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 Utah bid different
Utah is one of the easiest states in the country to read on paper. It’s one of the harder ones to price.
Start with the easy part. Utah has one building code and the whole state runs it. The State Construction Code is adopted at the legislature, not city by city: 2021 IBC, 2021 IRC, 2021 IECC, 2021 IFC, 2021 IPC and IMC, plus the 2020 NEC, all effective 1 July 2023. Cross a city line in Utah County and the code edition doesn’t move under you. In Texas or Florida that’s a real risk on every bid. Here it isn’t. One less thing to price.
Now the hard part. The ground, and the elevation on top of it.
Most of the Wasatch Front sits in Seismic Design Category D, and some sites land in E. Salt Lake City maps above 1.5g short-period and above 0.6g at one second. Site Class D is normal. Where the soil is liquefiable you’re into Class E or F, and the geotech report starts driving your foundation instead of the plans. That’s rebar, that’s connections, that’s a structural engineer’s detail on a house.
Then elevation finishes the job. St. George’s frost depth is 18 inches. Park City’s is 48. Park City ground snow load runs 150 psf and higher, and it moves with every few hundred feet you climb. Two projects, one code, four hours apart, and nothing about the foundation or the roof structure is the same.
The tax rule is its own thing, and it’s simpler than most states. Utah taxes your materials, not your labor. When you convert material to real property you’re the final consumer, so you pay sales tax when you buy it. Labor to install, service, repair, renovate or improve real property isn’t taxable when it’s stated separately. That means the tax lives inside your material line. If you’re running a national estimating template that adds tax to the whole contract, you’re overpricing every Utah job you bid.
Four things that get missed on a Utah construction estimate
Every one of these has cost somebody money. We see them all the time.
1. The 1% permit surcharge. Utah Code 15A-1-209 puts a 1% surcharge on the building permit the local agency issues. The agency keeps 15% of it and sends 85% to the state, split between inspector education, trade education and the Property Rights Ombudsman. It’s a small percentage on a line most estimators guess at anyway, and the permit line on a $18.5M building is not small.
2. Special inspections. SDC D and E work means IBC Chapter 17 comes with it, and Salt Lake City enforces it hard — concrete strength, grout placement, high-strength bolting, all verified during construction. That’s an inspection allowance and it belongs in General Conditions on every commercial estimate on the Wasatch Front. If you carry it as a lump sum guess, you’re going to eat the difference on the masonry.
3. Radon, and no sprinkler line. Utah adopts the IRC without the residential fire sprinkler sections, so a Utah house doesn’t carry that cost. It does carry a passive radon system in designated areas — most of the state is EPA Radon Zone 1. Two amendments, opposite directions, and a template built for another state gets both of them wrong.
4. The elevation package. Snow load and frost depth aren’t statewide numbers in Utah, they’re site numbers. The Structural Engineers Association of Utah maintains the ground snow maps and jurisdictions adopt them locally. Footing depth, roof framing, insulation, ice and water — those move together as you go up. Price a Heber City job off a Salt Lake City number and the structure is short before you start.
Utah projects we’ve actually priced
We don’t ask you to take our word for it. Sixteen real Utah estimates are on this page — four in each of the four categories we work in. $47.6M of construction value across 81 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, industrial and institutional.
- The Good and the Beautiful, Lehi – $18.5M (84043)
- SLC Port GLC Bldg 1, Salt Lake City – $9.8M (84116)
- Cedar City Retail – $1.2M (Cedar City 84720)
- Fiiz Drinks, Clearfield – $504K (84015)
Multi Family and Apartments — apartments, townhomes and multi-unit housing.
- Jocelyn Court Townhomes, Provo – $4.7M (84605)
- Summit Townhomes, Heber City – $3.9M (84032)
- The Hart At City, Clearfield – $3.6M (84015)
- Walton Townhomes, North Salt Lake – $1M (84054)
Residential — custom homes, garages and whole-house remodels.
- East Lot home Project, Manti – $1.3M (84642)
- Dolton B – Hill Farms, Kaysville – $776K (84037)
- 4734 S Hanauer St Remodel, Salt Lake City – $716K (84107)
- 4979 Glenn Street, Salt Lake City – $242K (84107)
Tenant Buildouts — interior fit-outs in existing buildings.
- TARGET SALT LAKE CITY – $536K (Salt Lake City 84101)
- Chipotle Block D, Holladay – $397K (84117)
- Utah Royals ZBTC Remodel, Herriman – $328K (84096)
- Daiso Project, Midvale – $141K (84047)
Four building types. Salt Lake County down to Cedar City, Provo and Lehi across to Manti and Heber. From a $141K retail fit-out to an $18.5M ground-up. That range is the whole point — most shops price one lane and call it a service.
Look at the two Clearfield jobs. Fiiz Drinks is a $504K drive-thru on a small pad, priced from sitework and concrete through mechanical and electrical. The Hart At City in the same zip is $3.6M of framing, drywall and paint on a multi-family building. Same city, same code, two completely different takeoffs, and neither number tells you anything about the other.
Same story on the two Manti houses and the Salt Lake remodels. East Lot is a $1.3M custom home at nine pages. 4979 Glenn Street is $242K at four. The pages track the scope, not the price tag.
Where we work in Utah
We estimate statewide. Here’s where the volume actually is.
Salt Lake County. Salt Lake City, Murray, Midvale, Sandy, Holladay, Draper, Herriman, West Valley City and Taylorsville. Construction employment in the county averaged 54,838 in 2024, with about 15,378 of that inside Salt Lake City. Seven of the sixteen estimates above are Salt Lake County jobs.
Utah County. Provo, Orem, Lehi, Springville, American Fork, Saratoga Springs and Spanish Fork. The Good and the Beautiful in Lehi and Jocelyn Court in Provo are both on this page.
Davis and Weber. Clearfield, Kaysville, Layton, Farmington, North Salt Lake, Ogden and Roy. Four of the sixteen are up here.
Summit and Wasatch. Park City, Heber City, Coalville and Kamas. High elevation, deep frost, heavy snow, and a resort labor market. The Summit Townhomes estimate is a Heber City job.
Washington and Iron. St. George, Cedar City, Hurricane, Santa Clara and Springdale. Different climate, different frost depth, different soils.
Central and rural Utah. Manti, Nephi, Richfield, Fillmore, Tooele, Logan and Brigham City. Thin sub markets and long hauls, and both of those show up in General Conditions.
Every one of those cities has its own page with local detail. Start there if you want the county-level specifics.
Who our Utah 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.
Utah licenses its contractors, and the license comes with real requirements — E100, B100 or R100, two years of experience with one of them supervisory, a business and law exam and a trade exam. You already did that work. If you’re 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 Utah 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 Utah’s code, on Wasatch Front soil, at your elevation. Not a national square-foot average with the word Utah written on top.
Send us your plans. We’ll tell you what it costs.
