An Electrical Sub Doubled Bid Volume Without Hiring Estimators
Outsourced device counts, conduit runs, and gear schedules let a commercial electrical contractor scale bidding past its in-house ceiling.
About the Client
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Northpoint Electric
Northpoint Electric is a commercial electrical contractor serving healthcare, education, and light-industrial projects. As reputation grew, so did the flood of plan sets landing in their estimator's inbox each week.
Client
Industry
Electrical Subcontracting
Year
2024
Services
Electrical Takeoffs & Counts
"
We grew our bidding capacity overnight without posting a single job opening. The counts come back clean every time.
Priya Castellano, Chief Estimator at Northpoint Electric
The Challenge
Electrical takeoffs are relentlessly granular. Every receptacle, switch, fixture, and junction box has to be counted; every homerun and feeder traced; every panel, transformer, and piece of gear scheduled. For a single mid-size project that meant a full day or more of clicking through drawings before pricing could begin.
Northpoint's one estimator was the ceiling on how much work the company could pursue, and hiring a second experienced estimator in a tight labor market was neither fast nor cheap.
2x
monthly bid volume
0
new estimators hired
98%
device-count accuracy
The Solution
EstimatesPro handled the counts and measurements: device-by-device counts by type, conduit and wire runs by size, lighting fixture schedules tied to the fixture legend, and a complete gear and panel schedule. Everything was delivered organized by floor and system.
Northpoint's estimator received a structured quantity workbook and focused entirely on pricing labor units, gear pricing, and bid strategy.
Results & Outlook
Northpoint doubled the number of projects it could bid each month while keeping a single in-house estimator. The capacity gain let them be selective — pursuing higher-margin healthcare and institutional work instead of taking whatever fit in the schedule.
With consistent fixture and gear schedules, their proposals also became easier for clients to compare line by line, strengthening their reputation for thoroughness.
End Note
When counting is the bottleneck, you don't always need another estimator — you need the counting done reliably and fast. Northpoint scaled bidding without scaling payroll.
