22 October 2026
Unpopular opinion: most detailing quotes are priced by gut feel.
Not a criticism. Experienced estimators have very good guts. But a gut lives in one head, has good days and bad days, and never shows its working.
We'll say it: most detailing quotes are priced by gut feel.
That isn't a criticism. An experienced estimator's gut is built on hundreds of jobs, and it's often right. Plenty of good quotes have been priced that way. But a gut has three problems.
- It lives in one head. When that person is on holiday, the quotes wait, or somebody else guesses.
- It has good days and bad days. The same job priced on a Monday morning and a Friday afternoon rarely comes out the same.
- It doesn't show its working. When a client asks why this stair costs more than the last one, "experience" is a hard answer to defend.
A few honest questions
- If your price for a job differs from a similar one last month, could you explain exactly why?
- If your estimator was off tomorrow, would someone else price the same job the same way?
- When a quote is lost on price, do you know which line lost it?
If the answers are "not really", you're in good company.
A second opinion, not a replacement
Redpen doesn't replace the estimator. It drafts the scope and price from your own rate book, line by line, so there's a starting point that shows its working. The estimator adjusts it with everything they know that a rate book doesn't. And if a quote is priced below the margin you've set, Redpen says so before it goes out, not after.
The gut still makes the call. It just gets a second opinion first.
Your turn
Agree or disagree? We'd genuinely like to hear from estimators who think we're wrong. Or see how the drafting works.