If you’ve ever put together a fireproofing estimate, you already know how time-consuming it can be.
You sit down with a set of plans thinking it’ll go quickly, and before you know it, hours have gone by. You’re still counting columns, measuring beams, and trying to make sure you didn’t miss anything. Then a revision comes in and you’re right back where you started.
This isn’t unusual. It’s just how most fireproofing estimating has been done for years. But that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.
Fireproofing isn’t simple to quantify. Every project has a mix of structural elements that all need to be accounted for correctly.
You’re dealing with:
None of this is difficult on its own. The problem is the volume. There’s a lot to go through, and it all has to be right.
It’s not just the size of the job that slows things down. It’s the way the work gets done.
You’re counting the same types of items over and over again. Columns, beams, hangers. It adds up fast.
Zooming in, zooming out, flipping between pages, trying to keep track of what’s already been done. It breaks your flow.
No one wants to be wrong on a bid. So you go back and check your work, sometimes more than once.
As soon as updated drawings come in, you have to figure out what changed and what needs to be redone. That alone can eat up a big chunk of time.
Spending extra time on an estimate doesn’t just affect your day. It affects your business.
Speed matters, especially when general contractors are pushing tight deadlines.
Most estimators moved from paper plans to digital tools years ago. That helped, but it didn’t really fix the core issue.
You’re still clicking every item.
You’re still tracing areas.
You’re still doing the counting yourself.
The tool may be on a screen now, but the workload is basically the same.
What’s starting to change is how the takeoff actually gets done.
Instead of manually finding and counting everything, newer tools can recognize what’s on the plan for you. Columns, beams, and other repeating elements can be identified automatically.
That takes a huge amount of work off your plate.
You’re no longer spending hours doing the same repetitive tasks. You’re reviewing the results instead of creating them from scratch.
BuzzBID FireShield™ was built specifically for this kind of work.
It uses computer vision to look at your plans and identify fireproofing elements automatically. Instead of clicking and counting everything yourself, the system does the heavy lifting.
That means:
You can spend your time focusing on pricing and putting together a solid bid instead of getting stuck in the counting process.
When estimating gets faster, everything else starts to improve too.
You can:
It’s not just about saving time. It’s about making the whole process easier to manage.
Fireproofing estimates take a long time because they’ve always been done the same way. A lot of manual work, a lot of repetition, and a lot of room for delays.
But that’s starting to change.
With tools like BuzzBID FireShield™, estimators don’t have to rely on slow, manual processes anymore. You can get through takeoffs faster, with less effort, and still trust the results.
And in a business where timing and accuracy both matter, that can make a real difference.