6 Tips and Tricks to Ace Your Estimator Training
OK, it’s time to learn the new takeoff and estimating software that your company recently purchased. But where do you start? How big of a learning curve will you face? How long will your ramp-up take? If you’re asking these questions, you’re not alone. Most estimators, project managers, and other construction-industry professionals share these concerns […]
How Tech is Leveling Preconstruction Playing Field
First, the good news: construction professionals no longer must live by spreadsheets alone.Now, the complicated news: adopting new technology is not a one-and-done process. As file cabinets and spreadsheets make way for cloud software and data optimization, more and more contractors are struggling to get a handle on how technology is both disrupting and leveling today’s preconstruction playing field. […]
Why You Should Be Training Your Estimators
When I first joined On Center about four years ago, I was surprised to learn how many contractors were still doing takeoffs manually. I quickly discovered this meant their days were spent hunched over dozens of paper drawings, armed with a set of colored pencils, a slide ruler, and a bottomless cup of coffee (not […]
The Print Revolution: How 3D is Impacting Construction
Today’s construction industry is changing and modernizing at a rapid pace. There’s no better example of this than how 3D printing is being used to construct homes and commercial buildings. Consider how far we’ve come since a University of South Carolina professor attempted to build the first 3D printed wall in 2004. Today, Deloitte Global predicts sales […]
Let Project Express Rescue Your In-Box
For many estimators, the days of working with full-size plans and a single digitizer are a thing of the past. Today, they no longer check for faxes from subcontractors or distribute multiple sets of printed plans to complete a final bid. Instead of taking weeks to complete a bid, they can now do it in […]
Red-Hot Construction Market Demands Right Tech Tools
If contractors thought 2018 was a record-setting year for the construction industry, they should probably hold on tight for 2019. The latest statistics show that construction is heating up fast as employment hit an 11-year peak in January 2019 with 7.5 million employed—the highest since 2008. So far, fears of a slowdown have yet to […]
Transitioning from Pre-Civil War Paper Plans to the Digital Age
A History of the Blueprint Blueprints were invented a generation before the Civil War by John Herschel, a chemist, astronomer, and photographer, in 1842. Herschel developed the cyanotype process that started with a drawing on semi-transparent paper, weighted down on top of a sheet of paper. The paper was coated with a photosensitive chemical mixture […]