Contractor Cost Estimator Software: Best Practices for Foundation Repair and Waterproofing Companies

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The best contractor cost estimator software for foundation repair, waterproofing, and all contractors in between

Hey there, today I’m going to show you best practices for using ArcSite if you’re a foundation repair or waterproofing contractor. ArcSite is a mobile CAD software that offers the best construction cost estimator software solution.

Learning ArcSite means learning a new skill set. You’re basically learning CAD design. So, to help make that process easier, it is very helpful to watch this video to give you a quick tutorial on the key things you need to know.

Getting started with CAD design as a foundation repair or waterproofing contractor

Your first step is to select Create Project.

It is a best practice to have a similar naming system that you can use across all these different projects or a naming convention. What I would personally recommend is naming the project after the building number. So, for example 1234, and then the street name.

This is a smart way to stay organized. It will help if you get a call from a customer who wants to move forward on a job six months after you bid it. Now you can actually talk to that person on the phone while you look up their drawing in ArcSite. In seconds you will be looking at all those photos you took and your beautiful CAD design.

All right, once you create your project, you can click on that project to open up the drawing page. To create your first drawing, just hit Create Drawing .

It’s very important on this step to go ahead and name the drawing. Now you can name this whatever you want. Maybe you choose the name of the client, for instance, John Smith’s Foundation. That particular step is very important if you’re using the proposal system because the proposals will actually export out with the name that you entered in here as the title of the document.

Next, start drawing the site you want to quote using the tools in ArcSite! (see video for advanced tips)

Alright, now let’s talk about exporting your drawing out. This is where you can take advantage of ArcSites construction cost estimator software.

To export a drawing, you’re going to hit the Export button at the top right. Now, you can export out as a PNG or PDF. For those of you who don’t know, a PNG is really more or less just a picture. So, a PDF is what I would recommend exporting this out as. However, there’s a lot more options here.  

You can actually export that PDF directly into some other popular apps like Dropbox or Facebook Messenger. Plus, you can also  text it to somebody or even email it. If you even have an airprint compatible printer, you can step inside the customer’s house with that and print off your CAD design right in front of them.

The finishing touch!

Now the final best practice here, folks is once you’re all done with your beautiful CAD drawing, please remember to hit this cloud upload button at the top right of your screen. That is going to be backup all this information, so there is a backup of it saved somewhere outside your iPad. This is great in case your iPad gets legs and walks off or if you drop it.

Obviously, folks, I consider ArcSite to be a very technically deep program. This is really just meant to cover the basics with you. If you’re a Foundation Repair Contractor, we would encourage you to download the foundation repair shape library. You can do that by scrolling all the way down to the bottom going to get more shapes, and then scrolling down to foundation and adding that to your account. These shapes are included at any subscription level above Draw Plus and they are free once you have that subscription

If you have any questions on this, would like to schedule a demo, or maybe book a one-on-one training session, just give me a quick shout in the comments below. We’d be happy to reach out to you. Have a wonderful day.

Try ArcSite's cost estimator software free for 14 days.