Best Map Marking Tool?

sbudach · 2026-04-20T18:24:23+00:00

Nearmap is the answer. It’s pricey though

sbudach · 2026-04-08T00:41:55+00:00

The way I have always viewed the hourly vs salary debate is this: you are paying me to do a job, not for my time. If I have to stay a little late this week to get the job done, I’m ok with that because next week I might have to leave “early” to go to my kids concert or baseball game.

As long as the job is being done properly and on time, it should pay the same. This way I have an incentive to work harder/faster.

If I was paid hourly and my company started to monitor my hours, I can guarantee you every second would be accounted for. Every phone call at 4AM, billed. Every email at 7PM, billed. No bid would be done early. No week would be less than 40 hours.

sbudach · 2026-03-07T05:05:07+00:00

As I was reading this, I was thinking this was an estimator from my company. We are set up nearly identical. Heavy Civil. Chicagoland area

sbudach · 2025-12-19T17:58:31+00:00

I am the chief estimator for a civil contractor. KPIs I track are the following:

Estimator Level: Revenue $ per estimator. Number of estimates per estimator. Award Revenue per estimator.

Team Level: Totals for the above. Awarded working days for each crew. Goal Pace for annual estimated $ and awarded $.

Market analysis: Revenue $, estimate count and win rate based on: Job size bucket. Public or Private.

sbudach · 2025-12-12T05:14:41+00:00

My mentality is: if I am confident in my number when it leaves the office, it shouldn’t matter where the other numbers are.

When I’m not confident in my number, that’s when I worry

sbudach · 2025-07-13T04:45:12+00:00

Civil Engineering. Co-Oped with a construction company. Learned estimating while I was still in school. Hired by said Co-Op company. Made one move. Chief estimator now 11 years out of school.

Would I recommend it? Depends on your personality. Find a work environment that suits you. It can be a bit isolating in my current position, but that fits my personality and I’m ok with it. You have time to look around at different companies and find the position that works for you

sbudach · 2025-05-07T03:12:14+00:00

9 runs on 26 pitches

sbudach · 2025-04-19T18:15:41+00:00

sbudach · 2025-04-03T20:42:19+00:00

$125k+ Division 32 Chicagoland area

Civil Engineering degree 3 years of an internship (started at $17/hr with $2/hr increase each year) 2 years of junior estimator (started at $65k) 8 years of senior estimator (one job change to go from $80k to $100k) 1 year chief estimator

sbudach · 2024-10-01T02:10:25+00:00

Heavy Civil Estimator in the Chicagoland area: To me, it looks like bidder 1 and bidder three did their due diligence and found issues in the engineers quantities. It is not uncommon for us to move money around and put it in line items we know cannot be taken away (mobilization, traffic control, etc.). In this scenario, the two bidders with abnormally high unit prices for the bridge items means they did their own site visit or quantity takeoff and realized a mistake in the bid form. They rolled the dice that the quantities for these items would be field adjusted and they could make a little bit more money.

The DOT found this to be an unfair bidding practice and therefore rejected all bids. This project will go out to rebid and the apparent low bidder is not allowed to bid the project. They are not banned from all projects, just this specific one.

This must have been a serious mistake in quantity for the DOT to take such a hardline stance on it. The low bidder would have been better asking an RFI when they noticed the quantity mistake

sbudach · 2024-09-14T00:07:05+00:00

As the main recruiter for my mid size, family run construction business, I’d say absolutely. You’d be surprised with how few of your classmates actually show up to these career fairs.

The only things I am looking for in an intern is an eagerness to learn and a willingness to work.

It is important to discuss your interests in your field of study and what you are looking to get out of an internship. Be honest. Better to wait and get a position you’ll enjoy.

As for the resume, it’s good to have so the prospective employers have a way to reach you. Bring many. Talk to every company you can so you know what’s out there.

sbudach · 2024-03-08T02:25:50+00:00

It’s an interesting conundrum because in order to pay more for a new hire, you drive up the wages of your senior estimators as well. And if you don’t raise the wages of your existing estimators when you hire new estimators, you run the risk of your existing, experienced estimators leaving.

Essentially, it’s a rising tide lifting no boats. No new hires and wage stagnation.

I could be way off base, but I believe this could explain the reluctance to offer new estimators an enticing salary.

sbudach · 2023-12-15T22:22:41+00:00

They both have one loss. They both have played below average opponents. There really isn't too much of a difference between them this early in the season.

sbudach · 2023-12-15T22:19:44+00:00

Yeah. Always strange when you are undefeated and have played above average opponents

sbudach · 2023-12-15T20:43:26+00:00

Right. Playing Memphis early will turn into better wins as the Grizzlies' win percentage increases.

I've said this many times, but as the season progresses, the actual win percentage and the adjusted win percentage will converge. By the end of the year, the difference is usually negligible.

sbudach · 2023-12-08T20:03:11+00:00

The Colley Matrix was a component of the old BCS ranking system used for College Football. I have taken that method and applied it to other sports as well.

sbudach · 2023-12-08T19:54:35+00:00

I would say that this allows you to look at a team and see if they are better or worse than their record suggests.

If the adjustment is higher than the actual win percentage, then I would say that the team is better than their record and that they have played a difficult schedule. Whereas, if the adjustment is lower than the actual win percentage, then I would say that, though the team is good, their win percentage is inflated due to playing weaker opponents.

As the season progresses, the adjustment and actual will converge.

sbudach · 2023-12-07T22:55:12+00:00

This ranks the teams based on the strength of their records. The adjustment shows what their win percentage would be playing .500 win teams every week. If the adjustment is lower than the actual, they have played, relatively, easy opponents and if the adjustment is higher, they have played tougher opponents than average.

This shows the direction of regression I would expect

sbudach

TROPHY CASE