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 North Dakota bid different
North Dakota has one building code. What it doesn’t have is one answer about who enforces it.
The code is statewide on paper, under NDCC chapter 54-21.3. But no city, county or township has to run a building department. If a jurisdiction elects to enforce a code, the law says it has to be the state code, and it can amend that code to fit local needs after it adopts. So the first question on a North Dakota job isn’t which code year. It’s whether there’s a plan reviewer at all, and which edition that office is actually working from.
Those two answers move. The state adopted the 2024 I-Codes on 11 September 2025 — building, residential, mechanical, fuel gas, plus the energy code and the existing building code — effective 1 January 2026. Bismarck’s building page still lists the 2021 IBC, IRC, IFC and IECC as what it enforces, with the switch to 2024 in progress. Same state, two different sheets of paper. Call the office before you price the envelope, not after.
The envelope is where the money is out here anyway. North Dakota’s energy amendments are written across climate zones 6, 7 and 8 — the coldest band in the lower 48 — and the state’s own amendment table sets a 0.057 frame wall U-factor and 0.059 on basement walls. That’s an assembly, not a preference. Thicker walls, continuous exterior insulation, deeper foundations. A wall detail that pencils in Kansas doesn’t pencil in Minot.
Then there’s tax, and this is the one that costs people money. North Dakota doesn’t tax construction labor. It taxes you as the consumer of the materials — 5% state plus the local rate, paid when you buy, and it stays in your cost. Building for a school district, a city or the federal government does not change that. The Tax Commissioner’s contractor guideline says it plainly: contracts with government and school owners are not exempt, and the contractor still owes tax on materials. If you priced a public job assuming the owner’s exemption flows down to you, you’re going to give back five percent of your material buy on your own dime.
Four things that get missed on a North Dakota construction estimate
1. Your license class caps the bid. Work over $4,000 needs a contractor license under NDCC chapter 43-07, and the class you hold sets the ceiling: Class D up to $100,000, Class C up to $300,000, Class B up to $500,000, Class A for anything above that. Fees run $100, $225, $300 and $450. Renewal is annual by 1 March, with a liability insurance certificate naming the Secretary of State and Workforce Safety verification if you have North Dakota employees. A Class B contractor bidding a $600,000 job has an estimating problem and a licensing problem.
2. Local tax, and the cap on it. The 5% state rate is only the floor. Cities and counties add their own, and many of them cap the local tax per transaction, with refunds handled through the state when a seller collects past the cap. Where you buy and how you split the material purchase changes the number. This is a line in the estimate, not an accounting afterthought.
3. Federal work is a different wage sheet. The Minot Air Force Base child care center on this page is federal work, and federal work carries a Davis-Bacon wage determination for the county, published on SAM.gov. The rates in that determination are the rates the estimate has to carry. Pull the determination that applies to your county and your work type before you price labor, not a regional average.
4. Winter is a general conditions item. Look at the estimates below and you’ll see supervision priced by the week and a hotel line sitting inside General Conditions on the Watford City and Dickinson jobs. Crews travel here. Cold shortens the day, ground has to be thawed and protected, and the schedule you assume is the schedule you’re paying supervision against. Price the weeks honestly and the rest holds together.
North Dakota projects we’ve actually priced
We’d rather show you the real files than talk. Sixteen estimates are on this page — four in each of the four categories we work in, $81.4M of construction value across 104 pages of takeoff and pricing.
Here’s the honest part: seven of the sixteen are North Dakota jobs. The other nine are from right across the line in Minnesota, Montana and South Dakota. North Dakota is a small market and we’re not going to invent files to fill a page. Every out-of-state sample is labeled with its state so you can tell at a glance which is which, and every one of them was priced under the same northern-plains conditions — same winters, same travel, same thin sub market.
Commercial Buildings — ground-up institutional, retail and light industrial.
- Minot AFB – Child Care Center, Minot – $4.2M (58701)
- The Yellowstone Building, Livingston MT – $1.7M (59047)
- Center of Opportunity, Bismarck – $642K (58504)
- Fox Hills Turf Center, Watford City – $123K (58854)
Multi Family and Apartments — apartments, senior housing and multi-unit buildings.
- 1400 Park Avenue, Minneapolis MN – $52.6M (55404)
- Belle Apartments, Belcourt – $14.1M (58316)
- Bowmore Senior Living, Spearfish SD – $1.3M (57783)
- Subiaco Manor, Dickinson – $78K (58601)
Residential — custom homes, additions and whole-house remodels.
- Victory Home, Saint Paul MN – $1.6M (55109)
- Lake of the Isles, Minneapolis MN – $1.1M (55405)
- Pine Ridge home Project, West Yellowstone MT – $736K (59758)
- Addition 12765 Foliage Ave, Saint Paul MN – $278K (55124)
Tenant Buildouts — interior fit-outs and remodels in existing buildings.
- Lifetome Fitness Plymouth Remodel, MN – $1.5M (55446)
- Marshalls MTKA, Hopkins MN – $836K (55305)
- Sanford Pediatrics, Bismarck – $442K (58503)
- Marian Manor Health, Glen Ullin – $124K (58631)
Four building types, from a $78K drywall and insulation package on a Dickinson apartment building to a $52.6M apartment development. That spread is the whole point. Most shops price one lane and call it a service.
Open the Minot child care center and the Sanford Pediatrics job and you’ll see the two ends of the work. Minot is six pages, concrete through electrical, federal wage rules and a base access schedule. Sanford is four pages that start with demolition — plumbing fixtures, water service, mechanical and electrical demo by the square foot — because a clinic remodel is mostly what you take out before anything goes back in. Belle Apartments in Belcourt is twelve pages and $14.1M, sitework through finishes, on the Turtle Mountain reservation.
Where we work in North Dakota
We estimate statewide. Here’s where the work actually sits.
Bismarck-Mandan. The Center of Opportunity and Sanford Pediatrics estimates are both Bismarck jobs. City department, 2021 codes at the moment, moving to 2024.
Fargo, West Fargo and Moorhead. The biggest metro in the state, and the one where a job can pick up Minnesota rules on the other side of the river. Six of the samples above are Minnesota jobs for exactly that reason.
Grand Forks and Devils Lake. Institutional, university and public work.
Minot and the Turtle Mountain area. Air base work, housing, and the Belle Apartments job in Belcourt.
Williston, Watford City and the Bakken. Fox Hills Turf Center is a Watford City job. Long hauls, crew lodging in General Conditions, and sub availability that moves with oil.
Dickinson, Glen Ullin and the southwest. Subiaco Manor and Marian Manor Health are both from this corner of the state.
Who our North Dakota 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 money. Architects who’d rather price a design now than explain a surprise on bid day.
North Dakota had 30,800 construction jobs in July 2026, up 1% over the year. It’s a small market with a long list of jobs and not many people to chase them. If you’re turning down invitations because you can’t get numbers out fast enough, you’re going to keep handing work to the shop that can. That’s what our North Dakota construction estimating services are built to fix. You send plans. We send back a priced estimate with the quantities shown, in a format you can hand 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 in your climate zone, under your city’s code edition, with your state’s tax treatment in the material line. Not a national average with the word North Dakota written on top.
Send us your plans. We’ll tell you what it costs.
