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Building Cost Estimating

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Building cost estimating is a process that can easily be turned into a process and delegated out to others within an organization, freeing the owners to do tasks with high value to them. With software this can be done easily while still allowing the owner to oversee cost critical parts of the estimating process.

PlanSwift construction takeoff and estimating software does this by using assembly based takeoffs.

With assemblies, collection of material, tools and labor can be put together in advance then used when needed in the estimating and takeoff process. This has the great advantage of allow the owner of experienced estimator to build the assemblies once, taking their time in the beginning while they are doing a building cost estimate.

“PlanSwift has done an excellent job in developing this software. I am a builder and over 65 years old and I am not a computer smart person. Nevertheless, in a few hours, I was able to do a take off [areas, linear footage and counts] on a three story house I am building in Georgia. the accuracy was outstanding. Thanks.”-Tom Santora / Tom Santora – Georgia

Once the assemblies are built, they can be reused in any project simply by dragging and dropping them into digitizer areas. This allows workers with less experience to do the same quality work as the advanced workers but at a much lower cost per hour.

What makes this possible is how easy the digitizing process is. With just a few clicks on a computer screen any areas, linear length, segment length, item count or cubic area can be calculated. Any plans can be used for takeoffs even PDF files.

“After using PlanSwift and 3 other programs for takeoff, I wanted to tell you what a great program you have. Easy to use, fast, the ability to create custom formulas, the batch rename function, fly away menus, etc. I have been a heavy computer user in construction for 30 years, and have not seen a company respond to users as quickly and as well as you guys do. I’m done looking for takeoff software. Keep up the fine work. Bill Carey VP of Construction Services.”

-Seaboard Construction Group / Bill Carey

With the area digitized the assembly can be added. From there the computer software will do the rest, using the assembly built by the expert to arrive at a fast, accurate and easy building cost estimate.

Written By
Picture of Daniel Wal

Daniel Wal

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