Residential construction moves fast. Material rates change daily, labour availability shifts hourly and clients demand a firm price yesterday. Traditional spreadsheet workflows—or older desktop estimating programs—can’t keep up. CountBricks was engineered to fill that gap, turning a realtime voice conversation into a complete, itemised estimate before you leave site. The result: fewer surprises, higher margins and happier clients.
Realtime conversation-to-estimate engine
• Speak naturally on site and watch CountBricks transcribe, structure and price every wall, floor and fixture.
• Voice commands add rooms, adjust quantities or swap materials without tapping a keyboard.
Live material pricing feed
• CountBricks connects to national merchant databases and local supplier catalogues, refreshing prices as they change.
• Automatic margin controls ensure every line still meets your profit targets if costs spike overnight.
Task-based labour calculations
• Pre-built production rates account for region, crew size and weather factors common to residential builds.
• Customise once and apply the profile across every future estimate.
AI-powered blueprint take-offs
• Upload PDFs or point your phone at printed plans; CountBricks detects walls, windows and square metre areas instantly.
• No more manual tracing, missed doors or mis-counted studs.
1. Initial site walk-through – The foreman opens the CountBricks mobile app, taps “Record” and describes rooms, finishes and client upgrades while walking the job.
2. Instant quantities – The AI engine converts spoken notes into tasks, assemblies and material lists, matched to live pricing.
3. Review & adjust – Back at the ute, the foreman reviews suggested allowances, tweaks labour hours and confirms mark-ups.
4. One-click proposal – CountBricks formats the scope, inclusions and payment schedule into a branded PDF ready for signature.
5. Auto-invoice – Once accepted, staged invoices generate from the same dataset, eliminating double entry.
• Slash estimating time by up to 80 % compared with manual take-offs.
• Capture every variation immediately through voice—no lost sticky-notes.
• Protect profit with dynamic margin alerts as material costs fluctuate.
• Impress clients with same-day detailed proposals instead of week-long waits.
• Integrate with accounting platforms via the CountBricks API for seamless cost tracking.
Older residential estimating tools usually require manual data import, static price books and hours of clicking to build each room. When lumber jumps overnight, you scramble to reprice the job. Because CountBricks feeds live supplier data directly into every estimate, you know the moment your profit is at risk—and you can tweak mark-ups instantly.
• Use hashtags while speaking—saying “#primecoat” automatically groups those cost items for later adjustments.
• Duplicate similar room assemblies, then adjust finishes instead of starting from scratch.
• Turn on geofencing so CountBricks recommends region-specific labour rates the moment you cross into a new council.
• Set tolerance thresholds; if any material line shifts more than 4 %, CountBricks emails you an alert with a one-click “update all estimates” button.
• Leverage the “client showcase” template under CountBricks.com/portfolio to visualise allowances and options during sales meetings.
After the contract is signed, CountBricks pushes the approved quantities into your procurement schedule. When pack-up time arrives, field crews tick completed tasks, automatically updating the project budget. This closed data loop means your next estimate is informed by actual production rates, not generic industry averages.
A recent mid-tier builder using CountBricks on 12 single-storey homes:
• Cut average estimating hours per job from 16 to 3.
• Recovered 2.1 % additional margin through early pricing alerts.
• Sent proposals 5 days faster, beating competitors to contract sign-off.
Ready to replace slow, legacy platforms and spreadsheets? Book a personalised demo at CountBricks.com/consultation and discover how our AI engine accelerates your next residential project.
A regional builder approached CountBricks to streamline quoting across a 24-lot subdivision. Their legacy desktop tool required manual data re-entry each time the timber schedule changed, costing estimators two extra days per variation.
1. CountBricks voice estimating was used during the initial framing walk-through, generating a baseline quote in under 40 minutes.
2. Real-time merchant links kept pine, LVL beam and sheathing prices synchronised daily.
3. Blueprint take-offs identified 14 uncounted windows before the council lodged a consent query, saving a costly redesign delay.
• 132 labour hours saved across the estimating team over the course of the project.
• A 1.8 % increase in profit margin thanks to automatic cost-surge alerts and quicker variation approvals.
• Client satisfaction scores improved from 78 % to 92 % due to faster, clearer communications.
• Early adoption of voice-driven task creation shortens the learning curve for site supervisors unfamiliar with digital take-offs.
• Aligning CountBricks’ live pricing feed with supplier contracts locks in bulk-buy advantages, stabilising budgets during volatile market periods.
• Using the built-in change-order generator eliminates back-and-forth emails, turning variations into signed documents within hours.
If your residential projects still rely on spreadsheets or static estimating software, schedule a discovery call at CountBricks.com/services. Our team will map your current workflow, import existing price books and have you generating AI-powered estimates in less than a week.
