In Short:
- On a multifamily paint bid, the hard part is often not complexity. It is repetition. Fifteen buildings with three building footprints and six unit types can turn the same measuring work into hours of setup, tracing, and rechecking.
- Auto Takeoff, part of the Takeoff BOOST™ suite in On-Screen Takeoff®, gives commercial painting estimators a measured first pass on representative floors and building footprints.
- After reviewing the results, estimators can carry the repeated work across matching areas instead of measuring every unit from scratch.
- On-Screen Takeoff customer Jim Staggs used that workflow to complete the interior takeoff for a paint contractor worth $2.6 million and finished it in under 45 minutes.
The repetition tax
Ask a commercial painting estimator which jobs consume the week, and they may not name the most complicated ones.
A tenant improvement with multiple ceiling types, changing wall heights, soffits, and existing Conditions is difficult work. It requires judgement, but every Condition is different. A multifamily complex can be easier to understand and still take longer because the same work appears again and again across units, floors, and buildings.
That is the repetition tax. The time is not only in measuring one unit, but in setting up the unit types, tracing the same Conditions across repeated floor plates, checking how buildings differ, and making sure the quantities carry through correctly.
Painting contractors feel that tax on nearly every interior wall. A painter is not measuring one surface per wall. Every interior wall has two faces. Those faces may have different heights, different finishes, and different scope. Multiply that across every unit, floor, and building, and a familiar plan set can become a full day of takeoff work before pricing even starts.
The setup before the measuring
On a repetitive apartment project, the estimator often begins by building a unit matrix: a practical map of what repeats, where it repeats, and how often.
That matrix may account for different unit types, floor counts, building footprints, and exceptions such as corner units or ground-floor Conditions. The plan set may contain the information, but turning it into a structure the takeoff can use still takes time, and that work has to happen before a single final quantity exists.
Jim Staggs has spent 46 years in estimating. He leads estimating for Turman Commercial Painters, a commercial painting and coatings contractor that bids work out of twelve offices across seven states. He has trained 60 to 70 estimators during his career and has used On-Screen Takeoff for decades.
Jim described the setup cost this way:
“By the time I go through the painstaking task of building that matrix in the background, Auto Takeoff can take off the whole entire interior of that project in minutes.”
For a commercial painting contractor, that is the key distinction. Auto Takeoff, part of the AI-enabled Takeoff BOOST suite in On-Screen Takeoff is not replacing the estimator’s understanding of the job. It is reducing the repetitive setup required before that expertise can be applied.
Why Jim started trusting it
Jim was not sold on AI takeoff simply because it was fast. Turman had two Takeoff BOOST licenses and rarely used them because the first-pass results were not reliable enough for paint.
That changed when Auto Takeoff improved at distinguishing ceiling types and measuring both faces of interior walls at their own heights.
“We had two Takeoff BOOST licenses and never really used them. Once ConstructConnect® integrated the ceiling tags and the two-sided wall heights, that sold us.”
That is the difference between a generic AI promise and an AI-powered takeoff tool built specifically for a paint contractor. Jim put that trade-specific requirement plainly:
What changes when the first pass is already measured
Jim’s example was a large apartment project in Oregon with 15 buildings, three different building footprints, and six unit types across the job. One building type ran four floors. The other two ran three floors each.
Instead of rebuilding the entire matrix and measuring every repeated area from scratch, Jim ran Auto Takeoff on a representative floor for each building type, reviewed the results, and then used On-Screen Takeoff to copy the reviewed work across matching areas.
“I took off three buildings and I was done. Then it just became copy and paste from there.”
The full interior takeoff was completed in under 45 minutes for a paint contract worth $2.6 million. Jim said the same takeoff without Auto Takeoff would have taken him ten times as long.
He also explained when this workflow makes the most sense:
“If I don’t have a matrix and the job is complex, I shift everything over to Auto Takeoff. I don’t have to sit and think about it. It just does all of the units.”
The important distinction is that Auto Takeoff creates the first pass. The estimator reviews it, then uses the existing On-Screen Takeoff workflow to replicate the work and adjust the exceptions.
The workflow a paint estimator can actually use
| Step | What happens | What the estimator checks |
| 1. Choose representative areas | Select a representative floor or building footprint for each plan type. | Confirm that the selected area represents the repeated units and does not hide exceptions. |
| 2. Run Auto Takeoff | Generate a first pass for walls, wall faces, heights, ceilings, finishes, doors, and windows. | Review whether the plan information was clear enough for each quantity. |
| 3. Review the first pass | Check Conditions, wall heights, ceiling types, finish assignments, and openings. | Correct unusual rooms, missing tags, shafts, soffits, and scope questions. |
| 4. Carry the work forward | Multiply that work across matching floors, units, and buildings by using On-Screen Takeoff’s tools: Typical Areas, Typical Groups, and Repeating Pages | Confirm that near-identical areas are actually identical before applying the copy. |
| 5. Finalize the takeoff | Add manual scope and move the measured quantities into the estimating workflow. | Apply labor, material, production, and pricing assumptions. |
The output is a takeoff first pass, not a finished paint estimate. The value is that the estimator starts with organized, reviewable quantities instead of drawing every repeated quantity from a blank screen.
