Bidfident for renovation contractors
Estimating software for renovations
Renovation work is priced room by room. In Bidfident you price demolition, partition walls and drywall by the square foot, cabinets by the linear foot and doors by the each, from your own carpenter and labourer rates. Plumbing and electrical quotes sit side by side, waste bins and the lead carpenter are carried as site costs, and options like in-floor heating stay on the sheet without counting.
Enter your email and Bidfident sends you a sign-in link. New companies start with a starter rate library. Who runs Bidfident, and what it keeps about you.
Sound familiar?
Every room in one long list
The kitchen, the dining room and the powder room all end up in one column of rows, and the client asks what the kitchen alone comes to. In Bidfident you tag each line with an area and group the sheet by it, with a subtotal for every room.
With and without the heated floor
The client wants two prices, so the spreadsheet gets copied and the copies drift apart. In Bidfident the upgrade is switched off and stays on the sheet, struck through, with what it comes to shown beside the totals.
The carpenter's rate typed on every row
Rates get typed into each line, and when they go up some rows get missed. In Bidfident each line takes its trade's rate from the company library, so a carpenter is a carpenter on every line.
How Bidfident fits your work
Room by room, with subtotals
Tag each line with the kitchen, the dining room or the basement, and group the sheet by area. Each room gets its own subtotal, and you can collapse them to see the whole job.
Upgrades the client can say yes to later
In-floor heating, a pot filler or better flooring: price it as a line, then switch it off. It stays on the estimate, struck through, and isn't in the bid total.
Carpenters and labourers at their own rates
Demolition by your labourers, framing and cabinets by your carpenters, each line at its trade's rate from the library. Change a rate once and every line using it updates.
Plumber and electrician quotes side by side
Enter each quote for the rough-in and finish work, see the lowest flagged, and carry it or pick another. No quote yet? Carry a plug amount until it comes in.
Assemblies for the work you repeat
A framed and boarded partition, a run of base cabinets, a bathroom floor: save it once with its hours and materials, then fill a whole line with it on the next job.
Square feet, linear feet and each
Drywall and flooring by the square foot, cabinets by the linear foot, doors and fixtures by the each. Waste goes on as a percentage, and the sheet works like Excel.
Worked example: kitchen and main floor renovation in a 1960s bungalow
A made-up job, priced in Bidfident: 29 lines of your own work, 4 subtrades and 5 overhead items over a 6-week job. The 6 lines this page talks about are listed one by one, and the rest are added up in one row. It's the same job you can open as an example project in Bidfident, so every figure below matches it.
To open this job in Bidfident: sign in and set up your company in Canada, then on the Projects screen, under Example project, pick "Renovation and home builders" and "Renovations" and press Add example project.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Selective demolition, kitchen and dining, 420 sf
| $1,848.00 |
Partition wall, 2 x 4 studs, boarded both sides, 180 sf
| $2,617.92 |
Drywall, taped and painted, 1,350 sf
| $5,015.25 |
Kitchen cabinets, installed, 28 lf
| $16,128.00 |
Engineered hardwood flooring, 650 sf
| $8,080.80 |
Alternate 1: in-floor heating, kitchen, 240 sf
| $4,108.80 |
24 more lines of your own work
| $43,996.47 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Plumbing
| $9,800.00 |
Electrical
| $11,650.00 |
Quartz countertops, templated and installed
| $7,400.00 |
Asbestos testing, plaster and drywall mud, allowance
| $650.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Site supervision, lead carpenter
| $5,400.00 |
Waste bins, emptied
| $2,200.00 |
Dust control and protection upkeep
| $870.00 |
Building permit and inspections
| $1,180.00 |
Final cleaning
| $650.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Own work
| $77,686.44 |
| Excluded lines, not counted | $4,108.80 |
| Subtrades | $29,500.00 |
Overhead
| $10,300.00 |
Direct cost
| $117,486.44 |
Contingency
| $9,398.92 |
Fee
| $19,032.80 |
| Subtotal before bonding | $145,918.16 |
Bonding
| $0.00 |
Insurance
| $729.59 |
Bid total
| $146,647.75 |
GST, for reference
| $7,332.39 |
See it in Bidfident
Coming soon Ask your estimate anything. Claude first, ChatGPT to follow. See how it will work
Questions
Can I show what the kitchen comes to on its own?
Yes. Tag each line with an area and group the sheet by it. Every room gets its own subtotal.
Can I give the client a price with and without an upgrade?
Yes. Switch the upgrade's line off. It stays on the sheet, struck through, with what it comes to shown beside the totals, and the bid total leaves it out. Switch it back on to see the bid total with it. The amount beside the totals is its cost, before contingency, fee, bonding and insurance.
Can I price demolition by the square foot?
Yes. Units are free text, so sf, lf and ea all work. Bidfident doesn't convert between units, so price each line in the unit its rate is in.
Can I carry waste bins and supervision as site costs?
Yes. Price bins by the each and supervision by the week. Weekly items can follow the job duration, so they update when the schedule changes.
Can I hand the homeowner a finished kitchen quote from Bidfident?
Not yet. The Client view hides your hours and rates on screen, but its unit prices are your cost, before markups. The bid summary gives you the total for the kitchen quote you send.
Can I measure the kitchen on a tablet at the client's house and price it there?
Not yet. Editing an estimate on a phone or tablet isn't built, so take your measurements home and price the renovation on a computer.
Does Bidfident work with Claude or ChatGPT?
Not yet, but it's coming. You'll be able to connect Bidfident to your own Claude or ChatGPT account and ask about your estimates in plain English. The answers will come from Bidfident's own figures, so they match the estimate. It will use the account you already have: Claude first, ChatGPT to follow.
Price your next renovation bid in Bidfident
Enter your email and Bidfident sends you a sign-in link. New companies start with a starter rate library. Who runs Bidfident, and what it keeps about you.