ConcreteIQ builds AI takeoff and bidding software for commercial concrete contractors who bid schools, warehouses, public buildings, and tilt-up and CMU projects. Its goal is that every scope in a bid is accounted for, so contractors stop losing money on the numbers nobody caught. Claude reads each plan set directly from the PDF, measures the scopes that drive the bid, and ConcreteIQ puts anything it can't measure, or that the drawings contradict, in front of the estimator before the number goes out.

With Claude, ConcreteIQ:

• Has read the drawing sets of eight real Structural Construction of Orlando (SCO) jobs, from a 48-page tilt-up warehouse to a 185-page elementary school
• Reads and analyzes a 60-page structural and architectural set in about 40 minutes, with no OCR step
• Surfaced scope missing from SCO's own delivered takeoffs, including 685 LF of slab turndown edge, a dumpster footing, planter walls and an elevator pit carried at half height, each confirmed by SCO's estimator
• Keeps the estimator in control: every open review item must be resolved before a bid moves to pricing

The challenge: the number that isn't there is the one that costs you

Commercial concrete contractors win or lose on the accuracy of their takeoff. An estimator works through structural, civil and architectural drawings by hand, measuring footings, slabs, walls, tilt panels and masonry, then prices every line. One job can run to hundreds of sheets, and a contractor like SCO carries eight to twelve bids at a time.

The biggest risk isn't a quantity that's slightly off. It's a quantity that never makes it onto the estimate. Reinforcing requirements often sit in schedules and general notes rather than in the drawing geometry, so they're easy to miss under deadline. A light rebar number or a forgotten concrete scope can swing a bid by six figures, either losing the job or wiping out its margin.

Most takeoff tools stop at measuring what they can see. They don't tell the estimator what they couldn't measure, so the gaps reach the bid silently.

Why Claude

ConcreteIQ needed a model that could read construction drawings the way an estimator does: dimensioned plans, dense schedules and fine-print general notes, all inside one PDF set. ConcreteIQ sends the drawings to Claude as PDF documents, with no OCR or separate extraction step, and Claude reads plans, sections and schedules together. On SCO's Vero Classical School set, Claude transcribed 87 tilt-panel rows and the footing schedules across seven structural sheets, and correctly left out the column and caged-panel schedules that only looked like beam schedules. ConcreteIQ applies each schedule on the sheet where it is printed, because the same mark can mean different things on different sheets.

ConcreteIQ also keeps Claude grounded in the drawings. Claude is instructed to flag only what the drawings themselves contradict, such as an area larger than its building or a count higher than the marks drawn, and never to adjust a number because it seems high or low for the type of building. The experience-based checks, such as a minimum rebar density for tilt panels, are an estimator's rules applied by ConcreteIQ's own code. Main sheet reading moved to Claude Opus 5.5 after it was the only configuration to beat the previous model in a head-to-head test on a real job's key sheets.

"Concrete takeoff lives in the schedules and the notes, not just the plan view. Claude reads those sheets the way an estimator does, straight from the PDF, so we could spend our effort on what a contractor actually needs: making sure nothing leaves the takeoff without either a real quantity or a flag."

Ted Takvorian, Founder & CTO, ConcreteIQ

The solution: every scope accounted for, not just extracted

ConcreteIQ was built with Jim Courtney, VP and estimator at Structural Construction of Orlando, so it follows the way estimators actually build a bid. Its rule is simple: every scope is either measured or flagged for review. Nothing is silently left out.

The workflow takes three steps:

• Upload the plans. Contractors drop in structural, civil and architectural PDFs. Claude Sonnet 4.6 classifies every page, ten at a time, so each sheet goes to the right reading pass. Claude Opus 5.5 then reads every structural and architectural sheet, with the schedules and general notes, at high effort, and focused passes count panels, footing marks and bollards. Fast, inexpensive sorting runs on every page, and the deepest reasoning goes where the quantities are.
• Claude takes off, ConcreteIQ flags. Claude measures the quantities that drive a concrete bid: slab and panel areas, thicknesses and the counts and lengths of footings and walls. A second Claude pass, on Opus 4.8, re-reads the drawings to check the takeoff for missing or phantom items. ConcreteIQ then opens a review item wherever a scope has no measured quantity, a pass failed, or a quantity breaks one of the estimator's rules, and each item says what was found and what to verify.
• Review and send. The estimator accepts, dismisses or corrects each item. The bid can't move to pricing while any item is open. The estimator then prices it from the rate library and exports a proposal as a PDF or Excel workbook.

On the Vero Classical School bid, a tilt-up school in Vero Beach, Florida, ConcreteIQ's total came in about 8% above the total bid price SCO had submitted on July 13, 2026, and its panel rebar lines sat open and unpriced. Rather than tune the result down to match the estimator's number, the team held it. When the reinforcing detailer and the steel supplier's quote arrived, they agreed within a tenth of a percent: 209,781 lb of tilt-panel steel, or 4.25 lb/SF across 49,363 SF of panel face. SCO's worksheet had carried zero pounds on that line, $144,219 of steel with tax. SCO withdrew the bid and reissued it on July 16 at the corrected price (+$165,000 for panel reinforcing) before award.

The outcome: a bid corrected before award, and a new rule for grading

SCO has now used ConcreteIQ to price several live bids. Every run is still graded against SCO's real, delivered jobs, and the Vero bid changed how. Jim's verdict:

"My number is not the answer key. The drawings are. When the app disagrees with me, that's not a bug report, that's the product working. Benchmark against the set and print where I diverge. An app that reproduces my bid is worth nothing. An app that tells me my bid is missing $144K of steel is worth everything …"

Jim Courtney, VP, Structural Construction of Orlando

ConcreteIQ now benchmarks every run against the drawings and prints where the estimator's number diverges. The panel steel SCO found by hand on Vero is now a standing check: when a set has no panel reinforcing schedule, ConcreteIQ carries SCO's 4.75 lb/SF default and holds the line open until the cage schedule or a fabricator quote replaces it, and it flags any panel rebar under 3.5 lb/SF.

Jim says the difference already shows in SCO's quotes:

"The benefits that we've experienced from using ConcreteIQ for our project quotes are astounding! We've been able to submit quotes faster, with greater accuracy, both of which help my company better calculate profit margin."

Jim Courtney, VP, Structural Construction of Orlando