We all do it—when business is slow we get really picky about how we do things in construction. Perhaps it’s because we have time to do estimating the ‘right’ way or perhaps it’s because we aren’t distracted by the chaos of things going on around us. Either way we contractors know that there are good ways and bad ways; a best practices way and a get-it-done way to do takeoff and estimating. And most of the time it all centers on having the adequate amount of time to be a good estimator.
When the recession hit and staffing levels were reduced, contractors kept the A-players. And A-players have top notch practices on how to do takeoff and estimating, especially when they have time to do a thorough job. In fact, manual processes might even be tolerable when things are slow.