Wake · Durham · Orange · Chatham · Johnston · Cumberland
Construction estimating services in Raleigh
Takeoffs and priced estimates for general contractors, subcontractors and suppliers across the Research Triangle, from Raleigh and Durham to Cary, Chapel Hill and Fayetteville.
- Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill
- Retail, restaurants, grocery, service buildings
- 24 to 48 hours
In short
Estimating in Raleigh at a glance
MassBid Estimation prepares quantity takeoffs and cost estimates for construction projects in Raleigh and the surrounding area. Every trade on the drawings is measured, priced to the project's ZIP code and checked twice, and the package is typically delivered in 24 to 48 hours. Recent Triangle-area work includes a restaurant and a mall retail store in Raleigh, a grocery store in Wake County, an equipment rental building and several restaurants around Fayetteville.
- Area covered
- Wake, Durham, Orange, Chatham, Johnston, Lee and Cumberland counties
- Recent Triangle work
- Restaurant, mall retail store, grocery store, equipment rental building, fast-food restaurants
- Triangle cost drivers
- Life-science and university demand for labor, fast suburban growth, clay soils, public work with its own bid forms
- Licensing
- North Carolina requires a general contractor license for projects of $40,000 or more
- Turnaround
- 24 to 48 hours on most projects
- Checked by
- A separate QA team, twice on every job
- Team
- 20+ in-house estimators, typically 7 to 10 years in the trade
- Quote
- Free, usually back in about 20 minutes
Wake County · Bid week
The Triangle fills in every year: a new grocery anchor, then everything around it.
Raleigh, Durham and the towns between them keep adding laboratories, campuses and housing, and retail follows the rooftops. A new center means an anchor store, pad restaurants, a bank and a car wash, usually bid by different contractors in the same month.
We estimate those buildings one trade at a time. Four things decide whether a Triangle estimate holds.
Four things a Triangle estimate has to get right
01 · The anchor
Big boxes with little glass
A 37,500 square foot grocery store in Wake County came to only $1.67 per square foot of building for glazing, because a big store has very little glass for its size.
What changes
Entrances, automatic doors and vestibules are taken off as their own frames, not averaged over the store.
02 · The pads
Small buildings with a lot of it
A 3,510 square foot restaurant in Raleigh came to $20.83 per square foot for the same trade, twelve times the grocery store.
What changes
Every frame is counted by mark with its own glass sizes, doors and hardware.
03 · The tenant
Fit-outs inside someone else's building
A store in a mall is built behind a landlord's storefront line, to the landlord's criteria and working hours.
What changes
The takeoff follows the tenant drawings, and landlord-supplied items are listed as excluded.
04 · The labor
Competing with the laboratories
Life-science and university projects draw trades at premium rates, which lifts labor cost for everything else in Wake and Durham counties.
What changes
Labor is priced for the ZIP code, not from a statewide average.
Triangle submarkets
Four parts of the Triangle, priced separately
Labor and suppliers differ across the region.
Raleigh and Wake County
State government, offices, apartments and retail, with fast growth in Cary, Apex, Holly Springs and Wake Forest.
Durham and Chapel Hill
Universities, hospitals, laboratories and renovation of older mill and warehouse buildings.
Chatham, Lee and Johnston counties
New manufacturing sites, housing and the retail that follows them.
Fayetteville and the Sandhills
Military-related work, restaurants, convenience stores and retail.
Real Raleigh figures
What recent Raleigh projects cost, by trade
Trade costs from glazing estimates we delivered in and around the Triangle.
The grocery store and the restaurant show the two ends of the range for the same trade in the same county.
Figures are trade cost before overhead, profit, contingency and tax, from the delivered estimates. Per-square-foot figures are per square foot of building, or of site for site work. They are specific to those projects and are not a price guide.
Real jobs, not a price list. Each figure comes from one project, priced for its own ZIP code and that client's wages, overhead and profit. Prices change by region and over time. Yours will be priced for your location.
| Raleigh project and trade | Cost | Per sq ft |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant, Raleigh, 3,510 sq ft: glazing | $73,025 | $20.83 |
| Grocery store, Wake County, 37,500 sq ft: glazing | $62,588 | $1.67 |
| Fast-food restaurant, Fayetteville, 3,320 sq ft: glazing | $48,811 | $14.72 |
| Retail store in a mall, Raleigh, 4,890 sq ft: glazing | $26,241 | $5.37 |
Full sample
Read a full sample, page by page
Storefront and glazing, from a finished job: a equipment rental building, 10,500 sq ft in North Carolina. Open it full screen, scroll through all 4 pages and zoom in on any line.
This is one real job, shown as an example. It was built to that client's own specification: their wage rates, labor style, type of pricing, and overhead and profit. Prices also change by region and over time, so yours will be priced for your location.
Want a current sample in your own trade or specialty, or have a question? Use the contact form, email [email protected] or call (832) 356-4237.
Trades and places
What Triangle contractors send us most
Storefront
Restaurants, stores and grocery entrances, frame by frame.
Storefront estimatingGlazing
Windows and glass by type and size.
Glazing estimatingDoors and hardware
Openings by type and rating, hardware by set.
Door and hardware estimatingCommercial buildings
Every trade on the drawings for general contractors.
