Birmingham, AL
OTHER (DECKS, FLATWORK) ESTIMATING.

## Deck and Flatwork Estimating in Birmingham Takes More Than a Tape Measure Birmingham's terrain runs from the floodplain lots near the Black Warrior River to the steep grades off Red Mountain and the Cahaba River watershed. That elevation variation changes every deck project. A flat concrete patio in Homewood prices differently than a multi-level pressure-treated deck cantilevered over a hillside lot in Vestavia Hills. Your bid has to account for that before you hand it to a homeowner. Estimate.Pro is built for deck contractors and flatwork crews who need accurate numbers fast, without rebuilding a spreadsheet every time the site conditions change. --- ## Why Birmingham Deck Jobs Are Harder to Price Than They Look **Soil and drainage.** Jefferson County sits on a mix of clay-heavy soils that shift seasonally. Footings on a clay lot require deeper frost-free depth calculations and sometimes helical piers instead of concrete tubes. Your estimate has to capture that footing upsell before you're on-site drilling. **IRC deck code compliance.** Alabama has adopted the 2021 International Residential Code. Birmingham and Jefferson County inspectors enforce ledger attachment requirements, beam span tables, guard rail heights, and stair riser specs. Getting those wrong means re-work. Estimate.Pro's scope-of-work templates reference IRC span tables so your line items match what the inspector will look for. **Lumber and concrete pricing volatility.** Pressure-treated 5/4 deck boards and dimensional framing lumber both saw multi-year price swings. Your saved material cost workspace in Estimate.Pro lets you lock current pricing per board-foot and update it when your supplier quotes change, without rebuilding the whole estimate. **Permit pulls.** Jefferson County Building Inspection requires a permit for decks attached to the structure and for flatwork over a certain threshold. Plan reviews take time. Your bid should reflect that lead time honestly so you're not promising a start date you can't hit. --- ## From Walkthrough to Bid in 8 Minutes Estimate.Pro's workflow is direct: 1. **Measure on-site.** On supported devices, ONNX-assisted live AR measurement captures deck footprint and grade change. On any device, photo measurements give you a labeled estimate flagged as such so nothing looks more precise than it is. 2. **AI scope-of-work.** The app reads your measurements and generates a scope: framing, decking, ledger, footings, stairs, railings, flatwork finish. You edit what doesn't fit. You don't type a scope from scratch. 3. **Price it.** Your saved material cost workspace holds your current lumber, concrete, hardware, and composite decking prices. Labor rates for your crew pull from your profile. The estimate builds line by line. 4. **Send it.** A sendable bid goes to the homeowner. On Pro+, Stripe Connect is available at 0% platform fee. On the Free tier, the platform fee is 3%. Median time from walkthrough to sendable bid: 8 minutes. --- ## Plans Built for Deck and Flatwork Crews - **Free forever.** No credit card required. Full estimating workflow, camera/photo measurement, AI scope generation. - **Pro — $39/seat/month.** Saved material cost workspace, client management, faster turnaround on repeat job types. - **Elite — $79/seat/month.** Stripe Connect invoicing, invoice exports, full workflow for jobs with progress billing. - **Crew — $399/month flat.** One price for the whole company. No per-seat math. If you're running two or three crews across Jefferson and Shelby counties, Crew pricing stops the per-seat cost from scaling against you. --- ## What Birmingham Deck Contractors Use This For - Pressure-treated deck builds on sloped lots in Mountain Brook and Homewood - Composite decking estimates (Trex, TimberTech) where material cost per linear foot varies by product line - Concrete flatwork: patios, driveways, aprons, pool decks - Stamped concrete and exposed aggregate bids where finish labor is a separate line - Pergola and covered structure add-ons tied to the deck estimate - Re-deck jobs where the framing stays but decking and railings replace --- ## Start Without a Credit Card The Free tier is permanent. You don't need a card to run your first estimate. Build a scope for your next Birmingham deck job, price it with your actual lumber costs, and send it before you leave the driveway.