Stop being the only one who can bid your work.
Estivora builds your estimating department. We find or promote your estimator, train them on your pricing, and test them against your own numbers. In 90 days you review bids. You no longer build them.
Thirty minutes. You leave with a one-page plan for handing off estimating, yours to keep either way.
Your company can only grow as fast as you can estimate.
You built this company on your numbers. You run work all day and price at night, and jobs you would like to bid go by because the week runs out. You have thought about hiring an estimator, but nobody prices a job the way you do, and one bad number can cost more than a year of their salary.
So you keep doing it yourself. The crews can handle more work. The bids are what you cannot get to.
We find your estimator
Often it is someone already on your payroll. If not, we recruit, interview and run a paid takeoff test. You make the final call.
We get their takeoff right
Before any pricing, your estimator learns to take quantities off the plans, and we check every takeoff until they are right job after job. A price built on a wrong takeoff is a wrong price.
We teach them your pricing
Using the production rates we set with you in week one, plus your material costs and markup rules, your estimator learns to price on your live bids once the takeoffs hold up.
We prove it against your numbers
Your estimator bids jobs you have already priced, without seeing your number. They pass when the two match inside the tolerance you set.
It starts with you. In the first week we work directly with you to pull your labor production rates from past jobs, or set starting assumptions where none are written down. Until we know how much labor each quantity takes, nobody can price your work.
If their numbers don't match yours, we stay until they do.
The blind bid check is the finish line, and you set the tolerance. If your estimator has not passed by day 90, we keep coaching at no charge until they pass.
You keep final sign-off on every bid for as long as you want it.
- A trained estimator bidding your work your way
- Your production rates and unit costs documented by labor type, wall type, wall height and material
- Estimating software and bid templates, set up and loaded
- A bid checklist that runs on every job
- One review path for every bid: your estimator prepares it, you approve and send it
- A weekly review that takes you 30 minutes
Nobody can bid like I do. How is this different?
We do not teach generic estimating. We write down how you price and train one person to do exactly that. Then we test them against your numbers until they match.
What if the estimator leaves?
Your rate library, templates and checklist belong to your company, so the next person trains faster. Clients on our Bid Desk get the replacement trained at no charge.
Do you work remotely or at my office?
Both. We are at your office for the kickoff and the handoff. In between, your estimator gets a fixed one-on-one session every workday by screen share.
How much of my time does it take?
Most of the three kickoff days, when we work through your production rates together, then 30 to 60 minutes a week plus reviewing bids. The first two weeks cost you time before they save any.
Eight ways estimating holds a concrete company back.
If you own a concrete company and still do your own bids, you will recognize most of these. Each one has a specific fix inside the 90-Day Build.
Recognize four or more?
Then the next step is a 30-minute call to plan how estimating comes off your plate.
A trained estimator, bidding your jobs your way, in 90 days.
One fixed price. One finish line: your estimator passes a blind check against your own numbers. Travel for both on-site visits is included.
Hiring
We look inside your company first. If no one fits, we post the job, screen applicants by video and give finalists a paid takeoff test on a real set of plans. You interview the finalist and decide.
Kickoff at your office
We start by working directly with you to pull your labor production rates from past jobs. Where a rate has never been written down, we set a starting assumption together and tighten it as bids come in. That tells us how much labor each quantity takes. We also cover your markup and the jobs you want or avoid, install the software and start your estimator on a live set of plans.
Takeoffs under review
A fixed one-on-one session every workday. Your estimator does takeoffs on your current invitations and we grade every one. You get a weekly call and a one-page scorecard.
Full bids, your review
Your estimator now prices complete bids. We review each before it reaches you. You check a finished number in minutes.
Running the bid calendar
Your estimator manages the bid calendar and deadlines. We still review every takeoff and bid before it reaches you.
Blind bid check and handoff
Your estimator bids jobs you have already priced. When their numbers land inside your tolerance, they pass. We finish with a written review routine: your estimator prepares each bid, you approve it and send it.
- Recruiting, screening and a paid takeoff test
- 3-day on-site kickoff and 2-day on-site handoff
- Daily one-on-one coaching for 12 weeks
- Estimating software and templates, loaded with your pricing
- The Estivora bid checklist for foundations, formwork, flatwork and elevated decks
- Weekly owner call and scorecard
- Same-day answers, and bid review within four business hours with a day's notice
- 60 days of Bid Desk review after handoff
- The blind bid check guarantee
- You own a residential or small commercial concrete company
- You do most or all of the estimating yourself
- There are jobs you would bid if you had the hours
- You can carry an estimator's salary
- You want someone outside the company to do your bids forever
- You are not ready to let anyone else build a number
Bid Desk
We keep reviewing your estimator's bids before they reach you, run a monthly win and loss review, and keep coaching your estimator. Replacement training is included while you are a member.
Second estimator
When one estimator is full, we train the next on the same system. The second build goes faster because your pricing is already documented.
Add-on modules
Public works bidding with prevailing wage and bonds. Moving from residential into commercial work. Handing a won job to the field with a budget the crew can follow.
Where do you find estimators?
First inside your company: a sharp foreman or project engineer you already trust. Otherwise field people who want off the tools, construction management graduates and drafters. Every finalist takes a paid takeoff test.
How long until I can stop checking every bid?
You stop building bids within weeks. By day 30 your estimator is doing takeoffs under our review. By day 60, full bids reach you already reviewed by us. You still approve every bid before it goes out.
What if a bid goes out wrong?
No one can promise zero misses. The checklist, our review of every bid and your approval exist to catch them. Nothing goes out until you send it.
Will my pricing stay private?
Yes. Confidentiality is written into the agreement.
Why not use a takeoff service?
A takeoff is quantities. Pricing, scope gaps and the decision to bid still land on you, so you are still the bottleneck.
What does it cost?
One fixed price, quoted after your Handoff Plan call. It is paid in stages, and the work is tied to the blind bid check.
Plan how estimating comes off your plate.
You already bid well. That is why everything runs through you. In 30 minutes we map how to hand estimating to someone you trust without lowering your standard.
What we cover- Where you want the company to go, and what estimating has to look like to get there
- Who your estimator should be: someone on your payroll now, or a new hire
- What gets handed off first, and what stays with you
- A timeline that fits your bid season
We don't review your bids. They're working.
You leave with a one-page Handoff Plan. It is yours whether or not we work together.
Pick a time for your call.
Thirty minutes by phone or video with an estimator. There is nothing to prepare or send.
Booking calendar goes here
- Which kinds of jobs you would most like to stop pricing yourself
- Who in the company you might trust with it
- What you would do with the hours you get back
How Estivora estimators are trained.
Four lessons are open to every concrete contractor. The full curriculum is for client estimators during their build.
Client portal
Clients keep their rate library, cost sheets and job costing in the Estivora Portal. Takeoff stays in your takeoff software.
Built by a concrete estimator, for concrete contractors.
Estivora does one thing: build estimating teams inside concrete companies. We do not sell takeoffs, and we do not place a stranger at a desk and leave.
- Your pricing is the asset. We document it and train to it. We never replace it with ours.
- A takeoff is not a bid. Quantities are the easy half. Scope, risk and price are the job.
- Trust is tested. An estimator earns the right to send a number by matching yours blind.
- The owner keeps the last word. You hold sign-off for as long as you want it.
- The system belongs to you. When we leave, everything we built stays.
We work with concrete contractors anywhere in the United States. Kickoff and handoff happen at your office. Daily coaching happens by screen share.