Guides
Construction estimating, explained with real numbers
Short guides for contractors, suppliers and owners on how construction estimates work. Each one answers a single question, from what an estimate costs to the list of CSI MasterFormat divisions, using figures from estimates we delivered and from published sources.
All guides
Six questions contractors ask before they bid
- Updated
How much does a construction estimate cost?
What contractors pay for an estimate or a takeoff, what moves the price, and how it compares with hiring an estimator.
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Construction cost per square foot by city in 2026
Published cost ranges for 15 US cities and five building types, and what real trades cost per square foot on jobs we estimated.
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Quantity takeoff vs cost estimate: what is the difference?
A takeoff counts and measures. An estimate prices what was counted. Here is which one you need and what each contains.
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How to read a construction estimate, with a real example
Every line of a real estimate explained: divisions, trade cost, general requirements, overhead and profit, contingency and tax.
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How to price Davis-Bacon and prevailing wage labor in an estimate
What the wage determination changes in your labor cost, how fringes and overtime are priced, and the mistakes that lose money.
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CSI MasterFormat divisions explained, with real estimates for each
The divisions that organize every specification and estimate, what each one covers, and a real sample for most of them.
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The figures in these guides come from estimates MassBid Estimation delivered, with client names and addresses removed, and from named public sources. For answers about our own service, see the FAQ, the pricing page and the sample estimates.
What the guides cover
Four subjects, one question at a time
- Prices
- What an estimate or a takeoff costs per project, what a monthly plan costs, and how both compare with the wage of an in-house estimator.
- Cost per square foot
- Published 2026 ranges for offices, hospitals, warehouses, apartments and schools in 15 US cities, beside trade costs from our own jobs.
- How estimates are built
- The difference between a takeoff and an estimate, and how trade cost becomes a bid through general requirements, overhead and profit, contingency and tax.
- Rules and standards
- How Davis-Bacon and prevailing wage change the labor in an estimate, and how CSI MasterFormat divisions organize it.
Every guide opens with the answer in two or three sentences, then shows the working: a table of real figures, the steps, and the questions contractors ask next. Where a number comes from a public source, such as the US Bureau of Labor Statistics or a published construction cost report, the source is named and linked. Where it comes from our own work, it is the trade cost from an estimate we delivered, with the client and the address removed.
Quick answers
The short answer to each guide
A single-trade estimate typically costs $100 to $250, and a larger or multi-trade project typically costs $200 to $500. At MassBid Estimation a single project starts at $199. Large or complex projects are quoted from the drawings, and the quote is free.
There is no single figure, because cost depends on the building type and the city. In the second quarter of 2026, published ranges for multifamily buildings ran from $185 to $275 per square foot in Austin to $420 to $700 in San Francisco, according to Rider Levett Bucknall.
A takeoff lists quantities measured from the drawings and has no prices. An estimate prices those quantities with material, labor and equipment and adds general requirements, overhead, profit, contingency and tax to reach a total.
Trade cost, or direct cost, is the material, labor and equipment needed to put the work in place, added up by division. It leaves out overhead, profit, contingency and tax.
The Davis-Bacon Act applies to federal construction contracts over $2,000, and through related laws to many federally assisted projects. State prevailing wage laws set their own thresholds.
MasterFormat has 50 divisions, numbered 00 to 49. Several are held in reserve for future use, so fewer than 50 are in active use. Before 2004 there were 16.
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