Bids you had to pass on
A set lands on Tuesday, it's due Friday, and there's no one free to take it off. That's revenue that never had a chance.
Electrical / HVAC / Remote bid support
On-demand takeoffs and bid packages for electrical and mechanical contractors. You send the plans and the bid date. You get back a full takeoff, an organized recap you can price from, and a written list of every gap in the drawings — usually in three to five business days.
01 — The problem
A set lands on Tuesday, it's due Friday, and there's no one free to take it off. That's revenue that never had a chance.
The irrigation controller in the civil notes. The smoke-detector shutdown on the mechanical sheets. The feeder that's on the riser but not in the schedule. It's always on a sheet somebody didn't read.
If the general contractor asks what's behind a line and the answer is "that's what we usually carry," the bid is already in trouble.
02 — What you get
Division 26
Division 23
Every package ships with a questions document. Not a list of disclaimers — the specific things the drawings don't answer, each one citing the sheet and note it came from. It's the difference between a takeoff and a bid, and it's the document general contractors actually reply to.
03 — Pricing
All rates are starting prices. Every project is reviewed before a firm price and delivery date are confirmed — you approve the number before anything begins.
Small residential
$200+
Replacements and small scopes
Small commercial
$250+
Light commercial and tenant work
Custom homes
$450+
Quoted after plan review
Medium commercial
$650+
Scope and sheet count reviewed
Large commercial
Custom
Firm price provided in advance
Rush service
+25%
Subject to availability
Optional, and only when agreed in writing before work begins. The fee is based on the original awarded contract amount, and your initial estimating fee is credited toward it.
Engineering or stamped design, permits, site visits, supplier quotations, bonds, bid submission, and guarantee of project award — unless specifically included in writing. On mechanical work, Manual J/S/D calculations and equipment selection are also excluded.
04 — Sample work
These are complete packages for Westgate Retail Center, a fictional 4,200 sf tenant improvement built specifically to show the format. The drawings, quantities and prices are invented — no client information appears in them. The format is exactly what you'd receive.
PDF — Electrical
Full build-up, detail by section, assumptions, exclusions and a sensitivity table showing what moves the number most.
Open sample →PDF — Electrical
Eight numbered items, each citing the sheet and note it came from, grouped by what carries money.
Open sample →PDF — Mechanical
Same building, mechanical side. Equipment, ductwork, air devices, condensate, controls and balancing.
Open sample →Anonymised from real packages. No client, project or identifying detail — these are the kinds of findings the scope-gap review is for.
Case 01
A 123-sheet civil set with no electrical sheets at all. The electrical scope was scattered across callouts at five separate structures. Found it, priced it, and flagged that a $6,500 cabinet allowance was really a $90,200 vendor package — the drawings described a control cabinet, the vendor quote described a full SCADA panel.
Case 02
A sheet with two views and a matchline. The conduit runs didn't stop at the matchline — they continued in the lower view. The runs were 375 and 320 feet, not the 200 and 250 a first pass assumed. That one was the general contractor's money, and telling them cost us nothing.
Case 03
A pump panel detail whose specification block still read JOB #: JXX-XXXX — an unfilled template. Its stated voltage and full-load amps were the form's defaults, not the station's. The service had been sized from them. Re-sized it against the equipment actually being bought.
Case 04
Two contract documents disagreeing about GFCI. One cited NEC 210.8(B), which covers receptacles; a panel schedule note said all receptacles and equipment. Half the kitchen items were hard-wired. Priced the code note, published the add for the other reading, and put the conflict in writing.
05 — How it works
Email the drawings, the scope and the bid date. PDFs are fine — that's how they arrive anyway.
You get a firm price and a delivery date before any work starts. Nothing begins until you say go.
An organized takeoff, a bid recap you can price from, and the questions document.
06 — Why TradeScope
TradeScope works US Eastern hours year-round. Based in Colombia, which sits on Eastern time and doesn't observe daylight saving — so the hours never drift. A GC calls at 9am and someone picks up.
Electrical and mechanical from the same estimator, in the same format. When the smoke-detector shutdown is on the mechanical sheets and the circuit is on the electrical ones, somebody has to be reading both.
Quantities are derived from the engineer's own schedules and load calculations wherever the drawings allow it, so counts are arithmetic rather than judgement. Where something genuinely can't be measured, it's carried as a stated allowance and labelled as one.
07 — Send plans
Tell me the trade, the scope and the bid date. You'll get a firm price and a delivery date before anything starts — and if it isn't a good fit, I'll say so.