Construction estimating for Australian builders
Upload the drawings. Get a priced, itemised estimate for this site, at today's prices.
Build Design Solutions Cost reads DA and CC drawing sets - architectural, structural, civil, schedules - measures the quantities, and prices every line from a dated Australian rate library adjusted for location, site conditions, quality tier and current market escalation. Every quantity shows its basis and the page it came from.
A$295 inc GST per estimate - re-runs, scenarios, sharing and exports included. No subscription. Quick estimates are free. Pricing details
- Measured take-off with evidence, not a $/m2 guess
- Low / likely / high range, RFIs and a risk register
- Editable lines, scenarios, share link, PDF and Excel
Preliminary estimates for budgeting and quote preparation - not a quotation, tender or QS report. Verify quantities and rates before you rely on them. Disclaimer
How it works
From a drawing set to a defensible estimate in four steps
Describe the job
Name, address and postcode (we set the pricing region), project type, quality tier, and the commercial settings you quote with: preliminaries, margin, contingency, escalation.
Upload the documents
PDF drawing sets up to 150 MB each: architectural DA sets, structural sketches, civil and stormwater plans, window schedules, BASIX notes, survey, photos.
AI reads and measures
Each sheet is classified, then the set is read as a whole: levels and areas from the site calculations, walls, roof, openings from the schedule, retaining, rock, sewer zones, pits and pipes. Every quantity carries its basis, evidence page and confidence.
Priced, ranged, explained
The deterministic engine prices each line: library rate x tier x location index x site factors, then prelims, insurance, levy, margin, contingency, escalation and GST. You get a range, cost drivers, RFIs, risks and a cover note - then edit anything.
Quick estimate
No drawings yet? Benchmark it in a minute.
A $/m2 model from the same library, adjusted for your region, quality tier and site. Indicative only - the full estimate measures the actual drawings.
Your benchmark will appear here.
Likely total, range, $/m2 and the split by element group.
What you get
Everything a builder needs to quote with confidence
Measured quantities with evidence
Every line shows how it was measured and which document and page it came from. Figured dimensions and schedules first; scaled items are flagged with lower confidence.
Dated rate library, your rates on top
About 200 Sydney-based rates in three quality tiers, with an as-of date. Paste your own subcontractor rates in My Rates and they take precedence on your estimates.
Location and site factors
26 Australian pricing regions from the postcode, plus slope, rock, access, coastal / bushfire / flood exposure and heritage multipliers applied by trade group.
Current pricing
Escalation from the library date to your start date at the region's forecast rate, plus a Market pulse: a web-researched summary of the latest cost indicators with sources, refreshed weekly.
Contract sum and client budget
Two headline figures: the builder's price today (contract sum) and the client budget with design contingency and escalation, each checked against the published $/m2 benchmark for the project type so the variance is explained, not hidden.
Range, RFIs and risks
Low / likely / high from each line's confidence, a list of questions that move the price, a risk register and value-engineering ideas written for this project.
Edit, compare, share
Change any quantity, rate or setting and the totals recompute. Duplicate as a scenario for another region or tier. Share a read-only link, print to PDF, export CSV or Excel.
Custom training
Train the estimator on your own numbers.
The library rates are a good average. Your business prices differently: your subcontractors, your suppliers, your preliminaries, the jobs you have actually built. Give us that data and we build a private version of the estimator that prices the way you price, for your team only.
- What it learns from: builder quotes and tenders, cost plans, subcontractor and supplier rates, invoices and final costs of completed projects, and the drawings they priced.
- What changes: every library rate is replaced or calibrated by yours, the site factors and preliminaries follow your history, and the narrative is written in your terms.
- What stays yours: the data and the trained version. Neither is shared with other users or used to train the public estimator.
- Send the request. We reply within one business day with what to send and a fixed quote for the build.
- Upload your documents to a private library on your account: PDF, Excel, CSV and images.
- We calibrate, you check a sample of priced jobs against your own figures, and the private version goes live for your team.
Request custom training
No commitment. Tell us what data you hold and we will say what is possible and what it costs.
Who it is for
Builders first. Owners, developers and designers too.
Built with a Sydney construction and renovation business that prices jobs from supplied DA sets every week. The output is a builder's preliminary estimate: trade and elemental views, a progress-payment schedule, exclusions and assumptions you can send with a quote.
- Builders and estimators pricing tenders and quotes
- Owner-builders and developers checking feasibility
- Architects and designers sanity-checking a brief against budget
- Quantity surveyors needing a fast first pass
Straight answers
How accurate is an Build Design Solutions Cost estimate?
Treat it as a preliminary estimate whose accuracy follows the design stage you set: concept sketches -30 % / +50 % (AACE Class 5, AIQS Cost Plan A), a DA set -20 % / +30 % (Class 4, Cost Plan B), CC documentation -15 % / +20 % (Class 3, Cost Plan C), tender documents -10 % / +15 %. The range shown on every estimate is built from each line's own uncertainty - figured dimensions and schedule counts are tight, scaled or assumed quantities are wide - so a narrow range means the drawings said a lot, and a wide one tells you what to ask for. It is not a quote and does not replace a quantity surveyor or your own subcontractor pricing.
Where do the prices come from?
A rate library of about 200 items - Sydney metro, AUD ex GST, subcontract supply-and-install rates in three quality tiers - compiled from published Australian cost guides, quantity-surveyor escalation reports and current trade quotes, dated on every estimate. The AI never prices catalogue items; it only measures them. Where something is not in the library it adds a clearly labelled allowance with a rationale, which you can change or delete. Your own rates (My Rates) override the library on all your estimates.
How does location change the price?
The postcode maps to one of 26 pricing regions, each with an index relative to Sydney (for example Melbourne 0.97, Brisbane 1.02, regional NSW 1.05, Pilbara 1.45) and its own forecast escalation rate. On top of that, site factors - slope, rock, access, coastal / bushfire / flood exposure, heritage - multiply the trade groups they actually affect: rock makes earthworks and drainage dearer, not painting. You can override the index and every factor, and duplicate an estimate as a scenario for another region.
What does "current pricing" mean here?
Three things. Rates carry an as-of date and are refreshed by the operator. Escalation compounds from that date to your target start at the region's forecast annual rate (2026 forecasts run about 4 to 6 % pa across Australia). And the Market pulse tab is a web-researched summary of the latest published cost indicators for your region - QS escalation forecasts, ABS producer price indexes, material and labour notes - with links to the sources and a suggested escalation figure you can apply with one click.
Price the next job from the drawings you already have.
A$295 inc GST per estimate, nothing else to pay. Create an account, upload the set, pay when you press Start, and read the estimate in minutes.
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