TRUSTED BY 3,500+ CONTRACTORS & DEVELOPERS
We work with:
General Contractors
- Subcontractors
- Remodeling Contractors
Homebuilders
- Developers
Architects
“Most contractors are missing out on over $200,000 per month in project contracts and they don’t even know it. They are busy, have no time for takeoffs, and they are leaving money on the table. A lot of money.
We designed our construction takeoff service with the goal of helping our clients win projects and ultimately be successful.”
-Daniel Quindemil
Founder, I AM Builders
WHO IS I AM BUILDERS?
I AM Builders is a National Construction Estimating Firm in the business of helping contractors win projects.
With our construction estimating and takeoff services, we’ll help you prepare a budget for your new project.
Most contractors are so busy running their job sites that they NEGLECT their bidding. You’re supervising jobs, making deliveries, going to jobsite meetings, and the only time to work on bidding is NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS.
It doesn’t have to be that way!
HOW CAN WE HELP YOU WIN MORE PROJECTS?
“I have NO TIME to estimate projects”
– Every Contractor in America
The enemy of every contractor is the lack of time. Most contractors are busy working IN the business rather than working ON the business. If that’s the case, you’re not alone. We’ve worked with over 1,400 contractors nationwide estimating and consulting, and that’s normal.
But you’ve probably tried doing it yourself, working at night after work…. probably even on the weekends on the kitchen table. We’ll find your leads for you and can even takeoff your complete construction project after so you can focus on running your business and getting your nights and weekends back.
Stop missing out on bids because of time.
You’re probably MISSING OUT on $200,000 per month because you’re busy
We did an analysis and more contractors are missing out on several projects per month that they can actually win because they are so busy they just pass them up.
Depending on what your average contract value is, most contractors are missing between $200-500K per month in sales because of being busy.
We’ll prepare your entire estimate for you so can keep bidding those jobs.
We can estimate your entire project for you based on your LOCAL PRICING so the numbers will be accurate
I AM Builders is US Based and a licensed General Contractor, so we have actual building experience.
We use a combination of a cost database and our experience to price your projects based on the zip code of your project (Note: Everyone at I AM Builders has actual field experience in construction, not just theory or “paper estimating”).
Pricing for labor and material varies by area and zip code, so we make adjustments for local labor rates, material pricing, and even look at the area’s property value to determine accurate pricing. That’s what makes our construction estimating service a great option for busy contractors.
We even back our estimates with a $1 MILLION ACCURACY GUARANTEE which covers all of our clients by our Errors and Omissions Insurance.
We can help you NEGOTIATE AND CLOSE based on proven strategies
Estimating is only a small part of what it takes to win a job. We like to see this as a TEAM EFFORT.
What do you do after the estimate to give yourself the best chance of winning? We can help you work the numbers when you’re negotiating, and even jump on a conference call with your client (as your estimating team) to help you close.
We can even advise you on EXACTLY WHAT TO DO to have them wanting to USE YOU instead of your competitor.
Over the last 10 years, and after speaking and working with THOUSANDS of Contractors, we get to see what WORKS and what DOESN’T. We have some clients landing 50% of their bids by implementing some of the strategies we can easily show you.
These aren’t strategies we made up – we listened to our clients and created our blueprint based on what they are doing right, and avoiding what they were doing wrong. Best of all….. it works for ANY CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS.
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
You Send in Your Plans
You can upload your plans here or email us at info@iambuilders.com. Whichever is more convenient for you.
Be sure to let us know your scope of work and any details regarding your project.
We Send you a Quote for Our Services
Before starting, we’ll send you a detailed quote for our services. Every client is unique so we take the time to review each situation individually. We’ll factor in things like project range, difficulty, trades, and more.
We Estimate and Deliver Your Cost Estimate
Our team will takeoff and estimate your project. When we deliver you’ll receive a PDF and an Excel file of your estimate. We can also offer construction lead generation services for the jobs you’d like to pursue further.