What comes back for a commercial paint bid
Auto Takeoff was built around drywall and painting workflows before other trades. It is intended to return quantities in separations that support how commercial painting contractors price work, rather than collapsing the plan into one generic surface-area number.
| Paint scope | What Auto Takeoff can provide | What the estimator verifies |
| Interior walls | Paint wall linears for both faces of interior walls, with height information from the plan when available. | Wall heights, wall-face scope, unusual conditions, and rooms that need a different finish. |
| Wall finishes | Separate Conditions when recognizable finish tags or information are present. | Whether the plan actually provides enough detail to distinguish paint, wallcovering, or finish types. |
| Ceilings | Ceiling quantities separated by type, including gypsum board and acoustical tile when the plan identifies them. | Which surfaces are painted, which are excluded, and how exposed structure or special ceilings should be handled. |
| Doors and windows | Counts and locations on the sheet, with windows classified by type when the plan provides that distinction. | Deductions, trim scope, door sides, and any opening that needs a project-specific treatment. |
| Renovation and repaint scope | Existing walls can be included, excluded, or tracked separately when the plan identifies them. | What is existing, what is new, and what belongs in the contract scope. |
Auto Takeoff returns an initial takeoff draft that the estimator can then adjust as needed.
Repetition is the use case. Complexity is the test.
Multifamily repetition is where the workflow shows its largest time advantage. But a commercial painting estimator also needs to know whether the first pass holds up when the work is not cookie-cutter.
Jim’s second example was a 45,000- to 50,000-square-foot tenant improvement in Redmond, Washington. The plan included acoustical ceilings, exposed structure, gypsum ceilings, numerous soffits, and changing wall heights.
Every one of those differences can affect a paint bid. Auto Takeoff separated the ceiling types and other Conditions. Jim described the result this way:
“I came in at nearly 100% accuracy with minimal adjustments.”
That is Jim’s result on one project, not a product accuracy guarantee. Auto Takeoff still depends on the information in the plan set and requires estimator review.
What Auto Takeoff does not do
A veteran estimator should not have to discover the limitations during a live bid. The plan set still governs, and the estimator still owns the final scope.
| If the plan set… | Then expect… |
| Does not tag finishes or ceiling types | Less detailed automatic separation and more manual Condition assignment. |
| Uses different wall heights from room to room | A review of height callouts and adjustments to the returned Conditions. |
| Contains corner units, ground-floor exceptions, or amenity spaces | A representative floor may not cover the full project. Those areas need their own review. |
| Buildings look similar but have different layouts or scope | Copy and paste will still require comparison before the work is carried forward. |
| Leaves scope unclear | The estimator must resolve the question from the drawings, specifications, or project team. |
Auto Takeoff is designed to provide an approximately 80% first pass toward a final takeoff. In paint, the remaining work usually means checking wall heights, confirming finishes and ceilings, reviewing openings, correcting unusual areas, and adding scope the drawings do not clearly spell out.
That is still a meaningful shift. Reviewing a strong first pass is faster than building the full takeoff by hand, and it leaves more time for the decisions that affect risk, margin, and price.
Five things to check before you trust it on a multifamily bid
- Did the takeoff separate the ceilings you paint from the ceilings you do not? Corridor grid, unit gypsum, and exposed structure should not arrive as one number.
- Are both wall faces present at the right heights? Spot-check a unit where bedroom and living-area heights differ.
- Did finish information land in separate Conditions? If every wall comes back as one paint line, confirm whether the plan actually listed finish information.
- Does the representative floor represent the rest? Check corner units, ground floors, mechanical rooms, and amenity spaces.
- What is different between buildings that look the same? Check the unit mix, floor count, ceiling heights, finish conditions, and renovation scope before carrying one building’s takeoff into another. Small differences that go unchecked can lead to underbidding.
What the time turns into
At Turman Commercial Painters, a typical takeoff went from a full day to 30 to 60 minutes. The company also reported sending bids about a day sooner.
The capacity figure applies to the estimating group, not to Jim alone. Turman’s 45 to 60 bids per month, plus 11 or more additional bids, reflect an average of 7 to 9 estimators who perform takeoffs full time.
| Turman Commercial Painters result | Reported outcome |
| Typical interior takeoff | From 5–8 hours to 30–60 minutes |
| Bid turnaround | About one day faster |
| Additional bid capacity | 11+ more bids per month across 7–9 full-time takeoff estimators |
| Oregon apartment project | $2.6 million interior takeoff completed in under 45 minutes |
Read the full Turman Commercial Painters customer story →
The 45-minute result is only the beginning
The 45-minute result matters because of what happens next. Instead of spending the rest of the day measuring the same unit again, the estimator can review exceptions, validate scope, price the job, and move on to the next opportunity.
That is the advantage for a commercial painting contractor: not automation for its own sake, but more estimating capacity without sacrificing the judgement that protects margin.
Bring one multifamily floor plan or tenant improvement plan from your pipeline. We’ll run Auto Takeoff on it, show you what comes back, and identify what still needs estimator review.