Commercial estimating
Places around Raleigh we price
- Raleigh
- Durham
- Cary
- Chapel Hill
- Apex
- Wake Forest
- Morrisville
- Holly Springs
- Fuquay-Varina
- Garner
- Clayton
- Pittsboro
- Sanford
- Fayetteville
- Burlington
- Smithfield
Pricing data
How a Raleigh project is priced
Quantities are priced from our own pricing database, built with local vendors across the United States. The estimator enters the project's ZIP code and gets current material prices for that part of Raleigh.
Material prices change from region to region and from month to month, so a price book or a national average is out of date before the bid goes in.
Priced by ZIP code
Current local material prices for the place the job is built, not a national average.
Updated by vendors
Local vendors update their prices in the database as they change.
Labor as you bid it
Union, open shop, or Davis-Bacon and prevailing wage rates with fringes.
How it works
From Raleigh drawings to a finished estimate
Send the drawings
Plans, specifications and addenda, with the project address or ZIP code, the bid date and any bid form or template you have to fill in.
Free quote
We review the set and reply with a quote and a delivery date, usually within about 20 minutes.
Takeoff, pricing and two QA reviews
Quantities are measured on the drawings and priced to the project's ZIP code. A separate QA team checks the quantities against the plans, then the priced estimate.
Delivery and revisions
The package typically arrives within 24 to 48 hours. Addenda and revisions are free, with no limit and no time limit, and are handled on priority.
The work is done in-house by more than 20 estimators, typically with 7 to 10 years of industry experience.
What it costs
Estimating prices for Raleigh projects
- Single project
- From $199. Simple scopes typically run $100 to $250.
- Larger buildings
- Typically $200 to $500. Large or multi-building projects are quoted individually.
- Monthly plan
- From $1,499 for 10 to 15 projects, for contractors who bid every week.
Raleigh contractors who do not keep a full-time estimator use us for outsourced estimating: send the drawings when a bid comes up and pay per project.
Every job is quoted individually from the drawings, and the quote is free. See all pricing
After delivery
An editable Excel estimate workbook and unlimited free revisions
- Formulas built in
An Excel workbook you can change yourself
The estimate arrives as an editable Excel workbook with the formulas built in. Change a quantity, a rate or a markup and every total follows. Move overhead and profit from 25% to 30% and the whole bid recalculates on the spot.
- No waiting
Adjust your bid at the last minute
If something changes just before the deadline, you do not have to send the estimate back and wait. Open the workbook, change the number and submit. The control stays with you.
- Priority turnaround
Unlimited free revisions
Addenda, scope changes and pricing updates are all free, however many times you come back, and there is no time limit. Revisions are handled on priority and typically come back within an hour to a few hours.
Questions
Raleigh construction estimating FAQ
Yes. We price projects in Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill, Apex, Wake Forest, Sanford and Fayetteville, each to its own ZIP code.
On a 3,510 square foot restaurant in Raleigh that we estimated, glazing trade cost was $73,025, or $20.83 per square foot of building. On a 37,500 square foot grocery store in Wake County it was $62,588, or $1.67 per square foot, because a grocery store has very little glass for its size.
Yes. The takeoff follows the tenant's drawings, and items supplied by the landlord are listed as exclusions. A 4,890 square foot store in a Raleigh mall came to $26,241 for glazing.
Yes. The storefront and glazing sample on this page is from a 10,500 square foot equipment rental building in central North Carolina, south of Raleigh.
Yes. We fill in the bid form the owner requires and price labor at the wage rates the project specifies, including Davis-Bacon rates with fringes on federal work.
Yes, for projects of $40,000 or more. Electrical, plumbing, HVAC and fire sprinkler trades are licensed separately.
Both. General contractors get every trade on the drawings; subcontractors get their own trade isolated and returned in the general contractor's format. Suppliers get quantities only.
Yes. This page shows a full sample from a finished job (storefront and glazing, for a equipment rental building, 10,500 sq ft in North Carolina), which you can open full screen and read page by page. It was built to that client's own specification, so the wage rates, pricing and overhead and profit are theirs. Ask us for a current sample in your own trade.
From our own pricing database, built with local vendors across the United States. An estimator enters the project's ZIP code and gets current material prices for that part of Raleigh, and vendors update their prices as they change. Labor is priced as union or open shop, or at Davis-Bacon rates with fringes on government work.
Yes. The estimate is delivered as an editable Excel workbook with the formulas built in. Change any quantity, rate or markup and the whole estimate recalculates. If overhead and profit was set at 25% and you want 30%, change that one cell and every total updates, so you can adjust your number minutes before the bid is due without sending it back to us.
As many as you need. Every revision is free, including addenda, scope changes and pricing updates, however many times you come back, and there is no time limit. Revisions are handled on priority and are typically returned within an hour to a few hours, depending on the size of the change.
Most packages are delivered in 24 to 48 hours, depending on the size, scope and complexity of the job. The quote is free, usually comes back in about 20 minutes, and states the exact delivery time.
A single project starts at $199, and simple scopes typically run $100 to $250. Larger buildings typically run $200 to $500. Every estimate is built to the client's own specification, and revisions are free.
Other cities and services
Bidding a Raleigh project? Send the drawings.
Free quote in about 20 minutes. Takeoffs and estimates typically in 24 to 48 hours, priced to the project's Raleigh ZIP code and built to your format, with free revisions with no limit.