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 a Connecticut bid different
Connecticut has one building code. That sounds like it makes life easy. It only makes half of it easy.
The 2022 Connecticut State Building Code took effect 1 October 2022 and it applies in every municipality — Greenwich to Putnam, no exceptions, no local edition. It runs on the 2021 IBC, the 2021 IRC and the 2021 IECC with state amendments on top. So you never have to ask which code year a town is enforcing before you price an envelope. You already know. There’s a 2026 code that has been through public comment and regulation review, but as of September 2026 it isn’t adopted, so the 2021 model codes are still what your details get held to.
Here’s the half that isn’t easy. Connecticut has 169 towns and no county government running building departments. One code, 169 permit counters, 169 fee schedules, 169 review queues. The code doesn’t move when you cross a town line. The money and the calendar do.
Then there’s the tax – the single line most out-of-state contractors get wrong here. Connecticut’s rate is 6.35%. New construction services aren’t taxable. Services to owner-occupied residential property aren’t taxable. But renovation, repair and maintenance services on existing commercial, industrial or income-producing property are taxable at 6.35% — the service itself, not just the materials. And you’re treated as the consumer of your own materials in this state, so you pay sales tax when you buy them and you can’t hand anybody a resale certificate.
A ground-up hotel in Cheshire and an interior fit-out in a Norwalk shell are not the same tax problem. Price them the same way and you’re going to eat 6.35% on a job you already bid.
Four things that get missed on a Connecticut construction estimate
Every one of these has cost somebody real money. We see them monthly.
1. The education fee nobody puts in General Conditions. Every municipal building permit in Connecticut carries a state code training and education fee of 26 cents per $1,000 of construction value, which the town remits to DAS quarterly. On the $34.6M hotel on this page that’s about $9,000. It’s a rounding error on paper and it’s still $9,000 that came out of somebody’s margin.
2. Town permit fees, and the one that just jumped. Stamford charges $16.50 per $1,000 of construction value on commercial work with a $75 minimum, and $13.00 per $1,000 on residential with a $60 minimum. As of 1 July 2026 the commercial rate goes to $25.00 per $1,000 on any project over $1.3 million. That’s roughly a 50% increase on the permit line, on exactly the size of job most GCs here are chasing. One town out of 169. Pull yours before you sign anything.
3. How low the public remodel trigger sits. Under CGS Sec. 31-53, public work in Connecticut goes prevailing wage at $400,000 for new construction and $100,000 for remodeling, renovation or repair — and the threshold counts the total cost of all work by all contractors and subs, not your piece of it. A hundred thousand dollars of renovation at a school or a town hall is nothing. Every estimate on this page is over $100,000. If you bid a public renovation at open-shop rates because your scope looked small, you’re going to lose the difference out of your own pocket.
4. Licensing that isn’t where you’d look for it. Connecticut doesn’t issue a state general contractor licence for commercial construction. What it does require lives at the Department of Consumer Protection: Home Improvement Contractor registration for residential work over $200 (or more than $1,000 of that work in a year), and New Home Construction Contractor registration for builders. Contractors coming in from New York or Massachusetts go looking for a licence exam, don’t find one, and miss the registration that actually applies.
Connecticut projects we’ve actually priced
Sixteen real Connecticut estimates are on this page — four in each of the four categories we work in. $98M of construction value across 121 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 hospitality, institutional and retail.
- Homewood Suites, Cheshire – $34.6M (06410)
- VA Connecticut Healthcare System – West Haven VAMC – $18.8M (06516)
- Trinity College Football Stadium, Hartford – $3.2M (06106)
- Children of America, Wethersfield – $2.4M (06109)
Multi Family and Apartments — apartments, condos and multi-unit housing.
- Residences at Main – Framing, Trumbull – $10.9M (06611)
- The Crossings at Fairfield Metro Center – Building 4 – $6.8M (06824)
- Stonebridge Apts – Drywall, Cheshire – $6.6M (06410)
- New Kensington Square, New Haven – $1.5M (06511)
Residential — custom homes, additions and whole-house remodels.
- 217-220 West Shore Rd, New Preston – $4.9M (06777)
- 11 Highgate Residence, Riverside – $2.9M (06878)
- Grove Rd Project, North Haven – $673K (06473)
- Cambridge Carriage, Old Lyme – $364K (06371)
Tenant Buildouts — interior fit-outs in existing buildings.
- Weid Ave Project, Naugatuck – $1.9M (06770)
- Hobby Lobby, Norwalk – $1.7M (06851)
- MetroMattress Freshwater Plaza, Enfield – $411K (06082)
- Dermatology Office, Waterford – $328K (06385)
Four building types, from a $328K dermatology fit-out in Waterford to a $34.6M hotel in Cheshire. That range is the whole point — most shops price one lane and call it a service.
Three of the four multi-family estimates are single-trade packages: framing at Residences at Main, drywall at Stonebridge, plumbing at New Kensington Square. We’re not going to dress those up as full projects. That’s who calls us on Connecticut apartment work — the sub holding a number on one scope across a lot of repeated units, which is exactly the takeoff that punishes guessing.
The West Haven VA job is the one to open if you bid institutional work: $18.8M across thirteen pages, concrete through electrical, on a federal healthcare campus.
Look at the two big interiors. Hobby Lobby in Norwalk is $1.7M across twelve pages because a big-box fit-out is openings, finishes and MEP coordination, and every one of those is a separate takeoff. It’s also work on an existing income-producing building, so the service is taxable at 6.35%. Weid Ave in Naugatuck is $1.9M in six pages of demolition and finishes. Same category, completely different shape.
Where we work in Connecticut
We estimate statewide. Here’s where the volume actually is.
Fairfield County. Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport, Danbury, Greenwich, Fairfield, Westport, Darien, Trumbull, Riverside, Ridgefield and Newtown. The most expensive construction market in the state and the one with the fee schedule that just moved. Six of the sixteen estimates above are Fairfield County jobs.
Greater New Haven and the Naugatuck Valley. New Haven, West Haven, Milford, Cheshire, North Haven, Orange, Waterbury, Naugatuck, Wolcott and Monroe. Five estimates on this page sit in this stretch, including the biggest one.
Hartford and the river valley. Hartford, West Hartford, Wethersfield, Newington, New Britain, Enfield, South Windsor, East Hartford and Windsor. Institutional and public work, which is where the $400,000 and $100,000 wage thresholds bite.
The shoreline and eastern Connecticut. Old Lyme, Waterford, New London, Groton, Mystic, Norwich, Pawcatuck and Jewett City. Anything near the water carries flood and wind detailing, and that belongs in the estimate, not in a revision.
The Litchfield Hills and the northwest. New Preston, Torrington, Plymouth and the towns around them. Long hauls, thin sub markets and a lot of high-end residential — the $4.9M West Shore Road job is exactly that.
Every one of those cities has its own page with local detail. Start there if you want the town-level specifics.
Who our Connecticut 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.
Connecticut construction employment was 61,900 in November 2025, down about 1% on the year. If you’re a GC in Connecticut 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 Connecticut 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 2022 Connecticut State Building Code, at a Connecticut town’s fee schedule, with the 6.35% renovation rule already on the right line. Not a national square-foot average with the word Connecticut written on top.
Send us your plans. We’ll tell you what it costs.
