How do I estimate a decorative or concrete overlay job?

How do you estimate a concrete overlay or decorative concrete job?

I get this question all the time. Estimating a job is very intimidating to some people, so what I will do is try and make it an easy process for you. There’s an APP For That!! I saw the press release in Concrete Network Magazine and on the web and checked it out for you. I will describe the APP and all it’s features below, and add a link to the iPhone APP and Google Play Store where you can download the APP for FREE!

Ok…the APP is called Job Estimator Pro™…and it says it is the Easy Way to Create Stamped & Decorative Concrete Job Estimates, which include materials, labor and it even checks profitability.

What I found is…it isn’t hype! It actually does what it claims.

Pretty easy so far! I chose Vertical and it led me straight through the entire APP, asking questions of total square footage being overlaid, a couple of easy choices on scratch coat and overlay mixes I would like to use. It then asked if I wanted to calculate labor and asked a series of easy labor related questions like how many people would be on the job, do I pay them by the hour or per job, and if I am bidding the job by the square foot or as a flat fee. Once I put in the info, the app automatically picked accompanying products I would need to finish the job, calculated all the product needs and their costs, compared it to the labor costs…and told me if I was going to be profitable, or if I needed to adjust my bid! WOW…letting me know if I was going to be profitable or not…that part was cool!

The Job Estimator Pro™ APP automatically estimates the material and labor costs and profitability on your Stamped Concrete and Decorative Concrete Overlay projects. I found it very easy to use and just downloaded it from the iPhone APP store, it’s also on the Google Play Store for Android…filled in the info to set a log in and password…and then it opened to 3 simple questions; is this a Vertical Bid, Horizontal Bid or did I need Other Services.

Here are some of the things I found the APP will do:

• Calculate the Material and Labor costs for each bid.
• Show the Profit and Gross Margin %…in real time…so profitability can quickly be determined, and the estimate adjusted if needed.
• Format and personalize the estimate with customer name, disclaimers, your contact information, and then creates an email to send it.
• Archive the estimate for later review.
• Format a complete custom Material List, and drops it into an email for reference, review or ordering.
• Format a complete custom Product Order for the specific job, referenced by customer name, job number or address, and contractor information. It then drops the product order into an email that can be sent to Stone Edge Surfaces to place the order, or have the closest distributor place the order.

I don’t think orders are placed automatically as it is just an email with all the info and they don’t have any of my billing info. So, my guess is they will call me when they get the email and we can talk about it.

I wanted to see some samples…so I dug around the APP and found that the section at the beginning of the APP that said Other Needs…has a whole bunch of links to pretty cool stuff.

In fact, you can email or call for technical assistance as well as look at photos of example projects done with concrete overlay. It even has links to training videos, and access to other blogs tat talk about how to actually price a job.

There is a lot of information packed into this powerful tool, so my recommendation is to download it yourself and see where it takes you.

Job Estimator Pro is FREE on the iPhone App Store and the Google Play store. You can also find links to the downloads at the APP’s web site www.jobestimatorpro.com.

Thank you for reading, and if you need more information, have questions, or want to read their press release, click on the read press release button below or the request more information button below.

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