What makes an Alabama bid different
Alabama runs two code systems at once, and most out-of-state estimators only know about one of them.
The first is the State Building Code. The Division of Construction Management enforces it, and it only reaches certain buildings: anything state-owned or built with state money, every K-12 and public college, and hotels, motels and movie theaters. Since March 17, 2025 that code is the 2021 IBC with pieces of the 2024 edition pulled in, ASHRAE 90.1-2013 for energy, and the 2020 NEC. If you’re pricing a school in Dothan or a hotel in Huntsville, that’s your book, and DCM reviews the plans.
The second system is everything else. A ground-up retail store, a house, an apartment renovation — those answer to the city or county that issues the permit. The state publishes a residential and energy code through the Alabama Energy and Residential Codes Board, but it’s a standard local governments adopt, not a mandate. As far as the state’s own publications show, that standard is still the 2015 IRC and 2015 IECC. What your city actually enforces is a phone call, and it changes from Birmingham to Hoover to Vestavia Hills.
Then there’s the tax. Alabama treats the contractor as the consumer. Sales to contractors are sales to consumers, and the materials get taxed at the register when you buy them. The rule doesn’t touch labor. So there’s no tax line at the bottom of an Alabama estimate. It’s buried inside every material line instead, and if your supplier quotes are pre-tax, your number is short.
And the license. As of Act 2024-277, a general contractor license kicks in when the cost of the undertaking is $100,000 or more. Subs under a GC face the same $100,000 line. Swimming pools are the exception — a license is needed above $5,000. Most of the estimates on this page clear that threshold. The Troy house doesn’t.
Four things that get missed on an Alabama construction estimate
Every one of these has cost somebody real money. We see them monthly.
1. Which code is the code. A church addition and a public school can sit a mile apart and answer to different reviewers. The school goes through DCM on the 2021 IBC. The church goes through the city, on whatever edition the city adopted. If you price both against the same code year, you’re going to get one of them wrong, and it’s usually the one with the state plan review.
2. Tax inside the material lines. Because the contractor is the consumer, a lump-sum Alabama estimate carries tax in the concrete, the lumber, the drywall and the fixtures. Nobody writes it out. When a takeoff is built from bare supplier pricing, the whole estimate is light by the tax on every stick. We price materials tax-included and say so on the sheet.
3. The $100,000 line. The license threshold moved. A $90K job needs no state GC license; a $110K job does, and so does the sub doing $100K of it. If you’re a sub bidding a package that crosses that line, you need to be licensed before you can hold the contract, and that’s a cost and a timeline item, not a footnote.
4. Energy code by city, not by state. The state’s residential standard is the 2015 IECC with mandatory air sealing at 5 air changes per hour and duct leakage limits. Whether your permit office enforces that, an older edition or a newer one is local. The insulation and blower-door lines on a house in Madison and a house in Mobile shouldn’t be assumed identical.
Alabama projects we’ve actually priced
We don’t ask you to take our word for it. Sixteen real estimates are on this page — four in each of the four categories we work in, fifteen of them in Alabama and one just over the Tennessee line. $23.1M of construction value across 150 pages of takeoff and pricing. Open them. Read the line items. See exactly what you get before you send us a single sheet.
Commercial Buildings — ground-up retail, hospitality and institutional.
- Race Trac Chelsea – $3.4M (Chelsea 35043)
- Rivertree Church Cove Campus Addition, Owens Cross Roads – $2.8M (35763)
- AutoZone Store #9390, Hanceville – $1.4M (35077)
- Preserve Carver Museum, Dothan – $1.2M (36303)
Multi Family and Apartments — apartments, condos and multi-unit housing.
- Fairfield Project, Montgomery – $3.5M (36117)
- Guntersville Alabama Unit Renovations – $2.3M (Guntersville 35976)
- Unit Renovations, Mobile – $1.3M (36605)
- Park Street Apartments, Troy – $945K (36081)
Residential — custom homes, ADUs and whole-house remodels.
