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 Louisiana bid different
Louisiana is one of the few states where the code question has a single answer.
The Louisiana State Uniform Construction Code runs statewide. Since 1 January 2023 that means the 2021 IBC, the 2021 IRC, the 2021 IMC, IPC and IEBC, and the 2020 NEC. Same book in Shreveport as in Chalmette. Cross a parish line and the edition doesn’t move. That part is easy, and it’s the opposite of how Texas works.
The energy code is where it gets strange. Louisiana adopted the 2021 IRC and then deleted its energy chapter, substituting Chapter 11 of the 2009 IRC in its place. So a house permitted here in 2026 is insulated and air-sealed to a standard that’s seventeen years old. If you’re pricing a Louisiana house off a national spec sheet, you’re going to carry envelope work the code here never asked for — and lose the bid to somebody who read the amendment.
Then there’s the water, and it shows up in two separate line items.
Openings first. The state amendment at IBC 1609.2 says glazed openings within 30 feet of grade have to pass the large missile test of ASTM E1996, and openings more than 30 feet above grade have to pass the small missile test. Every window, every storefront, every door lite, on both sides of that 30-foot line. Impact glazing and shutters are a takeoff item, not an allowance.
Elevation second. Louisiana’s amendment deletes the plus-one-foot freeboard from IRC R322.2.1, so the state floor is base flood elevation or design flood elevation, whichever is higher. That’s the floor, not the answer. Parish and city floodplain ordinances often go above it, and the number you land on drives the foundation, the utilities, the ramps and the site work. Get it from the local ordinance before you price a slab.
And the tax moved. The Louisiana state sales and use tax rate went to 5% on 1 January 2025 and holds there through 31 December 2029, with parish and municipal rates on top. An estimate still carrying 4.45% is short on every material line in the book.
Four things that get missed on a Louisiana construction estimate
We see these monthly.
1. The license thresholds — and there are five of them. The State Licensing Board for Contractors wants a commercial license at $50,000 or more, a residential license above $75,000, and a home improvement registration for work on an existing residence between $7,500 and $75,000. Electrical, mechanical and plumbing work needs a license above $10,000. Mold remediation needs one at $7,500. That means a job can cross a licensing line without ever feeling like a big job, and a change order can push it over on its own.
2. The missile test at the 30-foot line. Contractors price impact glazing for the ground floor and forget that the rule changes above 30 feet rather than stopping. A four-story hotel has both tests in it. Price the storefront to large missile and the upper floors to small missile, and say which is which in the scope — otherwise the glazier bids one of them and you eat the other.
3. The permit math in New Orleans. The city charges a $60 base fee plus $5 per $1,000 of construction value, then plan review at $1 per $1,000 with a $60 minimum, and re-review at $0.50 per $1,000 with a $45 minimum. Demolition is its own permit at $95 plus $5 per $1,000 of demolition cost. In the Vieux Carre and the historic districts, add a 50% surcharge on the permit, the plan review, the demolition permit and the sign permit. On a $3M job in the Quarter that’s real money sitting in General Conditions.
4. Freeboard you didn’t budget for. Because the state deleted the plus-one-foot requirement, people assume BFE is the number everywhere. It isn’t. The parish or the municipality can require more, and each additional foot of elevation is pile length, fill, stair runs, ramp length and a longer service. Confirm the local ordinance before the foundation line is written.
Louisiana 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. $206.9M of construction value across 170 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 medical, civic, hospitality and restaurant.
- United Medical Rehabilitation Hospital, Hammond – $11M (70403)
- Walker City Hall – $7.4M (70785)
- Fat Boy’s Pizza – Lakeview, New Orleans – $3.3M (70124)
- Immunotec Bio Centers, Baton Rouge – $1.5M (70806)
Multi Family and Apartments — apartments, condos and multi-unit housing.
- 609 Jackson Ave Multi-Use Apartments & Retail, New Orleans – $130.1M (70130)
- The Rivers Apartments, Kaufman TX – $46.6M (75142)
- 3703 Common St – 4-Plex, Lake Charles – $888K (70601)
- New Fitness Center – Tanglewood Apartments, Westwego – $205K (70094)
Residential — custom homes, additions and whole-house remodels.
- Lot 930 Bedico Dr, Madisonville – $967K (70447)
- Point Marie Residence, Baton Rouge – $701K (70820)
- Vicksburg Residence, New Orleans – $576K (70124)
- 4124 Davey Street, New Orleans – $133K (70122)
Tenant Buildouts — interior fit-outs and restaurant conversions in existing buildings.
- Monroe Domino’s Pizza Store – $1.2M (71202)
- Church’s Chicken Chalmette #11510 – $951K (70043)
- Ahi Sushi Japanese Cuisine & Bar, Lafayette – $683K (70506)
- PJ’s Coffee, New Orleans – $655K (70125)
Four building types, from a $133K house on Davey Street to a $130.1M mixed-use block on Jackson Avenue. Fifteen of the sixteen are Louisiana jobs; the Kaufman apartments are on the page because a 29-page garden-apartment takeoff is the same work whichever side of the Sabine it sits on.
Look at the restaurants. Fat Boy’s Pizza in Lakeview is a $3.3M ground-up building and the estimate runs sixteen pages, because a new restaurant is sitework, slab, roof assembly and a full kitchen. Ahi Sushi in Lafayette is $683K over four pages, because a fit-out inside somebody else’s shell is demolition, partitions, finishes and equipment and nothing underneath. Same trade, two completely different estimates. A shop that only prices one of them will get the other one wrong.
Where we work in Louisiana
We estimate statewide. Here’s where the volume actually is.
New Orleans and the metro. New Orleans, Metairie, Kenner, Chalmette, Westwego, Harvey, Gretna and Marrero. Seven of the sixteen estimates above are metro jobs. This is also where the permit surcharges, the historic districts and the flood elevations all land on the same estimate at once.
Baton Rouge and the capital region. Baton Rouge, Gonzales, Prairieville, Denham Springs, Zachary and Walker. Both the Walker City Hall job and the Immunotec build are here, and Baton Rouge has been one of the fastest-growing construction job markets in the country.
The Northshore. Covington, Mandeville, Slidell, Madisonville and Hammond. Custom residential and medical work. The Bedico Drive house and the United Medical rehab hospital are both Northshore jobs.
Acadiana. Lafayette, New Iberia, Opelousas and Crowley. Restaurant, retail and clinic fit-outs, plus oilfield-adjacent commercial.
Southwest Louisiana. Lake Charles, Sulphur, Jennings and DeQuincy. Still rebuilding, still one of the toughest wind-detailing markets in the state.
North Louisiana. Shreveport, Bossier City, Monroe, West Monroe and Alexandria. Different climate zone, different sub market, longer hauls.
Every one of those cities has its own page with local detail. Start there if you want the parish-level specifics.
Who our Louisiana 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.
Louisiana added 10,500 construction jobs in the year to June 2026 — a 7.7% gain, the biggest percentage jump of any state in the country. That’s a lot of new work chasing the same estimators. If you’re a GC here 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 Louisiana 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 LSUCCC amendments, at your parish’s elevation requirement, on your city’s fee schedule. Not a national average with the word Louisiana written on top.
Send us your plans. We’ll tell you what it costs.
