Concrete Estimating Software Built for Subbies
ContractorCounter is concrete estimating software for concreters and concrete contractors who price their own work: take off quantities from the drawings, let the AI suggest rates you review, and send a priced quote — one browser workspace, on site or in the office.
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Verdict
Choose ContractorCounter if you are concreters pricing your own jobs and you want takeoff, rates, and the quote in one place at US$14/month (or a US$249 one-time one-time license). Stay with a specialist estimating suite like PlanSwift if your estimating depends on deep pre-loaded concrete databases maintained for you — that depth is real, and we do not pretend to replace it.
01
What a concrete estimate is made of here
The quantities come off the drawing, not a spreadsheet. Slab and footing volumes driven from measured areas × thickness — change the pour depth and the m³ follows; Formwork derived from the same shapes' edges, measured as lengths by height; Reinforcement carried per m² (mesh) or per tonne (bar) as explicit BoQ lines against each pour; Finishes and treatments — helicopter finish, cure and seal, exposed aggregate — per m² by area; Pump time, joints, and dowels counted or measured as their own lines, not buried in the m³ rate — each one measured or counted on the calibrated sheet, each one a line in a live Bill of Quantities that stays tied to the markup that produced it.
02
A worked example
A warehouse slab package: slab plan plus details, calibrated against the 6,000 mm portal grid. The slab polygon gives 1,240 m² which at 150 mm is 186 m³; edge formwork runs 142 m; mesh covers the same 1,240 m² with laps in the rate; the AI counts 96 dowels off the joint detail symbols — every quantity a reviewable mark. The BoQ prices supply-and-place per m³, formwork per metre, mesh per m², finish per m², pump per hour — and when the engineer bumps the slab to 175 mm, the volume line updates from the same polygon. Local supply pricing context lives on our concrete price index. Every number traces back to a markup on the sheet, so when the scope changes the estimate follows.
03
AI takes the first pass — you keep the judgement
The AI assistant can count the repetitive items, measure runs, and set the drawing scale, with every result reviewed before it commits. Then the rate side: ask for a rate on "supply and place 32 MPa slab, 150 mm, per m³" and it proposes one with reasoning — interpretation, labour-and-material basis, your market — anchored to the concrete rates already in your bill. Never a bare number — a proposal you accept, revise, or dismiss.
04
Honest about PlanSwift, STACK, HeavyBid
**PlanSwift** — desktop takeoff with concrete assemblies for offices standardised on it. **STACK** — cloud plan rooms and team pipelines for concrete contractors bidding at volume. **HeavyBid** — civil and heavy-highway estimating with crew-based production rates — a different league of job. ContractorCounter wins on the other side of that trade-off: speed to a priced quote, working anywhere, and a price a concreters outfit can carry (US$14/month) instead of an enterprise licence.
Common questions
Questions about Concrete estimating
Is this full concrete estimating software or just takeoff?
Both halves, in one flow: measure and count on the calibrated drawings (the [concrete takeoff](/concrete-takeoff-software) side), then price the resulting Bill of Quantities with your own rates or AI-suggested ones, and issue the quote. What it is not: a pre-loaded concrete cost database — your rates are yours.
Do the AI suggestions replace my concrete rates?
No. Every AI count, measurement, and rate is a proposal you accept, revise, or dismiss — with the reasoning shown. Your concrete rates stay yours; the AI removes the repetitive clicking, not the judgement about what a concrete item is worth in your market.
What does concrete estimating software cost compared to PlanSwift?
US$14/month, or a US$249 one-time one-time license, with a free trial (card required). Specialist concrete estimating suites like PlanSwift, STACK, HeavyBid typically run to thousands per seat per year — worth it for their maintained databases if you use them, hard to justify for a small concrete team pricing from its own rates.
Do volumes update when the thickness changes?
Yes — volume is area-driven: the slab polygon holds the area, the thickness is a property, and the m³ line recalculates when either moves. The formwork lengths come off the same polygon's edges, so one shape prices the pour, the forms, and the mesh together.
