If you’re like a lot of busy contractors in the walls and ceilings industry, every day can be bid day if you’re working up multiple bids at the same time. 

If your job involves bidding, winning, and building, you may have a hard time imagining how work ever got done before mobile devices—back in the early 2000s. In the wake of the iPhone launch 12 years ago, mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have become as common as hardhats on the jobsite.

First, the good news: construction employment has remained steady in 2019—despite recession fears and stock market jitters.

When JBKnowledge conducted its 2018 Construction Technology Report, more than 60 percent of the nearly 3,000 construction pros reported still relying on spreadsheets as part of their estimating process.

Technology seems to be simultaneously disrupting and driving change in today’s preconstruction industry.

Cost cost estimators working in the walls and ceilings industry know their job is perfected through experience, practice, and intuition.

No matter how hard any contractor works toward being organized and efficient, there are more significant issues at play that cause projects to go over-budget and over-schedule these days.

For many walls and ceilings contractors, the days of estimators working with full-size plans and a single digitizer are a thing of the past.