It’s summer—which means your field crews are working overtime and your inbox is overflowing with bid invites. If you’re an interior estimator handling drywall, paint, ceilings, flooring, or framing, you know the chaos: fast-track TIs, back-to-school projects, and fall interiors all hitting at once.
So how do you stay sharp, move fast, and protect your margins in the summer bid blitz Here are five STACK-approved hacks to help you crush the chaos without burning out:
1. Build a Bid-Ready Template Library
Stop starting from scratch. With STACK, you can create reusable Items & Assemblies for your most common interior scopes, such as:
- Drywall partitions
- Suspended acoustic ceilings (ACT)
- Commercial LVT or carpet tile
- Paint and wall coverings
STACK Pro Tip:STACK’s Items & Assemblies lets you add full material + labor packages into your takeoff—speeding up estimates and standardizing pricing across your team.
2. Turbocharge Takeoffs with Floor Plan AI
Manually tracing rooms and walls is a time suck. With STACK’s Floor Plan AI, you can automatically detect and measure interior spaces in seconds.
Upload plans and Floor Plan AI instantly identifies:
-Room areas for flooring or painting
-Linear footage of walls for framing and drywall
-Ceiling areas for ACT or finish coverage
"STACK's Floor Plan AI has helped me tremendously on projects where I get a massive floor plan and there's just so many variables in rooms. I use the AI feature and it just encompasses everything on that floor. And then you can pick and choose from those areas what you want to save, keep, and move to a particular Assembly or Item. What would take two hours to do a large floor plan, you can do it in a matter of five minutes."
3. Spot Scope Creep Before It Hurts Your Margins
Interior scopes are full of vague notes like “furnish and install finishes per spec” which can lead to major scope creep.
STACK helps you:
-Flag missing finish details or alternates
-Clarify drywall/ACT/MEP coordination zones
-Price labor for shift work or limited access
STACK Pro Tip: Use STACK’s markup tools to highlight assumptions and add notes directly to your takeoff—keeping everyone on the same page, including PMs and supers.
4. Focus on the Right Bids
Not every bid is worth chasing. Focus your time on:
- Projects with clean specs
- Repeat clients with strong margins
- Jobs with realistic timelines and GCs you trust
STACK Pro Tip: STACK’s smart search features help you review specs faster and flag red flags early—so you can make better go/no-go calls.
5. Collaborate Without the Chaos
Tired of emailing spreadsheets or chasing down updated plans? STACK lets your entire team:
-Work on the same estimate in real time
-Track changes automatically
-Store all project data in one central, searchable hub
STACK Pro Tip: STACK’s cloud collaboration tools make it easy to loop in PMs or ownership when you need quick input—no version control headaches.
Ready to Clear the Pileup?
STACK’s Takeoff & Estimating platform, powered by Floor Plan AI, was built for busy interior contractors like you. Whether you’re swamped with change orders or racing to bid your next tenant fit-out, STACK gives you the speed, accuracy, and insight to stay ahead of the summer crush. Check out a demo today.
