The questions estimators actually ask

Because an estimator pricing a bid needs a design number today, and a quote that arrives in three days is worth less than a number that is already on the page. The rate card is what we would have quoted anyway.

Publishing it costs us the ability to read your job and price it higher. We think the volume of work that comes from being the firm you can price against is worth more than that.

A conforming project is one where the plans show what we need to design from: an architectural background we can work over, a stated hazard classification or enough information to determine one, a known water supply, and a building that fits the hazard classes on the rate card.

We confirm that within 4 business hours of receiving plans. If it conforms, the rate-card price is locked at that point. If it does not, we say what is missing before any design work starts, and no fee is committed.

NICET-certified designers based in the United States. The work is not subcontracted offshore. The designer who produces your drawings is the person who answers your comments on them.

No. We take the overflow — the jobs that would otherwise sit in the queue or get declined. Your team keeps the work worth keeping: the complex jobs, the accounts with history, the projects where knowing the building matters.

Contractors who use us most send us their third and fourth concurrent project, not their first.

2 revision rounds are included in every project fee. A round is one consolidated set of comments and our response to all of them. Comments from the authority having jurisdiction on our design work are handled inside the included rounds.

Comments on our design work are handled inside the included revision rounds at no additional fee. Send us the marked-up set and we turn the corrections.

Comments that change the project rather than correct the design — a hazard reclassification, a supply change, added scope — reprice against the rate card for the affected area only. We tell you the number before we start.

We classify from the plans as submitted, and we tell you the classification we used in the scope confirmation, before design starts. If you think a space belongs in a different class, say so then and we will price it that way.

If the authority having jurisdiction reclassifies an area after submittal, the affected zone reprices at the corrected class. Only that zone, not the project.

We work in the design packages the trade fabricates from, and we deliver native design files alongside PDF so your shop can fabricate and your submittal set is ready to send.

If your fabrication shop needs a particular format, tell us at scope confirmation rather than at delivery.

PE stamping is available in select states as an add-on at $1,200.00 per project, regardless of how many zones the project has.

Availability is confirmed per project rather than published per state, because it depends on the reviewing engineer’s licensure at the time you ask. See coverage for where we take work.

We carry professional liability, also called errors and omissions, coverage. The carrier and the limits are on the certificate, which we send with the scope confirmation rather than publishing here.

Standard turnaround is 5 business days for projects up to 15,000 SF, rising with project size to 12 business days at 150,000 SF. Larger projects are scheduled at scope confirmation. The clock starts at scope confirmation, not at upload.

Rush adds +25% to the design fee and moves a project up to 15,000 SF to 3 business days.

The minimum project fee is $1,750.00. Below roughly 12,500 SF of light hazard, the minimum is what you pay, because a small set still needs a full calculation, a stock list, and a submittal package.

The minimum floors design labor only. Add-ons such as a PE stamp or a fire pump sit on top of it rather than being absorbed by it.

The card prices every zone at its hazard rate in the column your total square footage selects, so scope cannot be split across zones to reach a cheaper column. Near the top of a bracket, the fee is capped at what the project would cost on entering the next bracket.

The practical effect is a plateau: an ordinary-hazard job anywhere from about 11,667 to 15,000 SF prices at $2,100.00. A larger project never prices below a smaller one.

Net 30 from delivery for contractors with an established account. First projects are half at scope confirmation and half at delivery.

The fee quoted at scope confirmation is the fee invoiced. Rate-card pricing does not move between confirmation and delivery. An estimate covers design fees only, and excludes permit fees and third-party review fees.