How long does it take to get a contractor estimate?

Right now you're waiting on a number. So let me show you what the wait actually is.

Because a quiet few days after a walkthrough can read two ways. Either he's building something real — or he's cooking a number that grows after you sign.

Start here: you already know the day your estimate lands, because I named it before I left your driveway — three business days from the walkthrough, said out loud as a date. That's the first promise you get to test me on, and I set it up that way on purpose.

Between now and then, here's what's happening. I'm calling the subs who'd actually do your work and getting their current pricing. I'm checking material costs as of this week — not last spring's. The labor and material lines in your estimate are numbers a real person quoted me. The exceptions are the allowances — money set aside for choices you haven't made yet. That's the whole reason it takes days instead of minutes. A price invented on the spot would have been faster. It also would have been a guess — and you'd be the one living with the guess.

While you wait, here's how the pricing is laid out, line by line — so when your number shows up, you'll know exactly what you're reading.