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 Maine bid different
Maine gives you one code. That part is easy.
The Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code – MUBEC – applies to every building constructed or renovated in the state, whatever town it sits in. Since April 7, 2025 that has meant the 2021 IBC, the 2021 IRC, the 2021 IEBC, the 2021 IMC and the 2021 IECC, with ASHRAE 90.1-2019 and the ASTM radon standard riding along. One edition, statewide. An envelope that pencils in Portland pencils in Presque Isle, and you don’t have to look up which year the town council adopted before you price a wall.
What isn’t uniform is who checks it. A municipality of 4,000 or more residents has to adopt and enforce MUBEC. Under 4,000, the town can decide not to. The code still applies to your building either way – what changes is whether anybody local reviews the drawings and shows up to inspect. In the small towns that opt out, third-party inspection and a longer path to a sign-off land in your general conditions instead of the town’s. Call the code office before you price the schedule, not after.
Then there’s the tax, and Maine handles it backwards from most of the states we work in. The rate is 5.5% with no local option anywhere in the state. Services on real property – carpentry, the actual work – aren’t taxed at all. But the contractor is treated as the last user of the materials, so you pay the tax when you buy them. Nothing gets added to the contract at the end. The 5.5% has to already be sitting inside your material line, or you just ate it.
On public and non-profit work it comes back off. Materials permanently affixed to a building owned by the State of Maine, a city or town, the federal government or an exempt organization can be bought tax free on form ST-A-119. Tools, equipment and consumables stay taxable. That’s a real swing on a school, a town garage or a federal fit-out, and it’s the kind of thing that quietly decides whether you’re the low bidder.
And under all of it is the season. The building year is short and the crews are thin – construction employment was 34,700 in July 2026, down 2.5% over the year. Winter conditions, heat and hoarding, and the weeks you lose waiting for the ground belong in General Conditions on every job in this state.
Four things that get missed on a Maine construction estimate
Every one of these has cost somebody money. We see them monthly.
1. The 5.5% in the wrong column. Maine taxes the materials, not the contract. If you build the estimate the way you’d build it in a state that taxes the whole remodel invoice, you’re going to be short by the sales tax on every stick of material you buy – with no line left to recover it from. Tax goes in the material cost, on every division.
2. The exemption you didn’t take. The flip side. On a municipal, state, federal or exempt-organization job, the permanently affixed material is exempt with the right certificate. Price that job with tax baked into materials and you are 5.5% high against the outfit that filed the ST-A-119.
3. Prevailing wage at $50,000. State-funded public works work over that contract value carries rates set by the Maine Bureau of Labor Standards from its annual September survey – and as of 2026 those rates are grouped into four geographic regions rather than by county. Certified payroll goes in every payroll period with a signed statement of compliance, and the wage determination gets posted on site. That’s an administrative cost as well as a wage rate. Pull the current determination for the region before you carry a number.
4. One acre of dirt. Under 38 M.R.S. sec. 420-D, a project with one acre or more of disturbed area needs approval from the Department of Environmental Protection before it’s built, and projects at or under three acres of impervious surface can use the simplified standards. Erosion control, basins, inspection and the review clock are sitework and general conditions. On a small commercial pad, that acre comes up faster than people expect.
Maine 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. $72.8M of construction value across 82 pages of takeoff and pricing. Eleven of them are Maine jobs. Five are across the line in Massachusetts, marked as such, because that’s where the closest comparable work sits. 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.
- DG South China Project – $2.2M (South China 04358)
- York O’Reilly Auto – $1.9M (York 03909)
- Econo Lodge, South Portland – $1.6M (04106)
- Main Street BK, South Paris – $373K (04281)
Multi Family and Apartments – apartments, condos and multi-unit housing.
- Walk Hill Residences project, Roslindale MA – $33M (02131)
- Wading River Estates, Norton MA – $23M (02766)
- Holtzer Park, Roxbury MA – $2.8M (02119)
- Millbrook Estates, Westbrook – $291K (04092)
Residential – custom homes, ADUs and whole-house remodels.
- 77 High Street Remodel, Clinton MA – $3.5M (01510)
- Hadley Lake Rd, Machias – $1.3M (04654)
- House CH539-V10, Machias – $1M (04654)
- Morrison Lake House, New Gloucester – $281K (04260)
Tenant Buildouts – interior fit-outs in existing buildings.
- Planet Fitness Jamaica Plain, Boston MA – $688K (02130)
- 100 Fore Street, Portland – $467K (04101)
- Saco Bay, Standish – $222K (04084)
- Best Western Lobby, Freeport – $133K (04032)
Four building types, from a $133K hotel lobby to a $33M residential development. That range is the whole point – most shops price one lane and call it a service.
Look at the two Machias houses. Hadley Lake Rd is $1.3M over six pages, House CH539-V10 is $1M over five, and both run concrete through finishes because Down East you are the general, the excavator and the framer. Compare that to 100 Fore Street in Portland: partitions and drywall in an existing downtown building, with crew lodging and per diem in the general conditions because the labor came from away.
Or look at the retail. York O’Reilly Auto is $1.9M and nine pages of ground-up work, sitework through electrical. Main Street BK is $373K in a small western Maine town. Same code edition, nothing else alike.
Where we work in Maine
We estimate statewide. Here’s where the volume actually is.
Greater Portland. Portland, South Portland, Westbrook, Scarborough, Falmouth, Freeport and Standish. Where most of our Maine work sits – the Econo Lodge, 100 Fore Street, Millbrook Estates, Saco Bay and the Best Western lobby are all in this belt.
York County and the southern gateway. York, Kittery, Saco, Biddeford, Sanford and Wells. Massachusetts money, Maine code, and the sub market you’re bidding against runs on both sides of the line. The York O’Reilly Auto job is here.
Lewiston-Auburn and central Maine. Lewiston, Auburn, Augusta, Waterville and the Kennebec corridor. Institutional and public work, where the prevailing wage threshold and the ST-A-119 exemption both start to matter.
Western mountains. Rumford, South Paris, Bethel, Norway and Farmington. Long hauls, thin sub coverage and a shorter building season than the coast.
Bangor and the north. Bangor, Brewer, Orono and up through Aroostook to Presque Isle and Madawaska. Small towns, many under the 4,000-resident enforcement line.
Midcoast and Down East. Rockland, Camden, Belfast, Ellsworth, Bar Harbor, Machias and Lubec. Coastal exposure, ledge, and the longest drive to a supply house in New England. Three estimates on this page are Washington County jobs.
Who our Maine 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.
Maine lost construction jobs over the past year while the work kept coming. 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 Maine 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 MUBEC, with Maine’s tax treatment in the material line, on the season you actually build in. Not a national square-foot average with a pine tree on it.
Send us your plans. We’ll tell you what it costs.
