I hung it.
Now I count it.
Six years installing storefront and curtain wall. Now I do quantity takeoffs for glazing contractors who need bid-week capacity without bid-week payroll. Storefront and curtain wall. Nothing else.
Every takeoff verified by someone who's installed the material.
You control how far this goes.
Every client starts at Phase 1. Nothing moves to the next phase until you ask for it.
We count. You own the estimate.
Quantities only. No costed estimates, no labor assumptions, no touching your margin. Your labor rates and productivity numbers never enter the conversation. That is not a limitation. It is the rule.
Material pricing, on your say-so.
Once we have done jobs together and you want it, material pricing gets applied on top of the quantities we already produce. You ask for it. We do not push it.
Full costing.
Labor layered in for a fully costed deliverable. Reserved for established clients, priced as a higher tier, discussed directly.
The cadence is yours. Nobody sees your numbers until you hand them over, and Phase 1 never requires it.
Seven reasons shops send us their prints.
Bid-week capacity, no payroll.
A full-time estimator costs you a salary whether the bids are flowing or not. Hire the takeoff per job, during the weeks you're buried, and skip the overhead the rest of the year.
Signed NDA, every client.
An NDA is signed before your first set of prints changes hands. Your drawings, your pricing, your client list: none of it goes anywhere. That's the integrity the business runs on.
Counted by someone who's hung it.
Six years installing storefront and curtain wall, impact systems included. Every count is reviewed by a person who has carried the material up the wall, not just seen it on a screen.
Storefront and curtain wall. Period.
We don't take roofing, drywall, or "whatever's on the print." One trade, done deep: systems, glass schedules, door hardware, perimeter conditions. If it's outside Division 8, we say so up front.
Your numbers stay yours.
Phase 1 is quantities only. Your labor rates, productivity assumptions, and markup never enter the conversation. Nothing gets costed until you ask for it. That's the standing rule, not a favor.
Flagged, not guessed.
When the prints conflict (schedule says one thing, elevation says another), you get a flagged item with the sheet references, not a silent guess buried in the count. You decide how it resolves.
Your first takeoff, half price.
First job with us runs at 50% off. It's not a promo. It's a calibration run. You check our counts against your own read of the prints, we learn how your shop likes its deliverables, and nobody pays full freight on an untested fit.
Drag to browse
Check the math before you send us anything.
Two calculators, your numbers. Every default sits at the conservative end of what the published ranges say, and each one shows its work. Tap “how we got this” on any field.
The first shows why capacity matters.
The second shows what it costs you not to have it.
What another bid a week is actually worth.
Your hit rate is your hit rate. We cannot move it and will not claim to. Hold it wherever you like and see what changes when you can get more bids out the door.
Jobs won per month, today
2
25% of 8 bids
Annual awarded revenue
$1,440,000
Jobs won × 12 × contract value
With +4 bids/month at the same 25%
+$720,000 / yr
12 bids/mo → 3 jobs/mo → $2,160,000/yr · +12 jobs a year
The trade behind that bar: ~$1,200/mo in outsourced takeoffs. At your 25% that is $1,200 of takeoff spend per added job won, against a $60,000 average contract.
| Today, 8 bids per month | $1,440,000 per year |
|---|---|
| With takeoff outsourced, 12 bids per month | $2,160,000 per year |
| Difference | $720,000 per year |
Your win rate did not move. Your capacity did. That is the only lever we touch.
Most sets counted and back in 24–48 hours
What counting it yourself costs.
Takeoff hours are not free just because they are already on the payroll. Price them against what the same count costs from us.
Which one are you?
Those salaried hours are already paid for. The question is where they go: counting, or pricing and margin. Move the counting and the same payroll puts more bids out the door. See what that added capacity is worth →
Estimator time spent counting
$34,560 / yr
$360 per bid · $2,880 per month
Same count, through Daylight
$28,800 / yr
$300 per bid · $2,400 per month
Estimator hours back on pricing and margin
576 hrs / yr
48 hours a month · $5,760/yr cheaper on cash
| Counted in-house | $34,560 per year |
|---|---|
| Counted by Daylight | $28,800 per year |
| Estimator hours freed | 576 hours per year |
Same scope, counted. Cheaper than doing it in-house, and every hour comes back to the work that actually wins the bid.
First takeoff at half price as a calibration run · scoped quote back usually same day
- Nothing leaves your browser. Every figure above is calculated on your machine. No inputs are transmitted, stored, or attached to you.
- Quantities only, never your pricing. Phase 1 is counts. Your labor rates, productivity assumptions and markup never enter the conversation.
- NDA before the first print. Signed before your drawings change hands. Every client, no exceptions.
These are estimating aids built from published industry ranges, not a forecast of your business. Nothing here moves your win rate, and we do not claim to.
This is what lands in your inbox.
Real jobs, anonymized. Different manufacturers, different systems, the same deliverable format you would receive.
Send the prints.
You will get a scoped quote and a turnaround time back, usually same day.
- NDA signed before your first set of prints changes hands
- Storefront and curtain wall only. If it's outside that scope, we'll tell you up front
- Phase 1 pricing quoted per job, no retainer, no commitment
chris@daylighttakeoffs.com
daylighttakeoffs.com
Florida · Remote service