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 an Oregon bid different
Oregon runs one code book. The whole state, one book.
The Building Codes Division adopts the specialty codes and every jurisdiction enforces the same edition. Commercial work is on the 2025 Oregon Structural Specialty Code — it took effect 1 October 2025 and went mandatory 1 April 2026. Houses are on the 2023 Oregon Residential Specialty Code. Energy is the 2025 Oregon Energy Efficiency Specialty Code, mandatory since 1 July 2025 and built on ASHRAE 90.1-2022. Plumbing is the 2023 code off the 2021 UPC. Electrical is the 2023 code off the 2023 NEC.
That’s the opposite of how most states work, and it’s good news for your number. The envelope you price in Medford is the envelope you price in Pendleton.
So what actually moves an Oregon number isn’t the code. It’s three other things.
There’s no sales tax. Oregon doesn’t have one. Your material invoices don’t carry a state sales tax and nobody argues about whether the labor half of a remodel is taxable. If you’ve priced work in Washington or California and you’re bidding your first Portland job, that’s a real difference in your material line — and it’s also why every out-of-state benchmark you find online is wrong for Oregon in both directions.
Then there’s the ground. The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a 700-mile fault sitting 70 to 100 miles off the coast. Oregon Emergency Management puts the odds of a magnitude 7.1 or larger megathrust quake in the next 50 years at about 37%, with five to seven minutes of shaking on the coast and less as you move inland. That’s the reason the structural detail on an Oregon drawing set is what it is. We price what the engineer drew — connections, hold-downs, the whole schedule — instead of averaging it away.
And then there’s the city. Same code, wildly different money. That’s the next section.
Four things that get missed on an Oregon construction estimate
Every one of these has cost somebody real money. We see them monthly.
1. System development charges. SDCs are the Oregon version of impact fees, and they are not small. A statewide study done for Oregon Housing and Community Services put the total SDCs on a single-family residence at roughly $15,000 on average, ranging from under $5,000 in small cities to close to $50,000 in some Portland-metro jurisdictions. Water, wastewater, transportation and parks each averaged $3,800 to $4,600 per dwelling. Apartments run about two-thirds of the single-family rate. Those are 2022 figures and most cities have raised them since, so pull the current schedule for the actual jurisdiction before you commit. What you cannot do is leave the line out.
2. Prevailing wage on public work. Oregon’s BOLI prevailing wage rate law kicks in on public works over $50,000 — schools, cities, parks districts, the lot. Certified payroll is filed monthly, by the fifth business day of the following month, and if it isn’t filed the agency must withhold 25% of your payment. You keep the records three years after the job closes. If you price a school addition at your private-work wage basis, you’re going to eat the difference on every hour of the job.
3. The Corporate Activity Tax. Oregon charges $250 plus 0.57% of commercial activity above $1 million, with a 35% subtraction for the greater of your cost inputs or your labor costs. It’s a gross-receipts tax, not a sales tax and not an income tax, so it doesn’t live in Division 3 or Division 26 — it comes off the top of the contract. On a mid-size commercial job it is a General Conditions line or it is your margin. Pick one before you sign.
4. Bond and insurance by endorsement. Every contractor here works under a CCB license, and the endorsement sets the numbers. A commercial general contractor level 1 carries an $80,000 bond and $2 million in liability coverage. Level 2 is a $25,000 bond and $1 million. Commercial specialty level 1 is $55,000 and $1 million. That’s a bid-day question as much as an accounting one, because the sub you were counting on may not carry the endorsement the owner’s front-end requires.
Oregon projects we’ve actually priced
We don’t ask you to take our word for it. Sixteen real Oregon estimates are on this page — four in each of the four categories we work in. $34.3M of construction value across 105 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 retail, hospitality and institutional.
- Meacham Station 2, Meacham – $12.3M (97859)
- Meacham Station Maintenance Building, Meacham – $8.1M (97859)
- Les Schwab Tire, Bend – $902K (97701)
- Dutch Bros Project, Grants Pass – $474K (97526)
Multi Family and Apartments — apartments, condos and multi-unit housing.
- Hall Blvd Apartments, Beaverton – $2.8M (97008)
- Rock Creek Apartments, Portland – $2.3M (97229)
- Redmond Landing Apartments – $2.1M (Redmond 97756)
- Solis at Petrosa Apartments, Bend – $150K (97701)
Residential — custom homes, ADUs and whole-house remodels.
- House Plan Project, Sherwood – $1.1M (97140)
- Lot 17 Residence, Beaverton – $738K (97007)
- Three Car Garage & Loft, Sherwood – $453K (97140)
- 550 Vine Maple, Cannon Beach – $262K (97110)
Tenant Buildouts — interior fit-outs in existing buildings.
- Food Hall, Portland – $1.1M (97205)
- IC Panda Express, La Grande – $869K (97850)
- Pediatric Therapy, Oregon City – $489K (97045)
- Joe Browns Caramel Corn, Portland – $178K (97211)
Four building types, from the Columbia Gorge to Cannon Beach and Portland out to La Grande. From a $150K apartment scope to a $12.3M station complex. That range is the point — most shops price one lane and call it a service.
Look at the two Bend jobs. Les Schwab Tire is a ground-up building at $902K over five pages, sitework through electrical. Solis at Petrosa is $150K of fire caulking and firestopping on an apartment project, two pages. Same city, same year, two completely different documents — because what a client needs priced is not always a whole building, and a takeoff that pretends otherwise is padding.
Or the Food Hall in downtown Portland: $1.1M, ten pages, existing conditions through electrical. That’s a tenant buildout in a standing building, which means demolition quantities, what stays, and what the landlord already did are the three questions that decide the number.
Where we work in Oregon
We estimate statewide. Here’s where the volume actually is.
Portland metro. Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Gresham, Tigard, Lake Oswego, Sherwood, Oregon City and Wilsonville. Seven of the sixteen estimates above are metro jobs. This is also where SDCs bite hardest — the study that found a statewide average near $15,000 found metro jurisdictions closing on $50,000.
Central Oregon. Bend, Redmond, Prineville and Sisters. Three of the sixteen are here. Growth, snow load and a sub market that’s still thin outside Bend.
The Willamette Valley. Salem, Eugene, Springfield, Corvallis, Albany and McMinnville. Public work, institutional work and a lot of the state’s multi-family pipeline.
Southern Oregon. Medford, Grants Pass, Ashland, Klamath Falls and Roseburg. The Dutch Bros job on this page is a Grants Pass build.
The coast. Astoria, Seaside, Cannon Beach, Newport and Coos Bay. Cascadia exposure, wind, and long hauls for material — 550 Vine Maple is a Cannon Beach job.
Eastern Oregon. Pendleton, La Grande, Hermiston, Baker City, Ontario and Meacham. Long drives, small crews, and freight that shows up in every material line. The two Meacham Station buildings are the biggest estimates on this page.
Every one of those cities has its own page with local detail. Start there if you want the jurisdiction-level specifics.
Who our Oregon 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 on bid day.
If you’re a GC in Portland or Bend 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 Oregon 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 current Oregon codes, against a city’s SDC schedule, with the CAT and the prevailing wage basis where they belong. Not a national square-foot average with the word Oregon written on top.
Send us your plans. We’ll tell you what it costs.
