Tools that give a dirt, asphalt and concrete guy his evenings back.
Fewer nights at the kitchen table with a scale ruler and a calculator. Here's what I'd build for you, starting with the two that save the most time. Everything below works: click it, drag it, break it.
See it workBuilt around the takeoffs, the re-dos and the phone calls that eat your nights.
The sample job
A Phase I paving yard: two metal buildings on slab, a paving grid, an 8" section, and a flow line falling to one low point. The same sheet feeds the bid, the 3D check, the dirt balance and the job tracking.
This is what it looks like built.
Plans to bid
Upload the plan set or snap a photo of the sheet. It reads the grades, areas and sections, works out asphalt tons, base, grading and concrete, then prices it with your rates. Every number shows its math, and nothing goes out until you approve it.
The six-hour takeoff becomes a half hour of looking it over.
Anything it can't read clearly goes on a "check this" list instead of into the bid.
Rates are placeholders; yours replace them on day one. Change the thickness and watch the cutaway.
Catch it on paper
Every grid point gets checked for low spots, flat areas and slopes over spec, and the hand math gets re-done. Make it rain to see where water actually goes. When something's wrong, it works out the fix, what the fix costs, and writes the question to the engineer for you to send.
One birdbath caught on paper beats a mill-and-overlay on your dime.
Dirt balance
It lays the finish grades over the existing ground and figures cut and fill at every grid square. Red is dirt coming out, blue is dirt going in. The net tells you whether you're hauling off or importing, and how many loads.
Trucking is where grading jobs quietly lose money.
Existing ground here is a sample surface. On a real job it comes from the topo survey or a drone flight.
Foreman's daily report
The foreman talks into his phone on the drive home. You get a clean daily log: what got placed, how much, trucks, hours, delays, and tomorrow's plan, filed against the job and ready to back up a change order.
No more calling around at 6 p.m. to find out what happened today.
Quantities roll straight into chapter 6, bid vs. actual.
Change orders
The crew notes what they found. It prices the extra work from your rates, attaches the photos and the daily log, and lines it up for your OK before it goes to the GC.
Extra work you don't write up is work you did for free.
From the foreman's phone, 2:14 p.m., with 4 photos.
| Break out buried concrete footing, 12' × 6' × 1' = 2.7 CY | 3 hrs × $310 | $930 |
| Haul off and dump concrete | 2 loads × $165 | $330 |
| Backfill with base, compacted | 5 tons × $32 | $160 |
| Overhead & profit | 15% | $213 |
| Total change | $1,633 |
Bid vs. actual
Tons, truck loads and hours from the daily logs land against what you bid, every day. When something starts drifting, it tells you while there's still time to do something about it.
Built from the same daily logs in chapter 4. Sample numbers.
Weather-smart schedule
It watches the forecast against your rules: start at 4:30 when it's over 105, no paving at 60% rain or more, only when the plant's running. When a storm shows up, it moves the work and tells the crew and the trucking company.
A rained-out morning with 20 trucks on the clock costs real money.
Bid follow-up
Every bid you send gets a follow-up schedule. It drafts each nudge in your voice and puts it in front of you to send, then tracks who answered.
Bid sent to a sample GC: Phase I paving, $412,800.
Nudge drafted for you to send (right).
Call reminder on your phone with the bid summary.
GC replied: wants to talk schedule. Flagged hot.
Nothing goes out without your OK.
No new software for your crew to learn on day one. We start with one job you already know cold.