- Spyglass Model Residence, Pike Road – $1.9M (36064)
- Farmhouse Revival, Franklin TN – $837K (37064)
- 2303H-SR, Birmingham – $594K (35226)
- Single Family Residence, Troy – $220K (36081)
Tenant Buildouts — interior fit-outs in existing buildings.
- Boot Barn Remodel, Huntsville – $991K (35801)
- Crunch Fitness Montgomery – $919K (36117)
- American Family Care, Birmingham – $595K (35242)
- Sweet Paris, Huntsville – $227K (35806)
Four building types. The Tennessee Valley down to the Wiregrass, Birmingham across to Mobile Bay. From a $220K house in Troy to a $3.5M apartment renovation in Montgomery. That range is the whole point — most shops price one lane and call it a service.
Look at the Rivertree Church addition in Owens Cross Roads. $2.8M and twenty-seven pages, because a church addition is concrete, masonry, metals, carpentry, roofing, doors, finishes, plumbing, mechanical and electrical, and every one of those is its own takeoff. It’s a city permit, not a DCM review, so the code edition on the sheet is the one Madison County enforces.
Same story on the Guntersville unit renovations. $2.3M, thirty-six pages, unit by unit. Renovation work is where a thin estimate dies, because the demo and the patch-and-repair lines are the ones nobody counts until they’re standing in the unit.
Where we work in Alabama
We estimate statewide. Here’s where the volume actually is.
Birmingham. Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Homewood, Trussville, Chelsea, Helena, Pelham and McCalla. Five of the sixteen estimates above are Jefferson and Shelby County jobs, from a RaceTrac to a house.
Huntsville and the Tennessee Valley. Huntsville, Madison, Decatur, Athens, Guntersville and Owens Cross Roads. Five more of the sixteen are here. A lot of retail fit-out and institutional work, and the fastest-moving permit counters in the state.
Montgomery and the River Region. Montgomery, Pike Road, Prattville, Wetumpka and Troy. The state capital, the Spyglass model home, the Fairfield renovation and both Troy jobs are on this page.
Mobile and the Gulf Coast. Mobile, Daphne, Fairhope, Foley, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. The Mobile unit renovation is the one coastal job above. Wind detailing and openings are the lines a Birmingham estimator gets wrong down here.
Tuscaloosa and the west. Tuscaloosa, Northport and Jasper.
The Wiregrass. Dothan, Enterprise and Ozark. The Carver Museum is a Dothan job.
Auburn-Opelika and the east. Auburn, Opelika, Anniston, Gadsden and Alexander City.
Every one of those cities has its own page with local detail. Start there if you want the county-level specifics.
Who our Alabama estimating service is for
General contractors bidding hard-bid and negotiated work. Subs who need a takeoff that survives a scope review. Developers who want a real number before they commit capital. Architects who’d rather price a design now than explain a surprise at bid day.
The market isn’t handing out slack. AGC’s July 2026 numbers show Alabama shed 2,200 construction jobs between June and July, a 1.9% drop, while 36 states added jobs over the year. Thinner crews mean longer durations, and your General Conditions have to carry them. If you’re a GC in Alabama turning down invitations because you can’t get numbers out fast enough, you’re going to keep leaving work on the table until somebody else does the takeoff for you. That’s what our Alabama construction estimating services are built to fix. You send the plans. We send back a priced estimate with the quantities shown, in a format you can hand straight to a client or an owner.
We’re not a lead service and we’re not a software subscription. A person does the takeoff. Another person checks it. You can call and ask why a number is what it is, and get an answer.
What you’re hiring is a cost estimator who already knows which of Alabama’s two code systems your building falls under, prices materials with the tax inside, and knows where the $100,000 license line sits. Not a national square-foot average with the word Alabama written on top.
Send us your plans. We’ll tell you what it costs.
