Construction Estimate Template — as an Interactive Builder
A construction estimate template should do the math, not just hold the numbers. This free builder starts from painting, drywall, and concrete assemblies — material and labor per unit already loaded — applies your labor rate, burden, and markup, and produces a signature-ready proposal PDF. Every numeric field accepts math like 12*14+9*11.
Frequently asked questions
What should a construction estimate include?
A scope of work broken into line items with quantities and units, material and labor for each, your labor burden (payroll taxes, workers' comp, insurance — typically 20–35% on top of wages), overhead-and-profit markup, any tax, and the total. A client-facing proposal shows scope and prices; the cost columns stay internal.
Why use this instead of an Excel estimate template?
A spreadsheet template starts you from a blank page on every bid, and formulas drift as you copy jobs. This builder starts from trade assemblies — line items with material cost and production-rate labor already baked in — so you type quantities, not formulas. Every field also accepts math (330+275+113), and the output is a clean proposal PDF, not a screenshot of a grid.
What's the difference between markup and margin?
Markup is a percentage added to cost (30% markup on a $10,000 cost = $13,000 price). Margin is profit as a share of price ($3,000 of $13,000 ≈ 23% margin). Contractors quoting '30 percent' often mix these up and underprice; this builder applies markup on cost, and you can see the resulting dollars before you send.
Where do the default prices come from?
They are BuiltSum-authored starting values for a mid-market US crew — not licensed cost-book data, and deliberately editable. The whole point is to reprice them from your own jobs: your labor rate, your suppliers, your production rates. Price off your history, not a stale book.
Win the bid, then bill it
In BuiltSum, this estimate becomes your schedule of values and monthly AIA-style pay applications — entered once.
Start free