Cannon Estimation provides construction estimating services in Pennsylvania for general contractors, subcontractors, home builders and developers statewide. We deliver CSI MasterFormat quantity takeoffs and bid-ready cost estimates priced to your project’s actual ZIP code — not a national average — with a quote back in one business hour and finished estimates in 24 to 48 hours.
Pennsylvania contractors don’t lose work because their pricing is wrong. They lose it because the bid due date arrived while the takeoff was still half-finished on a Sunday night.
A full-time in-house estimator in the Lehigh Valley or Greater Philadelphia costs [$75,000–$115,000] a year loaded — before software licences, RSMeans subscriptions and downtime between bid cycles. Outsourced estimating services in Pennsylvania cost you a fraction of that per project, and only when you’re actually bidding.
Bidding fewer jobs than you should
Every skipped invitation-to-bid is revenue you never see. Contractors who outsource takeoffs typically double or triple bid volume within a quarter.
Winning jobs you shouldn't have
Missed scope, thin quantities and stale unit costs turn a "win" into a margin bleed by Division 03.
Estimating on nights and weekends
Your best estimator is you — and you're already running jobs, chasing RFIs and managing subs.
Years Of Experience
Cannon covers the full CSI MasterFormat scope. Each service page below shows exactly what’s included in the takeoff, the software we use for that trade, and a sample deliverable.
Footings, slabs-on-grade, formwork SF, rebar tonnage, mesh, joints, curing, Division 03 line items
Accurate quantity takeoffs for brick, block, stone, precast concrete, mortar, reinforcement, and related masonry materials.
Complete drywall quantity surveys including gypsum boards, framing, insulation, joint compounds, fasteners, and accessories.
Material and labor estimates for shingle, metal, tile, flat roofing systems, insulation, flashing, and waterproofing.
Professional flooring takeoffs covering hardwood, tile, carpet, laminate, vinyl, epoxy, and specialty flooring systems.
Material and labor takeoffs for water supply systems, drainage, fixtures, valves, piping, and plumbing accessories.
Device counts, homeruns, conduit and wire LF by size, panels, gear, fixture schedules, labor units
Detailed estimates for HVAC systems, ductwork, piping, equipment, insulation, and accessories.
Steel quantity takeoffs for beams, columns, joists, decking, miscellaneous metals, and fabrication requirements.
Accurate estimates for doors, windows, frames, glazing, hardware, and installation materials.
Most estimating firms bidding your PA work are pulling a national RSMeans line and applying a single state factor. That is not how Pennsylvania costs behave. Six things change the number on a PA bid, and we build all six into every estimate:
Labor markets swing hard across the state. Union density in Philadelphia and Allegheny County produces a materially different labor rate than open-shop Lancaster, Berks or Centre County work. We price the market your project is actually in, not a blended statewide average.
Prevailing wage changes public work entirely. Pennsylvania public projects above the statutory threshold carry Prevailing Wage Act determinations issued by the Department of Labor & Industry. Those rates, plus the fringe and reporting burden, have to be in the estimate from the start — not discovered at award.
PA taxes construction contractors as consumers of materials. Contractors pay sales tax on materials they install rather than reselling them tax-free — with specific exemptions for building machinery and equipment and for qualifying tax-exempt entities. Get this wrong and you have eaten [X]% of your material cost before you start.
Code administration is not uniform. Pennsylvania’s Uniform Construction Code is adopted statewide, but municipalities opt out of local enforcement, third-party agencies handle a large share of inspections, and Philadelphia administers its own code through L&I. Permit cost and review timeline vary accordingly.
The build season is shorter than the calendar. Winter concrete protection, cold-weather masonry, lake-effect conditions in Erie and a compressed sitework window in the northern tier are real line items in a PA estimate, not contingency hand-waving.
Geography drives scope. Hillside foundation and shoring costs in Pittsburgh. Susquehanna floodplain requirements in the Wyoming Valley. Historic district constraints in Lancaster, Bethlehem and Center City Philadelphia. Adaptive reuse of legacy industrial stock across the Lehigh Valley.
Cannon Estimation was established to provide contractors with dependable estimating solutions that improve project planning and increase bidding efficiency.
Our experienced estimators understand today’s construction industry and prepare detailed cost estimates using advanced estimating software and proven industry practices.
Step 1 – Submit Your Plans
Email your drawings, blueprints, specifications, or bid documents to our estimating team for review.
Every Cannon estimate ships as a working file you can bid from, not a PDF you have to retype.
Deliverable | Format | Detail |
|---|---|---|
Quantity takeoff | Excel (.xlsx) | Line-by-line quantities with units, mapped to CSI MasterFormat divisions, sheet and detail references on every line |
Marked-up plan set | Bluebeam PDF | Colour-coded, layered, fully auditable back to the drawing so your PM can verify any number in seconds |
Cost estimate | Excel (.xlsx) | Material, labor, equipment, subcontractor, overhead and profit split out — with your own unit costs applied if you supply them |
Bill of materials / BOQ | Excel or CSV | Purchase-ready, sortable by supplier or division |
Bid summary | Excel or PDF | Single-page recap sheet formatted for your bid form |
Scope narrative | Inclusions, exclusions, assumptions, allowances and clarifications — the document that protects your margin at buyout |
Every quantity takeoff is prepared by a senior construction cost estimator who has priced Pennsylvania work before — not a junior tracing lines against a national database.
