When a project has drawings, what's your process to write the estimate?

It's 4:40 on a Thursday when the email hits Dana's inbox: "Bid set attached — 14 sheets, bids due Tuesday 2 PM." A two-story medical office tenant fit-out. Architectural, a few structural details, MEP by design-build.

Dana has estimated for eleven years. The rookie move would be to open sheet A-101 and start clicking. Dana closes the email, pours a coffee, and does what the good ones do first: nothing with a measuring tool.

This is Dana's process, step by step. At the end we want to hear yours.

1. Read the whole set before you measure anything

Dana prints the index and reads every sheet cover to cover: the general notes, the code summary, the spec sections, the details nobody references. Twenty minutes in, the answer to "what are we actually building?" shows up on sheet A-001 in note 14: "All corridor walls to be 1-hour rated, full height to deck."

That one note changes the wall type, the drywall layers, the fire caulk, and the labor. A takeoff started before the notes are read gets redone.

Things to find on the first read:

• The sheet index. Confirm you actually got every sheet it lists. Missing sheets are the classic bid-day surprise.
• General and keyed notes. This is where the scope hides.
• The spec book or project manual. Drawings show how much, specs say what grade.
• Addenda. Log every one, and re-check sheets they supersede.
• The bid form. Alternates, unit prices, and allowances decide how you have to structure the number.

2. Write the scope before you write the estimate

Before a single quantity, Dana writes a one-page scope narrative broken into divisions: demo, framing, drywall, doors and hardware, ceilings, flooring, paint, specialties. Each division gets one line that says what's in and one that says what's out.

It feels slow. It's the fastest step in the whole process, because it becomes the checklist the takeoff has to close. It also becomes the qualifications page of the proposal later.

3. Take off in a fixed order, and color everything

Dana takes off the same way on every job: demo → walls → ceilings → floors → doors and openings → finishes → specialties. A fixed sequence means nothing gets skipped because the eye jumped around.

Each wall type gets its own color. When a sheet is fully marked, anything not colored is something Dana hasn't accounted for. The drawing itself becomes the audit trail.

Good habits at this step:

• Verify the scale on every sheet. Check a dimensioned string against the scale bar; "not to scale" details and reduced prints fool everyone once.
• Measure to wall centerlines consistently, and note it.
• Tie every quantity to its source: sheet, detail, grid line. If someone asks "where did 2,340 LF come from?" the answer takes five seconds.

4. Schedules are the gift, so use them

The door schedule on A-601 lists 38 openings with frame type, hardware set, and fire rating. The finish schedule lists every room's floor, base, wall, and ceiling. Dana counts from the schedules, then cross-checks against the plans.

On this job they disagree: the plan shows a door at Exam 4 that the schedule doesn't list. That's not something to guess. It's an RFI.

5. Explode every line into an assembly

"Rated corridor wall, Type C3" isn't a material. It's an assembly: studs and track at the specified gauge and spacing, two layers of Type X each side, insulation, fire caulk at the head, corner bead, tape, mud, screws, primer. Each one is derived from the measured length and height, with waste and real pack sizes.

Estimators who take off assemblies instead of items catch the small stuff that quietly eats margin: the deflection track, the fire caulk, the extra layer on one side only.

6. Collect conflicts as RFIs, not assumptions

By Friday afternoon Dana has a list:

1. Exam 4 door: shown on plan, missing from schedule.
2. Ceiling height at the lobby: 9'-0" on A-201, 10'-0" in the RCP.
3. Spec calls for LVT, finish schedule says sheet vinyl in two rooms.

Every item goes to the GC or architect as an RFI before the bid deadline, not as a silent assumption buried in the number. If there's no answer in time, it goes on the qualifications page with the basis Dana priced.

7. Price with real numbers, not memory

Quantities are only half the estimate. Dana prices:

• Materials from actual supplier quotes on the account the company buys on, not last year's price in someone's head.
• Labor from the company's own production rates (LF per hour, SF per day), adjusted for the conditions on this job: occupied building, after-hours work, a third-floor walk-up.
• Subs from at least two quotes per trade, checked line by line against the scope narrative so no one's number is missing half the work.
• General conditions: supervision, dumpsters, temp protection, permits, cleanup. The line items that live on no sheet.

8. Sanity-check the number from the outside

Before it goes out, Dana steps back:

• Cost per SF against the last three similar jobs. If it's 30% off, find out why.
• Labor-to-material ratio by trade. A drywall line that's 90% material is missing hours.
• A second set of eyes. Someone who didn't do the takeoff reads the scope narrative against the number.

9. Send a proposal, not just a price

Tuesday, 1:15 PM. Dana's proposal goes out with the number, plus inclusions, exclusions, the RFI assumptions, alternates priced separately, and how long the pricing is valid.

The estimate that wins isn't always the lowest. It's the one where the GC can see exactly what they're buying, and nothing comes back as a change-order fight in month three.

The short version

1. Read everything before you measure.
2. Write the scope narrative first; it's your checklist.
3. Take off in a fixed order, color-coded, tied to sheet references.
4. Count from schedules, cross-check the plans.
5. Explode lines into assemblies with waste and pack sizes.
6. Turn conflicts into RFIs, not guesses.
7. Price from real quotes and your own production rates.
8. Sanity-check against $/SF and a second reviewer.
9. Deliver a proposal with qualifications, not just a total.

Now we want yours

Every estimator we talk to has their own version of this. Some start with the door schedule. Some won't touch a plan until they've walked the site. Some build the number bottom-up while others check it top-down first.

When a project has drawings, what's your process? Tell us below: what you do first, the step you never skip, and the mistake that taught you the hard way. We'll collect the best answers into a follow-up post.