there is — just let us know and we'll fix it right away, no charge. If it's our mistake, we make it right. Our reputation relies on accuracy, so we take errors seriously and will usually sort it out the same day.

We guarantee our work product. If we miss something that's clearly shown on the plans, we'll revise the estimate for free. What we can't promise is that your actual construction costs will perfectly match what we estimated — part of that's just outside our control. What we can promise is we'll do our best with the information given, but ultimately it's still an estimate.

Yes — all 50 states. We adjust our pricing to account for regional cost variations — construction in New York is different from Texas, California or Florida. That's what we do.

Yeah, we work with Canadian contractors across all the provinces too. We price our estimates to reflect the Canadian markets and we know the Canadian construction practices.

We use RSMeans regional cost data plus our own database built from actual project costs. We adjust labour rates, material prices and productivity factors to suit your specific project location — not just some national average that doesn't apply anywhere real.

General contractors, subcontractors, property developers, architects, engineers, property owners, homeowners, lenders and appraisers. Anybody who needs that construction cost information is good enough for us. Most of our work is for contractors bidding on projects, but we serve the whole range.

Yes. That's a big part of what we do. We do takeoffs for plumbers, electricians, HVAC folk, drywall guys, concrete contractors, framers and all the rest.

We can. If you're a homeowner trying to check contractor pricing, figure out a realistic budget or just get a better handle on what your project is going to cost, we can do an independent estimate for you. Most of our work is for pros, but we don't turn away homeowners who need some help.

Yes. We do feasibility estimates, construction budgets for financing and independent cost verification for developers and lenders who need it for project approval and funding.

Time, to be honest. Getting a detailed estimate right can take upwards of 20-40 hours, depending on the job size. That's time you're not spending on getting jobs done, meeting with clients, managing your team, or growing your business. And on top of that, we have access to software, databases, and expertise that you'd have to shell out thousands for if you had to set it all up yourself.

Most of the time, yes, it works out cheaper. Hiring a full-time estimator is going to cost you $60,000-100,000+ a year, plus all the benefits, software, training, and office space that goes with it. Unless you're bidding on 40-50+ projects a year, then maybe it's worth having someone in-house. But for most contractors, it's just more cost-effective to outsource the estimating to us — you only pay for the service when you need it.

Fair point to bring up. Let me put your mind at ease — we've got a pretty good track record here. We've done thousands of estimates for contractors, and the ones that come back to us are because we actually delivered numbers that worked on the job site. Why not start with a small project, see how we do, and then compare to your own expectations? Most of our clients get hooked after the first estimate — they come back, again and again.

It's going to take some time, but yes, we get to know your business, your way of doing things. Your regular clients get the same estimator, and we learn all about their pricing philosophies, typical job scope, mark-ups — the whole nine yards. The longer we work with you, the more we become an extension of your team. And it all starts with that first project — we learn how you think, and by the fifth project, we're practically on the same page as you.

Absolutely it is. Your project plans, pricing, business information — none of that gets shared, or even looked at, outside of our company. We work with loads of competing contractors, so we've got to keep everything confidential. That's just a non-starter for us.

No way. We don't sell contact lists, project information, or anything else to anyone. What you send us, stays with us. That's a promise we keep.

Yep. If you've got some super-sensitive project and your company policy requires it, no problem — we'll be happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement before you send us anything.

We keep them on file for a bit, so we can get back to you if you need any revisions or something related. Then they get deleted. If you want us to delete them straight away, just let us know.

PDF's usually your best bet, but we can also work with CAD files (DWG, DXF), Revit models, and most image formats. If you've got something a bit unusual, just give us a shout and we'll figure it out.

We can try and make do, but quality does matter. Blurry scans or hard to read drawings just make it harder to get the numbers right. Send us the clearest copies you've got, and if there's a better version floating around, it's worth tracking down.

Yeah, we can extract the quantities from those, and from other BIM software too. If you've got a model, it can really speed up the process for us.

We'll flag them straight away. If the drawings and specs are saying different things, we'll ask for clarification or note the discrepancy in our estimate. It's always better to catch these kind of things during the estimating stage, rather than further down the track.