Trade contractor · North Carolina, USA
Same bid count. 2.65x the square footage.
This commercial trade contractor bids roughly 100 projects a month, the same as when the engagement began. The difference: average project size grew from 18,033 SF to 48,326 SF, monthly square footage grew 165%, and Tribuild delivered 3,383 hours of shop drawings along the way.
Roughly 100 bids a month, then and now. The projects got bigger.
The volume
32,176,738 SF
of commercial construction quantified in the trailing twelve months, on a steady bid cadence.
Winning bigger work on the same bid cadence, with estimating capacity that scales by project size, not just project count.
Scope of work
More than estimating: full preconstruction support.
662 hrs
of shop drawing production delivered in a single month, the output of four full-time drafters, compressed into one billing cycle.
The economics
Bigger projects, same overhead.
Matching roughly 80 larger projects a month plus drafting support in-house would require an estimated three to four full-time U.S. estimators and one to two drafters at current market salaries with employer burden.
2.68x
growth in average project size, from 18,033 SF to 48,326 SF per bid, on an unchanged monthly bid count.
Staffing costs modeled on U.S. estimator and drafter salaries with employer burden.
Then vs. now
Same cadence, different league.
Estimating and drafting capacity that grows with project complexity, so a contractor can chase bigger work without rebuilding its preconstruction team.
Services used in this engagement
Bigger projects shouldn't need a bigger department.
Scale up the work you chase, not your overhead.
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