§ Why new additions pros in San Antonio use Estimate.Pro
THE BID ENGINE.
## Bidding Home Additions in San Antonio Takes More Than a Gut Number
San Antonio's construction market runs hot. Bexar County issued more than 18,000 residential permits in 2023, and a significant slice of that work is square-footage additions — sunrooms on the north side, master suite pop-outs in Helotes, second-story additions in Stone Oak. The demand is real. So is the competition.
When a homeowner gets three bids, yours needs to be tight, clear, and fast. A spreadsheet patched together the night before rarely wins on price and never wins on professionalism.
Estimate.Pro closes that gap. Walkthrough to sendable bid in 8 minutes, median. That's not a marketing number — it's the median time logged across contractors using the platform.
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## What Makes Addition Estimating Harder in San Antonio
**Foundation type drives your whole scope.** San Antonio sits on expansive Balcones clay. Any addition needs a foundation design that accounts for soil movement — typically pier-and-beam or a thickened slab with grade beams. Your estimate needs line items that match the soils report, not a generic slab pour from a national template.
**City of San Antonio Development Services moves at its own pace.** COSA requires a building permit for any addition over 200 sq ft, and most structural additions trigger a full plan review. Budget an average of 6–10 weeks for residential plan review if your project requires engineered drawings. That timeline affects your project phasing costs and when you can realistically schedule trades.
**Energy code compliance adds line items.** Texas follows the 2021 IECC statewide, and COSA enforces it. An addition must meet envelope requirements — insulation, fenestration U-values, air sealing — and those specs belong in the bid, not as an afterthought. Estimate.Pro includes IECC-referenced scopes so you're not writing those from scratch every time.
**Labor rates here aren't cheap anymore.** San Antonio used to run below Austin and Dallas on residential framing and finish labor. That gap has narrowed. Framing crews are running $6–$8 per square foot for labor on standard residential additions; finish carpenters who do trim and interior detail work on additions are billing $55–$75 per hour in the metro. If your template still uses 2019 numbers, you're losing margin.
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## How Estimate.Pro Works for Addition Contractors
**AR-assisted measurement.** Walk the existing structure with your phone. On supported devices, Estimate.Pro uses ONNX-assisted live AR measurement to capture room dimensions. For photos taken in the field, measurements are returned as estimates and clearly flagged — you decide what to verify with a tape before signing off.
**AI scope-of-work generation.** After the walkthrough, the app drafts a line-item scope: demo of existing exterior wall, new foundation work, framing, sheathing, weather barrier, windows, insulation, drywall, tape and texture, interior trim, paint, electrical rough and finish, HVAC extension. You edit, remove, or add. You don't start from a blank page.
**Saved material cost workspace.** Your San Antonio supplier pricing — lumber yards off Loop 410, roofing distributors near Alamo Ranch — lives in your cost workspace. Update it once when prices shift, and every future bid pulls your current numbers automatically.
**Stripe Connect invoicing on Pro+ with $0 platform fee.** Win the job, send the invoice, collect the draw — all in one place. Free tier and Pro tier are available, with the 3% platform fee applying to Free and 0% on Pro+.
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## Plans Built for How You Work
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|------|-------|----------|
| Free | $0/mo | Solo estimating, no credit card required |
| Pro | $39/seat/mo | Solo or small crew, full AI scope |
| Elite | $79/seat/mo | Invoice exports, advanced Stripe Connect workflows |
| Crew | $399/mo flat | Multi-seat team, unlimited seats |
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## Get Your First Bid Out in 8 Minutes
Sign up free — no credit card, no trial clock. Run a real addition estimate on a real job you have in the pipeline this week. If it doesn't cut your estimating time significantly, you haven't lost anything except 8 minutes.
Estimate.Pro supports 25 trades. Addition work often pulls in framing, electrical, HVAC, and plumbing in a single project. Those scopes are all inside the same platform, so you can hand off trade-specific sub-scopes or price them yourself if you self-perform.
San Antonio addition contractors are bidding against organized regional remodelers with their own estimating infrastructure. This is how you match that without a full-time estimator on payroll.