What You're Actually Getting When You Send Drawings Out for Pricing

Send a set of drawings out for an estimate and you'll get back very different things depending on who measured it. Some come back as a single lump sum with no way to check it. Others come back broken down so you can see exactly where every pound sits. Only one of those is any use once you're on site.

A number without a breakdown is just a guess with confidence

If an estimate can't show you labour, materials, preliminaries and overheads as separate lines, you've got no way to check it against your own pricing or push back on a figure that looks wrong. A proper estimate breaks down against NRM2 so every line is traceable.

The drawings and specification decide the accuracy

An estimate built from a full set of drawings and a proper specification will always be tighter than one built from a rough sketch and a phone call. If the information going in is thin, the number coming out will be too, no matter how it's presented.

It should stand up at tender and on site

A good estimate isn't just useful for pricing the job once. It should give you a structure you can keep referring back to when a variation comes in, when a client questions a cost, or when you're checking your own numbers against what was originally measured.

Preliminary and detailed estimates serve different stages

Early in a job, before drawings are finished, a preliminary figure gives you a working number to plan around. Once drawings are locked down, a detailed estimate measured line by line replaces it. Knowing which one you're asking for, and which one you're being given, matters.

Turnaround matters, but not at the cost of accuracy

A quick estimate that's wrong costs you more than a slower one you can rely on. The value is in getting a measured, NRM2-structured breakdown back quickly enough to be useful for your tender, not in speed for its own sake.

We measure quantities from your drawings and specification and return a breakdown structured to NRM2, so you've got a number you can actually check and defend. Send your drawings and we'll get you a proper estimate back, or see a sample estimate to see the format first.

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