Construction Cost Estimator — Detailed Costing & BOQs

Construction Cost Estimator — Detailed Costing & BOQs

Estimating Australia is a construction cost estimator providing detailed costings, Bills of Quantities and takeoffs for builders, developers and owner-builders across Australia. Every estimate is prepared or reviewed by Peter Irvin, who has worked as a builder, project manager, and estimator for more than 30 years in residential, commercial, and civil construction.

If you want to price a project properly before you tender, apply for funding, or sign off on a builder's quote, that's what this service is for.

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What's included in a construction cost estimate

A construction cost estimate breaks a project down trade by trade: materials, labour, and the preliminaries and margins that sit around them. It's built from your drawings, not a national average, so the figure reflects the project you're actually pricing. Our guide on what should be included in a construction estimate covers this in detail, and you can see exactly what one looks like in practice on our building cost estimator page, which walks through a real (anonymised) $774,928 estimate line by line.

Why builders use an independent estimate

• To check a builder's quote. A trade-by-trade estimate lets you see what's included, what's missing, and where a builder's number and an independent estimate don't match. Our guide on construction cost plan vs builder quote explains why the two so often differ.

• To tender with confidence. A properly measured estimate and BOQ give you defensible numbers you can stand behind in front of a client, a bank or a quantity surveyor.

• To catch scope gaps early. Missed items are expensive to discover on site. A detailed estimate surfaces them at the pricing stage instead.

• To free up your time. Outsourcing the estimating means you spend more time running sites and less time on spreadsheets. Our guide on should builders outsource construction estimating covers when that makes sense.

What we provide

• Residential construction estimating

• Commercial construction estimating

• Civil construction estimating

• Preliminary and tender stage estimates

• Bills of Quantities (BOQs)

• Construction takeoffs

• Project scheduling

Every estimate is delivered as a clear PDF or CSV, trade by trade, ready for tenders, bank funding, or comparing quotes.

How it works

1. Send your plans. Drawings, specifications and any tender documentation, by email or through our contact form.

2. Get a fixed fee proposal. We review the project and quote a fixed fee before any work starts. See our Pricing and Rates page for an indicative figure.

3. We measure and price it. Trade by trade, using your rates where you have them, or our own pricing data where you don't.

4. You get the full breakdown. PDF and/or CSV, ready to use for tenders, bank funding, or comparing quotes.

Priority turnaround is available for urgent tenders, normally 24 to 48 hours for eligible projects, for an additional fee.

You can see exactly what's delivered before you commit to anything:

• Sample full estimate

• Sample preliminary estimate

• Sample Bill of Quantities

• Marked up 3D takeoff drawings are available on request

These are genuine samples. Every project is different, so your estimate will vary from these in structure and detail depending on your drawings and scope.

Who prepares your estimate?

Peter Irvin leads our estimating team, with over 30 years across residential, commercial and civil construction in Australia, as a builder, a project manager, and now as lead estimator. That on-site background separates an estimate that looks complete from one that reflects how the job gets built. It's the difference between someone who has measured a drawing and someone who has also stood on the site when the drawing turned out to be wrong.

Construction cost estimator, common questions

How much does a construction cost estimate cost? It depends on the size and complexity of the project. We provide a fixed fee quote once we've seen your plans. See our Pricing and Rates page for an indicative figure, or call for a fee proposal.

What's the difference between a construction cost estimate and a Bill of Quantities? An estimate gives you a total likely cost, priced trade by trade. A Bill of Quantities itemises the quantities without pricing them, so multiple builders or subcontractors can price the same scope independently. Many projects need both.

Can you estimate residential, commercial and civil projects? Yes. We provide residential, commercial and civil construction cost estimating across Australia.

How long does a construction cost estimate take? Turnaround depends on project size and documentation. Priority turnaround is available for urgent tenders, typically 24 to 48 hours for eligible projects, for an additional fee.

Do you service my state? Yes. The service is 100% online, so we work with builders, developers and owner-builders anywhere in Australia, including Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, where we have offices, and every other state and territory.

Need a construction cost estimate?

Send your plans and we'll come back with a fixed fee proposal.

Contact us