New Orleans, LA
DOORS ESTIMATING.

## Door Estimating in New Orleans Is Its Own Problem New Orleans is not a standard market. You are working on shotgun doubles from the 1890s, raised Creole cottages with non-standard rough openings, and post-Katrina rebuilds where framing dimensions rarely match the original plans. A door that measures fine on the outside can reveal a warped jamb, a racked frame, or a sill rotted through once you pull the casing. Your bid has to account for that before you submit it. Humidity compounds everything. Exterior wood doors absorb moisture and swell. Steel doors in flood-prone areas need proper threshold seals and corrosion-resistant hardware. Impact-rated doors rated to Louisiana Department of Insurance wind zone requirements are now standard in exposed areas of the metro. If you are bidding in Lakeview, Gentilly, or eastern New Orleans, you already know which products comply and which ones come back as a callback six months later. Estimate.Pro is built for this kind of field reality. ## From Walkthrough to Bid in 8 Minutes You open the app on a supported device, walk the job, and use AR measurement to capture rough opening dimensions directly. On supported devices, ONNX-assisted live AR detects openings and surfaces in real time. On other devices, camera and photo measurements are flagged as estimates so you know what needs a tape check. The app pulls those measurements into a scope-of-work draft automatically. You review the line items — door unit, hardware, installation labor, jamb blocking, threshold, weatherstrip — adjust for the specifics of the job, and send the bid. The median time from walkthrough to sendable bid is 8 minutes. ## Build Your Cost Workspace for the New Orleans Market Labor rates in the New Orleans metro run higher than the Louisiana statewide average for skilled carpentry and finish work, driven by post-storm rebuild volume and a smaller pool of experienced installers. The saved material cost workspace in Estimate.Pro lets you store your actual supplier pricing from your local distributors — impact-rated fiberglass units, steel flush doors, historic wood reproductions for Marigny or Garden District work — so your estimates reflect what you actually pay, not a national average that undersells your margins. Set your overhead and margin once. Update material costs when your supplier changes pricing. Every new estimate pulls from that workspace without you re-entering numbers. ## Permits, Licensing, and Local Code New Orleans requires building permits for door replacements that involve structural work or changes to rough opening size. The city follows the Louisiana State Uniform Construction Code, which adopts the International Building Code with state amendments. Exterior door replacements in the historic districts — Vieux Carré, Marigny, Bywater, Central City — go through the Historic District Landmarks Commission before permit issuance. That review adds lead time you need to build into your project schedule and your change-order language. Flood-zone work under FEMA NFIP guidelines also affects door and opening specifications in post-Katrina construction. If a job is in an AE or VE flood zone, the threshold height and door type selection matter for the homeowner's flood insurance rating. Estimate.Pro does not file permits for you. It does give you a written scope-of-work document that contains the materials, dimensions, and installation methods a permit reviewer expects to see. ## Pricing That Fits a Small Operation The Free tier costs nothing and requires no credit card. It covers the core walkthrough-to-estimate workflow. Pro is $39 per seat per month. Elite is $79 per seat per month and adds Stripe Connect payments and invoice exports — useful if you want to collect a deposit at bid acceptance without chasing a check. Crew is $399 per month flat for teams, no per-seat math when you are running multiple crews across multiple jobs. Stripe Connect platform fee is 3% on Free, 0% on Pro and above. ## Built for 25 Trades, Tuned for Doors Estimate.Pro supports 25 trades. The door workflow is specific — it is not a generic line-item spreadsheet. The scope-of-work generator knows the difference between a pre-hung interior door, a retrofit exterior replacement, a sliding patio door, and a commercial hollow-metal frame and door assembly. You get line items that match the work, not a blank template you rebuild from scratch every time. If you also do window work, rough carpentry, or finish trim, those trades are in the same app. One walkthrough can generate scope across multiple trade categories on a renovation job. ## Start Without Risk Create a free account, run a walkthrough on your next job, and see the bid draft before you decide whether to send it. No credit card, no trial period that expires. The Free tier stays free.