Detroit, MI
SIDING ESTIMATING.

## Siding estimates in Detroit move fast — your software should too Detroit's housing stock is one of the oldest in the Midwest. You are quoting jobs on 1920s craftsman bungalows in Corktown, century-old two-flats in Hamtramck, and post-war brick veneer ranches in Warren and Livonia. Every job has its own substrate surprises: failing housewrap, rotted OSB sheathing, original wood lap siding nailed over with aluminum in the 1970s. Your estimate has to account for that before you set a price. Estimate.Pro was built for exactly this kind of fieldwork. You walk the job, capture measurements with AR on supported devices, and the app generates a priced scope-of-work in a median of 8 minutes. Camera and photo measurements are flagged as estimates so you always know what was laser-confirmed and what needs a second look. ## What makes Detroit siding estimates different **Old housing stock means more unknowns.** Detroit's median home age skews well over 60 years. That means you are budgeting for sheathing replacement, additional blocking, and vapor barrier upgrades on nearly every full tear-off. Estimate.Pro lets you build and save these contingency line items as reusable cost templates in your material cost workspace, so you are not rebuilding your "Detroit Special" teardown scope from scratch every week. **Freeze-thaw cycles drive panel selection.** Winters in metro Detroit average over 40 freeze-thaw cycles per year. That means fiber cement and engineered wood products dominate specs here — vinyl warps, paint-grade wood fails. Your estimates need to price Hardie board and James Hardie lap siding correctly, including the required 6-inch ground clearance and specific fastening patterns per manufacturer specs. The app lets you store those material costs and specs in your workspace for consistent pricing across every crew. **Permit fees vary by municipality.** Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties each contain dozens of independent municipalities with their own building departments. A siding permit in the City of Detroit (BSEED) is calculated differently than one in Dearborn or Sterling Heights. You need to know those numbers cold before you hand a bid to a homeowner. **Michigan Residential Code compliance matters on fiber cement installs.** Michigan adopted the 2021 IRC with state amendments. Fiber cement siding installations must meet manufacturer-specified fastening schedules and flashing requirements, and inspectors in Wayne County are increasingly checking for proper window head flashing and J-channel installation. Estimate.Pro lets you attach spec notes to line items so your scope-of-work documents compliance details — useful when a city inspector wants to see the plan before issuing the permit. ## How Estimate.Pro works for siding contractors 1. **Walk the job.** Use AR measurement on supported devices to capture wall sections, window and door cutouts, gable ends, and soffit returns. Cutouts deduct automatically. 2. **Review the AI-generated scope.** The app drafts a line-item scope covering tear-off, sheathing, housewrap, starter strip, field panels, trim, and waste factor. You edit, add contingencies, and set your markup. 3. **Send the bid.** A professional PDF goes to the homeowner in under 8 minutes from the time you started the walkthrough. No spreadsheet, no back-office call. On the Pro plan ($39/seat/month) you get the full estimating workflow. Elite ($79/seat/month) adds Stripe Connect invoicing at 0% platform fee and invoice exports. If you are running multiple crews, Crew is $399/month flat for your whole operation — no per-seat math. There is a Free tier with no credit card required. You can run your first estimate today. ## Built for 25 trades, sharp on siding Estimate.Pro supports 25 trades. Siding is one of the core workflows, meaning the default line items, waste factor logic, and material categories reflect how siding contractors actually price work — not how a generic construction app guesses they do. If you are bidding siding in Detroit, from a full LP SmartSide re-side in Grosse Pointe to a storm-damage repair in Eastpointe, Estimate.Pro gives you a consistent, defensible number every time.