Construction estimating services · Melbourne
Estimating services for Melbourne trade contractors.
We are based in Melbourne and we measure commercial trade packages: quantity schedules you can price straight off, colour-coded marked-up drawings, the crew hours to build it, and a written statement of exactly what was measured. Fixed fee, quoted off your actual drawings before you commit.
Get a fixed-fee quote or call 0494 779 423
- Melbourne based
- Written proposal in 2 hours
- Delivered in 2 business days
- Verified by a trade-qualified estimator
Why local still matters
Files travel. Judgement does not.
Takeoff is remote work. Drawings arrive as files and deliverables leave as files, so a contractor in Dandenong and a contractor in Darwin get the same turnaround. On that basis, being Melbourne-based should not matter at all.
What it does change is judgement. Knowing how a Melbourne head contractor writes a scope, what the local subcontract conditions usually look like, which trades typically get left holding an item nobody priced, and what Victorian legislation does to a claim after you win: none of that is in the drawings. It comes from having worked here. The measurement is portable. The reading of it is not.
It also means we can sit down with you when that is genuinely useful, which for a first conversation or a difficult package it sometimes is.
Victoria, specifically
The rules changed here in April 2026.
Victoria's security of payment regime was amended with effect from 15 April 2026. The provisions creating "excluded amounts" and "claimable variations" were repealed, which removed the barrier that had kept whole categories of entitlement out of Victorian payment claims. Delay costs, latent conditions and variations not agreed in writing are no longer automatically shut out.
For a Victorian subcontractor that is a genuine improvement, and it comes with a catch that is easy to miss. A wider set of claimable categories does not help anyone who cannot evidence the claim. Every one of those categories still has to be proved, and proving it means being able to show what the original scope was, what the planned hours were, and which drawing revision the work was priced against. Contractors who never had the package measured properly at the start find that out at the worst possible moment.
Read the full guide to what changed and what records you need
Where the work is
Commercial is carrying the load.
The national picture has shifted in a way many trade contractors are already feeling. Non-residential building work has climbed sharply while residential has gone the other way, and multi-unit residential in particular has fallen. For trades who built their business on housing and apartments, the work has moved.
That is why a growing share of the contractors we speak to are trades stepping across into commercial for the first time, or stepping up into larger commercial packages than they have priced before. It is the same measuring discipline, but the drawing sets are denser, the conditions are stricter, and the cost of getting a scope boundary wrong is considerably higher.
If that is where you are, the useful thing is not a cheaper takeoff. It is quantities on a commercial basis, crew hours you can sanity-check against your own experience, and the exclusions written down so the gaps are visible before you commit to a number.
What we do
From drawings to signed contract.
Start here
Quantity takeoff
The package measured off the drawing set, with marked-up drawings, an assumptions page and crew hours included as standard.
For subcontractors
Overflow and capacity
Priced bills, tender conditions review, and qualifications written down instead of assumed. Job by job, no retainer.
Trades we measure: carpentry, joinery, fitout, demolition and strip-out, ceilings and partitions, flooring, painting, tiling, glazing, wall linings, roofing and cladding, earthmoving and civil. Electrical and hydraulic following a short scoping call.
Pricing
Fixed fee, quoted off your drawings.
Most single-trade takeoffs land between $900 and $2,500 + GST.
Quoted as a fixed fee off the actual drawing set, so the number you accept is the number you pay. No hourly rates and no retainer. A written proposal comes back within 2 hours of your drawings landing, 8am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday, and the work itself within 2 business days.
Common questions
Melbourne questions.
Do you only work with Melbourne contractors?
No. We are Melbourne-based and work with trade contractors across Australia. Delivery is remote, so location makes no difference to turnaround. Melbourne is where we are from, not a limit on who we work for.
Can we meet in person?
Yes, where it is genuinely useful, such as a first conversation or a complex package. Most jobs do not need it, and a meeting is never a condition of getting started.
Do you know Victorian subcontract conditions?
Yes, and we review tender conditions as part of bid support. Where something needs a lawyer rather than an estimator, we say so and can coordinate specialist construction-law review around your deadline instead of leaving you to find someone mid-tender.
Do you price residential work?
Commercial is what we are built for and what we recommend us for. Residential is considered case by case, on the same fixed-fee basis and the same minimum. Send it through and you will get a straight answer.
More on process, payment and scope on the full FAQ.
Get started
Pricing a Melbourne commercial tender?
Tell us what is closing soonest and how far you want us to take it. Send the set and you will have a written, fixed-price proposal within 2 hours, 8am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday. The work lands within 2 business days. No obligation.
Send us your drawings or call 0494 779 423