Estimating Process

The estimating process at Irwin Wagner Construction in the San Jose Bay Area is a breeze because of our highly experienced office and field staff. We are always on top of industry price changes, and as home remodelers, we take all trades, all materials and existing conditions into consideration when starting the estimating process for your residential construction project. 

You’ll find that Irwin Wagner Construction’s estimating process differs from many of the San Jose Bay Area contractors. At Irwin Wagner Construction, we believe in transparency and honesty above all. Our Estimating Process looks like this: first, we listen and discuss with you about your goals, hopes, and dreams for your project to really understand the scope of work. Then, we draft a rough budget to help you understand the rough cost of your project and present this to you. If, at this point, we are your selected general contractor, we perform a detailed estimate with more details than you can imagine, meticulously planning for all the things that could go right or wrong during your build. After we determine the final design scope or work and have a detailed estimate for the work, we present the detailed estimate to you for final approval. 

Many general contractors present the lowest price to get their foot in the door and sign a contract for the work. Once the project starts, the price will start to increase because many details were left out of their estimate. Your price expectations will quickly be dissolved and the working relationship with your general contractor can go sour fast. Irwin Wagner Construction does everything we can to understand exactly what you desire and price your project properly and fairly. We estimate with the idea to have the least amount of changes as possible. We want you to know what the real cost is; upfront.

That’s why our estimating process will include a meeting with you, where we go over item by item the cost of what your dream home renovation will look like. What we bring to the table is a well-managed and high-quality process and project. If you see a project quoted much lower than us, something might be missing, such as quality, the management, or entire portions of your project all together. We take a lot of time creating our estimates, and one of our founders, Mark Wagner, explains why: