San Antonio, TX
FOUNDATIONS ESTIMATING.

## Foundation Estimating in San Antonio Moves Fast — Your Bids Should Too San Antonio sits on some of the most problematic soil in Texas. The Expansive clay formations across Bexar County — particularly the Austin Chalk and Taylor Marl geology — shift with every wet and dry cycle. That means your scope-of-work isn't just "pour a slab." It means specifying pier depth, bell diameter, moisture barriers, post-tension cable layouts, and drainage grades before you even touch price-per-foot. Most estimating tools were built for framers, not foundation contractors. Estimate.Pro is built for the trades — all 25 of them — including foundation work specific to markets like San Antonio where soil conditions drive half your line items. ## What Makes Foundation Bids Different Here In San Antonio, a residential foundation replacement or underpinning job routinely requires: - **Pier layout calculations** based on soil bearing capacity and load points, not just square footage - **Post-tension slab specs** that align with standard residential practice across Bexar County - **Drainage and grading line items** — improper drainage is the leading cause of foundation movement in Central Texas, and homeowners expect to see it addressed in writing - **Permit fee budgeting** for Bexar County or City of San Antonio Development Services Department, depending on jurisdiction When you walk a job and come back to your truck without a priced bid, you're handing the contract to the next guy. Estimate.Pro puts the scope on paper in 8 minutes from walkthrough to sendable bid. ## How the Walkthrough-to-Bid Flow Works 1. **Walk the site.** Use the AR measurement tool on supported devices — ONNX-assisted live measurement captures footprint, perimeter, and elevation change. Camera or photo measurements are flagged as estimates so you know exactly what to verify. 2. **Build your scope.** The AI scope generator pulls foundation-specific line items: pier type and count, beam sizing, moisture barrier spec, re-leveling labor, concrete volume, and drainage corrections. You edit, remove, or add — the output is yours. 3. **Price it against your saved material costs.** Your workspace stores the rebar, sonotube, concrete, and hardware prices you actually pay from your San Antonio suppliers. No generic national averages unless you want them as a check. 4. **Send it.** PDF or client-facing link, right from the app. Median time from walkthrough to sendable bid: 8 minutes. ## Permits and Code in Bexar County The City of San Antonio enforces the 2021 International Residential Code (IRC) and 2021 International Building Code (IBC) as locally amended. Foundation work on existing structures — underpinning, slab repair, pier installation — typically requires a structural permit through the Development Services Department. New construction foundations require engineered drawings stamped by a Texas-licensed PE. Building those permit costs and hold-time assumptions into your bid upfront protects your margin and sets client expectations. Estimate.Pro lets you store standard permit fee line items in your workspace so they appear automatically on every applicable job type. ## Pricing That Fits a Small Crew Estimate.Pro runs at **$39/seat/month (Pro)** or **$79/seat/month (Elite)**. If you're running a crew, the flat **$399/month Crew plan** covers your whole team. There's also a **free forever tier** — no credit card required — so you can run real bids before you decide. The Pro plan carries a 3% platform fee on payments processed through Stripe Connect. Elite drops that to 0% and adds invoice exports and full billing workflows — useful once your volume justifies it. ## Built for the Way Foundation Contractors Actually Work You're not sitting at a desk building spreadsheets. You're on a slab at 7 AM with a flashlight and a moisture meter. Estimate.Pro is a field operating system — it runs on your phone, stores your trade-specific data, and gets a professional document in front of your client before the competition finishes their coffee. San Antonio's foundation repair market is active year-round, but demand spikes after extended dry periods crack slabs and heave piers. When the calls come in fast, the contractors who bid fast win. That's the point. Start free. No credit card. First bid in under 10 minutes.