"Commercial office build — electrical, HVAC, plumbing, and drywall scope. Uploaded the full plan set, got organized counts for all four trades. Used to take my estimating team 4 days. Did it in about 2 hours total."
Commercial Construction Estimating. All Trades. About 15 Minutes Per Trade.
Upload your commercial plan set. Get material counts for electrical, HVAC, plumbing, fire protection, structural, and finishes — the trades you need to price a commercial project from one platform.
Commercial Construction Estimating
All trades from one plan set upload
Manual takeoffs are the most expensive hour you do not bill.
A commercial plan set takes 8 to 40 hours to count by hand. At estimator rates of $75 to $150 per hour, that is $600 to $6,000 in labor on every bid. Most contractors do not skip bids because the work is not there. They skip bids because the counting takes too long to make the turnaround worth it. TakeoffBuilder does not replace your judgment. It eliminates the hours you spend before your judgment ever gets to work.
- 8 to 40 hours per plan set at $75 to $150 per hour equals $600 to $6,000 in labor
- One TakeoffBuilder credit: $199. Any size plan. 15 to 30 minutes.
- The math works on the first job. Every job after that is margin.
Every hour you count is an hour you are not bidding.
The bottleneck is not the pricing. It is the counting.
What Commercial Construction Estimating Delivers
Trade-by-trade material counts from your commercial plan set — organized for each sub-bid package.
MEP Trade Counts
Electrical, HVAC, plumbing, fire, low voltage
MEP Trades — All 6 Systems
Electrical (devices, circuits, wire footage, panels), HVAC (ductwork, equipment, diffusers), plumbing (fixtures, pipe footage, valves), fire protection (sprinkler heads, pipe runs), low voltage (data drops, cable footage), and mechanical piping — all from your MEP plan set.
- Electrical: devices, circuits, wire footage, panel schedules
- HVAC: ductwork footage, equipment schedules, diffuser counts
- Plumbing, fire protection, and low voltage separately counted
Structure & Shell
Steel, concrete, rebar, roofing, sitework
Structure & Shell — Concrete to Roofing
Structural steel (W-sections, HSS, angles), concrete (slabs, footings, walls — SF and CY), rebar schedules (#3-#11), metal deck, open web joists, and connection hardware from your structural drawings.
- Structural steel: W-sections, HSS columns, joists, metal deck
- Concrete: slab CY, footing volumes, rebar by bar size
- Roofing and sitework quantities from civil and architectural plans
Interiors & Finishes
Drywall, flooring, painting, doors, windows
Interiors & Finishes — Drywall to Doors
Drywall areas (SF with opening deductions), flooring by finish type, paint area by surface, and architectural schedules for doors and windows — from your architectural and interior drawings.
- Drywall: wall areas by room with opening deductions
- Flooring: area by finish type — tile, carpet, VCT, hardwood
- Doors and windows from architectural schedule
Manual takeoffs are the most expensive hour you do not bill.
A commercial plan set takes 8 to 40 hours to count by hand. At estimator rates of $75 to $150 per hour, that is $600 to $6,000 in labor on every bid. Most contractors do not skip bids because the work is not there. They skip bids because the counting takes too long to make the turnaround worth it. TakeoffBuilder does not replace your judgment. It eliminates the hours you spend before your judgment ever gets to work.
- 8 to 40 hours per plan set at $75 to $150 per hour equals $600 to $6,000 in labor
- One TakeoffBuilder credit: $199. Any size plan. 15 to 30 minutes.
- The math works on the first job. Every job after that is margin.
Manual takeoffs are the most expensive hour you do not bill.
A commercial plan set takes 8 to 40 hours to count by hand. At estimator rates of $75 to $150 per hour, that is $600 to $6,000 in labor on every bid. Most contractors do not skip bids because the work is not there. They skip bids because the counting takes too long to make the turnaround worth it. TakeoffBuilder does not replace your judgment. It eliminates the hours you spend before your judgment ever gets to work.
Every hour you count is an hour you are not bidding.
The bottleneck is not the pricing. It is the counting.
Commercial GCs and Estimators Who Use It
Commercial contractors and estimating teams who needed counts across multiple trades faster.
6 reviews
"We use it to verify sub bids on commercial projects. Know our target numbers before the subs come in. Last project it flagged a plumbing sub who was 18% short on fixture counts."
"Structural steel and concrete scope on a 4-story office. Steel member counts by W-section, concrete CY by pour. Used to take 2 days for structure alone. Got counts in 20 minutes."
"Use it to verify sub bids. Caught a 20% undercount on a recent electrical sub package. Paid for a month of credits on that one catch. Now I run every sub bid through it before signing."
"Sprinkler layouts are complex — density zones, obstruction calcs, riser diagrams. The AI catches head counts and pipe footage I'd need hours to verify manually. Especially useful on large commercial projects."
"No subscription is the key for me. I pay credits when I bid, not monthly whether I use it or not. Slow months cost me nothing. Busy months I load up credits at the 10-pack rate and save 25%."
Commercial Construction Estimating — Questions
What commercial GCs and estimators ask about AI-assisted multi-trade takeoffs.
What trades does it cover for commercial construction?
MEP: electrical (devices, circuits, wire footage, panels), HVAC (ductwork, equipment, diffusers), plumbing (fixtures, pipe footage, valves), fire protection (sprinkler heads, pipe runs), low voltage (data drops, cable). Structure: concrete (CY), rebar (by bar size), structural steel (by W-section). Finishes: drywall areas, flooring, painting, door and window schedules.
- MEP trades: electrical, HVAC, plumbing, fire protection, low voltage
- Structure and finishes: concrete, steel, rebar, drywall, flooring
Can I run multiple trades from one plan upload?
Yes. Upload your full commercial plan set — architectural, structural, and MEP sheets. Select the trade and run each separately. One plan set upload covers all trades without re-uploading. Results organized by trade for your sub packages.
- One plan set upload covers all trades
- Results organized by trade for sub-bid packages
How long does it actually take?
About 15 minutes for a typical 30-page commercial set. Larger plan sets — 80-100 pages — run 25-40 minutes. You'll get an email when results are ready. Upload before lunch, have counts before you leave the office.
- 30 pages: ~15 minutes
- Email notification when complete — no waiting at the screen
What exactly do I get back?
An Excel spreadsheet (or CSV) organized by trade category — circuits, devices, wire footage by gauge, conduit runs with sizing. The same format you'd hand to a supplier or import into your estimating software. Plus a flagged items list with page references.
- Excel, CSV, or JSON — your choice
- Organized by category, ready to import or price
How do I get started?
Create a free account with one Google click and we’ll show you a real commercial plan set alongside the AI-generated takeoff from it. See the output format, accuracy, and how flagged items work — before uploading any of your own plans. No credit card required.
- One Google click — no credit card required
- See a real example plan and takeoff output immediately
Does it work on full commercial plan sets?
Yes. Commercial plan sets with architectural, structural, and MEP sheets all work. CAD exports, scanned drawings, and permit sets. Plans up to 150MB. Run each trade separately or all at once using MEP mode for coordinated output.
- Commercial plan sets — architectural, structural, and MEP
- Complements your existing tools — doesn't replace them
Ready to get your commercial quantities faster?
Build Your TakeoffSee a Real Commercial Construction Takeoff Free
Upload any commercial plan set with a free account. Get material counts across trades in about 15 minutes per trade. No credit card required.
- MEP, structural, and finish quantities from one plan set
- Results in about 15 minutes, not 3 days
- Works on your existing plans — PDF, scanned, or CAD export
Commercial Construction Estimating
All trades — ~15 minutes each