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 Arkansas bid different
Arkansas is the opposite of Texas. One code, everywhere.
The 2021 Arkansas Fire Prevention Code took effect on 1 January 2023, and it carries the 2021 IBC, the 2021 IFC and the 2021 IRC with state amendments. The Contractors Licensing Board says it plainly: the code applies statewide, even in rural and unincorporated areas. You don’t have to look up which edition Bentonville is on this month. You look up one.
That sounds like it makes estimating easier. It does, for the structure. What it doesn’t do is flatten the rest of the job.
Start with the tax, because most out-of-state estimators get it backwards. Arkansas doesn’t tax your contract. Rule GR-21 calls the contractor a consumer of everything he installs — materials, supplies, equipment — so you pay 6.5% state tax plus city and county tax when you buy the material, or when you pull it out of your own inventory. It’s inside the material line, not on top of the bid. And services on the non-mechanical parts of a building — walls, doors, windows, roofs, pipe, wire — aren’t taxable at all once they’re part of the real estate. A remodel in Little Rock is not priced the way a remodel in Houston is priced.
Then there’s the licence. Commercial work is $50,000. Residential work on a one-to-four-family home is $2,000. Those are low numbers, and Ark. Code Ann. § 17-25-103 is the part that hurts — an unlicensed contractor can’t sue to enforce his own contract. That’s not a fine. That’s the whole receivable.
And the energy code is old. Arkansas is still running the 2014 Arkansas Energy Code, built on the 2009 IECC with amendments. An envelope that satisfies Arkansas would fail in most of the states around it. If you’re pricing off a national assembly library tuned to a current IECC, you’re going to hand the owner a number he didn’t ask for.
Four things that get missed on an Arkansas construction estimate
Every one of these has cost somebody real money. We see them monthly.
1. The $2,500 local-tax rebate. Arkansas lets a business claim back the extra city and county tax paid on a qualifying business purchase whenever the invoice runs over $2,500. Single-transaction caps went away in 2008 for almost everything else, but this rebate didn’t. On a job with real material buys — steel, millwork, mechanical equipment — that’s a line most estimators never carry and most contractors never file. Know whether your number assumes it before you sign.
2. Wage rate on public work. Arkansas repealed its state prevailing-wage law with Act 1068 of 2017. A state or municipal job here is priced at market wage. But federal Davis-Bacon didn’t go anywhere, so the minute federal money touches the project, the rate changes and so does your labor line. Same building, same city, two different numbers depending on where the funding came from. Ask before you price it.
3. Seismic in the northeast. The New Madrid Seismic Zone runs up through northeast Arkansas. Under the 2021 IBC, a building in Jonesboro or Blytheville carries bracing, connection detail and anchorage that the identical building in Fayetteville doesn’t. It shows up in structural steel, in masonry reinforcing, and in the shop-drawing time. If your takeoff treats the state as one seismic answer, the northeast corner is where it breaks.
4. The storm shelter. Arkansas sits inside the 250-mph tornado zone on the ICC 500 map, which is why the 2021 IBC storm-shelter requirement turns up on school and assembly work here and doesn’t in most of the country. A shelter is not a room with thicker walls. It’s a separately engineered structure with its own doors, its own hardware and its own inspection. Confirm the mapped zone for the actual site — but assume it’s in scope on a school until somebody proves it isn’t.
Arkansas projects we’ve actually priced
We don’t ask you to take our word for it. Sixteen real Arkansas estimates are on this page — four in each of the four categories we work in. $36.8M of construction value across 82 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.
- Lafayette Building, Little Rock – $8.1M (72201)
- Bishop Family Dentistry Addition, Greenwood – $1.8M (72936)
- Taqueria Mexican, Springdale – $1.5M (72764)
- Ziggi’s Coffee, Bentonville – $994K (72712)
Multi Family and Apartments — apartments, condos and multi-unit housing.
- The Claude Apartments, Fayetteville – $11.7M (72703)
- Crystal Flats, Bentonville – $2.7M (72712)
- Fitzroy Rogers Apartments, Little Rock – $2.7M (72223)
- Johnston Liner Building, Springdale – $1.3M (72764)
Residential — custom homes, ADUs and whole-house remodels.
- Elephant House, Fayetteville – $1M (72701)
- NDG1468 Huntington Cove, Alexander – $834K (72002)
- Pine Bluff Residence 1500SF – $380K (71603)
- W 24 St Project Remodel, Little Rock – $250K (72206)
Tenant Buildouts — interior fit-outs in existing buildings.
- Target T2961, Searcy – $1.9M (72143)
- Harris Bakery Office, Rogers – $1.1M (72756)
- Midtown Counseling, Fayetteville – $344K (72703)
- Walmart Project, Rogers – $245K (72758)
Every one of the sixteen is an Arkansas job. Northwest Arkansas down to Pine Bluff, Little Rock across to Searcy. From a $245K Walmart fit-out to an $11.7M apartment building. That range is the point — most shops price one lane and call it a service.
Look at the two coffee-and-food jobs. Ziggi’s Coffee in Bentonville is $994K and the estimate runs six pages, because a ground-up drive-thru is site work, shell, canopy, equipment rough-in and finishes, and every one of those is a separate takeoff. Taqueria Mexican in Springdale is $1.5M over nine pages for the same reason — a kitchen is where the mechanical and the plumbing quietly double.
Then look at the Bishop Family Dentistry Addition in Greenwood. $1.8M, nine pages, concrete through electrical. An addition to a working clinic means phasing, temporary partitions and an owner who can’t close. That’s General Conditions, and it’s where a thin estimate loses.
Where we work in Arkansas
We estimate statewide. Here’s where the volume actually is.
Northwest Arkansas. Bentonville, Rogers, Fayetteville, Springdale, Centerton, Bella Vista and Siloam Springs. This is the engine. The four largest NWA cities issued 2,929 building permits in the first half of 2025, up 11.3% on the year before, and multifamily vacancy sat at 3.7% with 639 new units delivered in the same six months. Nine of the sixteen estimates above are Northwest Arkansas jobs. Sewer capacity is the constraint developers are watching in Bentonville, Centerton, Rogers and the towns around them — and a capacity fee or an off-site extension belongs in the estimate, not in a change order.
Central Arkansas. Little Rock, North Little Rock, Conway, Benton, Bryant, Alexander and Jacksonville. State work, healthcare and institutional. Three of the sixteen are Little Rock jobs and the Huntington Cove house is in Alexander.
The River Valley and the west. Fort Smith, Van Buren, Greenwood, Russellville and Clarksville. Industrial, warehouse and clinic work. The Bishop dentistry addition is Greenwood.
Northeast Arkansas. Jonesboro, Paragould, Blytheville and the Delta. New Madrid country. Every structural number here carries the seismic detail or it isn’t finished.
South Arkansas. Pine Bluff, El Dorado, Camden, Texarkana and Hot Springs. Slower market, longer hauls, thinner sub coverage — and that shows up in your durations before it shows up in your unit prices.
Every one of those cities has its own page with local detail. Start there if you want the county-level specifics.
Who our Arkansas 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.
Northwest Arkansas is growing faster than the crews in it. If you’re a GC 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 Arkansas 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 has already priced work under the 2021 Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, at Arkansas material tax, on Arkansas soil. Not a national square-foot average with the word Arkansas written on top.
Send us your plans. We’ll tell you what it costs.
