Louisville, KY
NEW ADDITIONS ESTIMATING.

## Addition Estimating in Louisville Moves Fast — Your Bids Should Too Louisville's housing stock is old. A significant share of the city's homes were built before 1980, and owners are choosing to add square footage rather than fight a tight resale market. That means addition contractors here are fielding more calls — primary suite additions, bump-outs over crawl spaces, two-story rear additions on brick Victorians in the Highlands, sunroom additions in St. Matthews. Each job has its own foundation condition, roof tie-in, and permit path. Writing a competitive bid by hand, or copying last year's spreadsheet, is how you leave money on the table or lose the job to someone who got there first. --- ## What Makes Addition Estimating Different in Louisville **Foundation conditions vary block by block.** Louisville sits on karst limestone and river-deposited soils. A rear addition in Crescent Hill may need a deeper footing than the same footprint in Jeffersontown. Your scope needs to account for soil bearing assumptions and the cost of a geotechnical consult when the ground is unknown. **The city's permit process has specific plan requirements.** Louisville Metro requires stamped architectural or structural drawings for most additions exceeding certain thresholds, and the Louisville Metro Development Services department reviews zoning setbacks, impervious surface limits, and flood zone compliance (Louisville has mapped FEMA flood zones along Beargrass Creek and South Fork tributaries). Permit fees are calculated on construction valuation, which means your bid document feeds directly into what you pay for the permit. **Energy code compliance adds scope.** Kentucky adopted the 2018 IECC with state amendments. Any conditioned addition must meet envelope R-value requirements and may trigger a Manual J load calculation for HVAC sizing if you're extending the existing system. You need that line item in your estimate before you quote the mechanical sub. **Material costs are mid-market but volatile.** Louisville is a regional distribution hub, so lumber and framing material are generally available without long lead times, but pricing has been volatile. Locking your material costs into a saved workspace — not a static spreadsheet — means your estimate reflects what you actually pay at the time you build. --- ## How Estimate.Pro Works for Addition Contractors Walk the site. Open the app. Use AR measurement on supported devices to capture the footprint and wall runs — measurements taken by camera or photo are marked as estimates so you know what to verify. The AI scope builder reads your walkthrough notes and photos, then drafts a line-item scope: demolition, footing and foundation, framing, sheathing, roofing tie-in, windows and exterior doors, insulation to 2018 IECC requirements, drywall, trim, and painting. You review, adjust, and apply your saved material cost workspace. The bid is ready to send. Median time from walkthrough to sendable bid: 8 minutes. On the Free tier there is no credit card required and no platform fee on collected payments — you pay 3% only on Free when using Stripe Connect. On Pro+ the platform fee drops to 0%. Pro is $39 per seat per month. Elite at $79 per seat per month adds invoice exports and full Stripe Connect workflows. Crew at $399 per month flat covers your whole team. --- ## Scopes Addition Contractors Build in Louisville - Rear additions with crawl space or slab foundations - Primary suite additions above garages - Two-story additions requiring existing wall reinforcement - Sunroom and three-season room additions - Garage conversions to conditioned living space - Accessory dwelling unit additions (Louisville's ADU ordinance permits attached ADUs in most residential zones) Each of these has a different material takeoff and a different permit path. Estimate.Pro lets you build a reusable scope template for each job type, so you're not starting from zero on the third Highlands bump-out this month. --- ## Built for 25 Trades, Including Yours Estimate.Pro supports 25 trades. If you sub out mechanical, electrical, or plumbing work on your additions, your subs can run their own estimates in the same platform and you can roll the numbers into a single client-facing bid. No re-keying. No version mismatch. Start free. No credit card. Get your first Louisville addition bid out the door today.