Charlotte, NC
SIDING ESTIMATING.

## Siding Estimating in Charlotte Moves Fast — Your Bids Need To Match Charlotte's construction market doesn't slow down. The metro added over 15,000 new housing units in 2023, and residential re-siding demand stays high year-round thanks to hail season in spring and the steady churn of HOA-driven exterior refreshes in neighborhoods like Ballantyne, Steele Creek, and University City. If you're a siding contractor bidding in Mecklenburg County, you're competing against crews who are fast with a number. Estimate.Pro is built to get you from a job-site walkthrough to a sendable bid in 8 minutes. That's not a marketing number — it's the median across contractors using the platform. --- ## What Makes Siding Estimating Harder in Charlotte **Material variability is real here.** Charlotte sits in a mixed-climate zone (IECC Climate Zone 3A) that sees hot, humid summers and occasional hard freezes in January. That matters when you're spec'ing fiber cement versus engineered wood versus vinyl. James Hardie and LP SmartSide are both common in the Charlotte market, and the price spread between them — plus the labor difference for installation — can move a bid by $3,000 to $6,000 on a standard two-story home. **HOA specifications add scope creep.** Many Charlotte subdivisions, particularly those built during the 2000s boom in south Mecklenburg and northern Union County, have strict architectural guidelines on siding profiles, color ranges, and fastener patterns. Missing those details in a proposal means callbacks, revisions, and lost time. **Permit requirements add a line item.** Mecklenburg County requires a building permit for siding replacement that changes the material type or covers more than 25% of any wall face. Your estimate needs to account for that fee from the first draft. --- ## How Estimate.Pro Handles Siding Takeoffs You walk the job. You open the app. You measure. On supported devices, the AR measurement tool uses ONNX-assisted live detection to capture wall faces, gable ends, and bump-outs in real time. On any device, photo measurements give you estimates clearly labeled as such — no hidden assumptions passed off as hard numbers. From your measurements, the app builds a scope-of-work automatically: - Square footage by elevation - Waste factor by profile type (lap, shake, board-and-batten) - Trim linear footage - Starter strip, J-channel, and flashing quantities - Fastener counts You review the line items, adjust for any site-specific conditions — stucco removal, OSB sheathing replacement, foam insulation board — and set your labor rate against the Charlotte market benchmark. The bid is ready to send. --- ## Your Material Cost Workspace Estimate.Pro includes a saved material cost workspace where you store your current pricing from your Charlotte-area suppliers — whether that's 84 Lumber on Brookshire Freeway, a ProBuild account, or direct distributor pricing from a regional James Hardie rep. When lumber commodity prices shift or your distributor updates their sheet, you update one place and every future estimate reflects it. No more manually recalculating when LP SmartSide trim board jumps 8% in a quarter. --- ## Pricing That Doesn't Punish Volume Estimate.Pro runs on a free forever tier — no credit card, no trial expiration. When your volume grows, Pro is $39 per seat per month. Elite is $79 per seat per month and adds Stripe Connect invoicing and invoice exports. Crew is $399 per month flat for the whole company. On the Free tier, Stripe Connect carries a 3% platform fee on collected payments. Pro+ tiers drop that to 0%. You're not paying a percentage of your contract value to use estimating software. That's the right structure for a siding contractor running $800K to $2M a year in revenue. --- ## Built for 25 Trades, Including Yours Estimate.Pro supports 25 trades. Siding is one of them — not an afterthought bolted onto a general contractor tool. The scope templates, line-item logic, and waste calculations are built around how siding contractors actually work: by elevation, by material, by linear foot of trim. If you're also doing windows, gutters, or exterior painting as part of your scope, those trades are in the same platform. One walkthrough, one estimate, one proposal. --- ## Start Without Committing Anything Create a free account, run a real estimate on your next Charlotte job, and see the 8-minute target for yourself. No credit card. No sales call required.