Georgia Construction Estimating Services

Georgia is the opposite of Texas. One code. One date. The whole state.

The Department of Community Affairs sets the minimum construction codes for every county and city in Georgia, and on January 1, 2026 the state moved to the 2024 ICC editions with Georgia amendments. A plan that was drawn under the old editions and permitted this year gets checked against the new ones. If you priced the envelope, the fire ratings and the mechanical off a 2023 set, you’re going to eat the difference. The energy code moved on the same date, so the insulation and glazing lines on a Georgia estimate have to be read against the current amendment packet, not the last job you built.

Then there’s the tax, and Georgia handles it differently from most states. Under O.C.G.A. 48-8-63 the contractor is the consumer of everything that goes into the building. You pay sales tax when you buy the material, at the yard, and it doesn’t matter who the owner is. A school, a county courthouse, a church — the exemption the owner has doesn’t pass through to you. So a Georgia estimate carries tax inside the material cost on every line, public or private.

Labor is the other half. Repair and installation labor is exempt when it’s separately stated on the invoice. Lump it in with the material and the whole charge is taxable. That’s a billing decision, but it’s also a pricing decision, because a remodel priced lump-sum and a remodel priced separated aren’t the same number.

One more thing if you’re coming in from out of state. Georgia makes a nonresident contractor register and post a bond on any contract over $10,000, and on a contract of $250,000 or more the state holds back 2% unless you’ve filed a nonresident performance tax bond. That’s cash flow. Put it in General Conditions before you sign, not after.

Every one of these has cost somebody real money. We see them monthly.

1. The state fire marshal review. O.C.G.A. 25-2-14 says the plans for any building that falls under the state’s fire safety classifications have to be submitted and approved before you build. That’s a review cycle with its own clock, on top of the local permit, and the time belongs in your schedule and your General Conditions. Which buildings fall in depends on the classification in 25-2-13 — read it before you assume a job is exempt.

2. The accessibility code. Georgia runs its own Accessibility Code under Rules 120-3-20 alongside the federal ADA. A commercial estimate that was priced to the federal standard alone can miss the state’s requirements at the door, the restroom and the route. Price it once, correctly.

3. Tax on public work. Out-of-state contractors get caught by this every year. The owner is tax-exempt, so the estimator strips the tax from the material lines. In Georgia that’s wrong. The contractor is the consumer, the tax is paid at purchase, and it stays in the number.

4. The license. Georgia licenses general and residential contractors through a state board, and the license class limits the size of the contract you can sign. Know which class the job needs before you spend a week on the takeoff. It’s the cheapest check on this list.

We don’t ask you to take our word for it. Sixteen real Georgia estimates are on this page — four in each of the four categories we work in. $115.7M of construction value across 156 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, mixed-use and institutional.

• MSM Education Conference Center, Atlanta – $65.2M (30310)
• La Quinta & Hawthorn Suites, Acworth – $13.8M (30101)
• Norcross Oakbrook – Business & Mercantile – $8.5M (Norcross 30093)
• Shiloh Middle School, Snellville – $1.4M (30039)

Multi Family and Apartments — apartments, condos and multi-unit housing.

• Park at Windy Hill Apts, Norcross – $4.1M (30093)
• Prichard Park, Kennesaw – $4M (30144)
• Alta Mill Apartments, Austell – $1.2M (30106)
• Jimmy Carter Apartments, Peachtree Corners – $1.2M (30092)

Residential — custom homes and whole-house remodels.

• Northside Drive – Private Residence, Atlanta – $5.3M (30327)
• Hollyberry Dr Project, Roswell – $1.6M (30076)
• 444 Baty Road, Martin – $1.4M (30557)
• 1406 Northview Ave, Atlanta – $708K (30306)

Tenant Buildouts — interior fit-outs and remodels in existing buildings.

• Braselton Gym – $2.6M (Braselton 30517)
• Peachtree Puttery Cumming – $2.1M (Cumming 30041)
• Buford Target – $2M (Buford 30519)
• Crunch Fitness Duluth – $590K (Duluth 30097)

Four building types. Fifteen of the sixteen are metro Atlanta jobs, from Acworth and Kennesaw on the northwest side around to Braselton and Snellville on the east, and one is a house in Martin, up in the northeast corner of the state. From a $590K gym fit-out to a $65.2M conference center. That range is the whole point — most shops price one lane and call it a service.

Look at the conference center. $65.2M, twenty-three pages, general conditions through electrical, with the concrete, masonry, metals and finishes each broken out by quantity. That’s what a ground-up institutional estimate looks like when it’s done properly. Then look at the Braselton gym. $2.6M and six pages, because it’s a renovation — the existing court floor gets protected, the wall pads come off and go back on, the old slab and CMU come out — and every one of those demolition lines is a takeoff too.

Same story on the Cumming Puttery. $2.1M across twenty-one pages, because an entertainment fit-out is carpentry, finishes, electrical and specialties, and every themed room is its own set of quantities. You can’t price that by the square foot. Nobody can.

We estimate statewide. Here’s where the volume actually is.

Atlanta and the north metro. Atlanta, Roswell, Alpharetta, Marietta, Kennesaw, Acworth, Woodstock, Cumming and Duluth. This is where most of Georgia’s work is and where fifteen of the sixteen estimates above come from. The Northside Drive house, the Hollyberry remodel and the MSM conference center are all inside the Perimeter or just north of it.

Gwinnett and the east side. Norcross, Peachtree Corners, Lilburn, Snellville, Lawrenceville, Buford and Braselton. Five of the sixteen are Gwinnett-area jobs — two apartment communities, a middle school, a Target remodel and the gym.

The south and west metro. Austell, Douglasville, Newnan, Fayetteville, McDonough and Peachtree City. Alta Mill is an Austell job.

Athens and northeast Georgia. Athens, Gainesville, Toccoa and Martin. The 444 Baty Road house is up here.

Augusta, Macon and Columbus. Mid-state and the fall line. We’ve priced work in all three.

Savannah and the coast. Savannah, Pooler, Richmond Hill, Brunswick and Kingsland. Coastal work has its own wind detailing under the state code, and we price it against the drawings and the engineer, not a metro Atlanta template.

South Georgia. Albany, Valdosta, Tifton and Bainbridge. Long hauls and thin sub markets, and the durations have to reflect that.

Every one of those cities has its own page with local detail. Start there if you want the county-level specifics.

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.

If you’re a GC in Georgia 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 Georgia 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 2026 Georgia codes, with the tax where the state puts it, and with the fire marshal review on the schedule. Not a national square-foot average with the word Georgia written on top.

Send us your plans. We’ll tell you what it costs.