We provide construction estimating services across all 67 Pennsylvania counties, with deep market knowledge in six regions:
Region | Market context | Cities |
|---|---|---|
Lehigh Valley | Our home market. I-78 industrial and distribution construction, adaptive reuse of legacy Bethlehem Steel property, strong residential infill and Route 22 commercial. | Allentown · Bethlehem · Easton |
Greater Philadelphia | Separate L&I code administration, high union labor density, heavy rowhome renovation and gut-rehab volume, institutional and life-sciences work. | Philadelphia · Chester · Norristown · West Chester · King of Prussia |
Pittsburgh Metro | Hillside foundation and shoring complexity, major healthcare and university construction, Strip District and Lawrenceville redevelopment. | Pittsburgh · Monroeville · McKeesport |
South Central PA | State government and institutional projects, PennDOT-adjacent infrastructure, manufacturing conversion, historic district constraints. | Harrisburg · Lancaster · York · Reading |
Northeast PA | The I-81 logistics corridor — the largest single construction story in the state. Older housing stock and Susquehanna floodplain considerations. | Scranton · Wilkes-Barre · Hazleton · Williamsport |
Northwest & Central PA | Lake-effect climate driving roofing, insulation and envelope spec differences; a genuinely shorter build season. | Erie · Altoona · State College · Johnstown |
General Contractors — Full multi-division estimates, sub-bid levelling, scope gap analysis and bid-day support. → | Subcontractors — Single-trade takeoffs at volume, so you can bid every invitation instead of triaging them. → |
|---|---|
Home Builders — Model-by-model takeoffs, option pricing, lumber and material lists for purchasing. → | Remodeling Contractors — Fast, presentable estimates for homeowner-facing proposals and change orders. → |
Developers & Owners — Conceptual and preliminary budgets at 30/60/90% design for feasibility and lender packages. → | Architects & Designers — Design-phase cost checks so the drawings your client approves are the drawings they can afford. → |
Project | Location | Scope | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|
[62,000 SF distribution facility] | [Lehigh Valley, PA] | [Divisions 03, 05, 07, 31 — full takeoff + bid summary] | [36 hours] |
[Multi-family adaptive reuse, 48 units] | [Bethlehem, PA] | [Full multi-trade estimate, prevailing wage scenario] | [4 days] |
[Retail fit-out, 9,400 SF] | [Harrisburg, PA] | [Divisions 09, 22, 23, 26] | [24 hours] |
[Public school renovation] | [Berks County, PA] | [PennBid submission support, prevailing wage] | [5 days] |
We needed a detailed takeoff for a residential renovation in Pennsylvania, and the finished estimate gave our team a much clearer picture of the project. It saved us hours of measuring plans ourselves and made our bid preparation much more organized.
We didn't want to rely on generic national pricing for a commercial project. The estimate gave us a structured breakdown that our team could review, adjust and use as part of our final proposal. The turnaround was especially helpful with a tight bid deadline.
Our project managers were spending too much time on quantity takeoffs. Outsourcing the estimating work gave them more time to manage active jobs and communicate with customers. We still review every estimate internally, but now we're reviewing organized work instead of starting from scratch.
As a subcontractor, our bid volume changes from week to week. Having professional quantity takeoff support means we can handle more opportunities without putting everything on our internal team. The takeoff gave us a solid starting point for our own pricing.
The estimating support helped us review the project scope before finalizing our bid. Having quantities organized by cost category made it easier to compare our assumptions with the drawings and focus on areas that needed another review.
Our estimating workload isn't consistent enough to justify another full-time estimator. Outsourcing gives us the flexibility to get professional estimating support when we need it, while keeping our internal team focused on projects, clients and operations.
Whether you’re preparing a competitive bid or planning a new construction project, Cannon Estimation is here to provide dependable estimating solutions that save time and improve project success.
It totally depends on project size and scope. Small projects cost start from $100.
Standard turnaround is 12 to 24 hours from approval. Single-trade takeoffs on small projects are frequently delivered same day. Large multi-division commercial estimates take three to five business days. If your bid date is tight, tell us the deadline when you upload — we schedule around bid dates, not queue order.
Yes. Every estimate is priced to your project's ZIP code using RSMeans PA city cost indexes, live supplier quotes from Pennsylvania distributors, and our own historical PA bid database. Where the project is public work subject to the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act, we apply the applicable Department of Labor & Industry determination for that county and craft.
PDF plan sets, AutoCAD DWG, Revit RVT and IFC models, and scanned drawings. Multi-file uploads up to 100MB go through the form directly; larger sets can come via WeTransfer, Dropbox, Procore, BuildingConnected or a plan-room link. Specifications, addenda and bid forms help — send them if you have them.
Yes. We estimate PennDOT projects, school district work, municipal and county projects, and PA eMarketplace and PennBid solicitations. Prevailing wage rates, fringe benefits and the associated reporting burden are built into the estimate from the start, and we can price a private-rate and prevailing-wage scenario side by side.
Yes, and we prefer it. Send your cost database, past bids or supplier pricing and we will apply your numbers rather than ours. Your labor rates, your production factors, your markups. Many contractors use Cannon purely for quantification and keep pricing entirely in-house.
All of them — MasterFormat Divisions 01 through 48. Concrete, masonry, metals, wood and plastics, thermal and moisture protection, openings, finishes, specialties, equipment, furnishings, fire suppression, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, communications, electronic safety, earthwork and utilities.
Cannon Estimation is registered in PA providing cost estimates and construction estimating services in USA since 2017. Our Expert team of Civil Engineers offers construction estimating and innovative design solutions while respecting its clients economic, marketing and esthetic goals.
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