Construction Estimating Services for Specialty Contractors
Bid more work without hiring another full-time estimator.
AIQ works as an extension of your estimating department. We learn how your company prices, scopes, and bids commercial work, then help you get more bids out the door.
Built for growing commercial specialty contractors.
Too many bids. Not enough estimating capacity.
Growing subcontractors hit a point where the owner, PM, or lone estimator cannot keep up with every invitation to bid. Opportunities get passed over. Numbers get rushed. AIQ gives you another option.
More invitations than capacity
Good projects hit the inbox every week. Some never get priced because there is nobody free to price them.
Estimating after hours
The owner ends up doing takeoffs at night and on weekends instead of running the company.
Overloaded internal estimators
One estimator carrying every bid means rushed numbers, missed follow-ups, and burnout.
Expensive full-time hiring
An experienced estimator means a serious salary plus benefits, training, software, and management time.
More than a takeoff service
An extension of your estimating department.
Most estimating services are transactional. You send plans, you get quantities back from someone who knows nothing about your company, and the relationship ends there. AIQ is built differently. We learn how your company actually estimates.
Your labor
We learn your labor rates and production assumptions, not industry averages.
Your materials
We build around your preferred materials, suppliers, and assemblies.
Your scope
We learn what your company carries, excludes, and qualifies on every bid.
Your estimating style
We work toward your proposal structure, markups, bid strategy, and internal process.
Your history
Where it helps, your past estimates and project data make future numbers more consistent.
Your system
The goal is a repeatable estimating workflow built around your company, not ours.
None of this happens automatically. We build your estimating profile during onboarding and sharpen it with every project we work on together.
What AIQ does.
Takeoffs & Estimating
Commercial quantity takeoffs and estimate preparation tailored to your trade, project type, and estimating standards.
- Plan and spec review
- Quantity takeoffs
- Labor and material extensions
- Scope review
- Estimate preparation
- Bid-day support
Bid Review & QA
A second set of eyes before the number goes out.
- Scope gap review
- Drawing and spec cross-check
- Quantity verification
- Exclusions and qualifications review
- Proposal review
- Final estimate QA
Estimating Systems
As the relationship develops, AIQ organizes the information behind your estimating process so future bids get faster and more consistent.
- Contractor estimating profile
- Production-rate library
- Labor and material assumptions
- Proposal and scope templates
- Historical estimate organization
- Pre-bid checklists
Exact services depend on your trade, your workload, and the engagement. We scope it together before anything starts.
Estimating support built around your trade.
AIQ currently supports commercial specialty contractors in these trades. We only take on work we can estimate well.
Drywall Estimating
Board, finish levels, and the labor behind them, counted the way a drywall contractor actually bids.
Metal Framing Estimating
Studs, track, gauges, and framing conditions taken off with the detail commercial framing scopes demand.
Acoustical Ceilings Estimating
Grid, tile, and specialty ceiling systems quantified by room, type, and the conditions that change your number.
Painting Estimating
Surfaces, systems, and coats measured against your production rates, not generic square-foot guesses.
Interior Finishes Estimating
Combined interior scopes handled together, so packages that cross trades still come out as one clean bid.
Close to one of these?
If your trade overlaps with the ones above, reach out. If we can't estimate it well, we'll tell you.
Ask about your tradeHow it works.
Tell us how you estimate
We learn your trade, scope, software, labor rates, production assumptions, proposal structure, and current estimating workflow.
Send us a project
Plans, specs, addenda, bid instructions, and anything project-specific. Whatever you'd hand your own estimator.
We build the estimate
AIQ reviews the documents, performs the takeoff, applies your estimating approach, and preps the project for your review.
Your team reviews and submits
You keep final control of the bid. Review the estimate, make your strategic adjustments, and submit the way you always do.
The more we work together, the more the process fits your company's estimating standards.
Add estimating capacity without adding another full-time seat.
Hiring a full-time estimator
An experienced hire usually comes with:
- Salary and payroll burden
- Benefits and recruiting
- Training and ramp-up time
- Software seats and overhead
- Management time
- Fixed cost even when bidding slows down
Working with AIQ
Estimating support that flexes with your workload:
- Add capacity when you need it
- Built around your estimating system
- No immediate full-time overhead
- Scales with your bid volume
- Starts with a single project
- Grows into a long-term estimating partner
For some companies, a full-time estimator is the right call. AIQ is another option when you need capacity now, or when bid volume doesn't justify a full-time seat yet.
Built for contractors who have outgrown doing everything themselves.
A good fit
- Commercial specialty subcontractors
- Growing bid volume
- Owner still doing the estimating
- An existing estimator who is overloaded
- Missing opportunities because of capacity
- Want a long-term estimating partner
- Willing to share standards and collaborate during onboarding
Probably not the right fit
- Shopping only for the absolute cheapest takeoff
- Residential homeowner projects
- One-off quantity reports with no interest in collaboration
- Expecting AIQ to make final bid decisions for you
No hard feelings either way. If we're not the right fit, we'll say so.
Who's behind AIQ
Built from inside the construction industry.
I'm Daniel Espinoza. My background is commercial construction: estimating, project management, and specialty subcontracting. AIQ came from watching the same problem over and over. Contractors have plenty of work to bid, but experienced estimating capacity is hard and expensive to add.
At the same time, better systems and modern tools can make a skilled estimating team far more efficient. AIQ combines the two: real construction knowledge first, technology where it earns its place.
Daniel Espinoza
Founder, AIQ Contractor Systems
(210) 995-1532Construction experience first. AI where it actually helps.
AI does not replace construction judgment. We use modern tools to move faster on the parts of estimating that eat time:
- Drawing and document review
- Pre-bid checklists
- Scope organization
- Historical estimate retrieval
- Quantity and proposal QA
- Repetitive workflow steps
The estimator still makes the estimating decisions.
Have more work to bid than time to bid it?
Let's look at your current estimating workload, how your company bids, and whether AIQ can add capacity to your team.
Start with one project. If the fit is right, we build from there.