I’m Kayla. I run takeoffs and build bids for a small plumbing shop. Two techs, one apprentice, me in the office with coffee and a yellow pad. I used to guess too much. I hated that. So I tried a few plumbing estimating tools on real jobs, not demos. Here’s how it went—warts and wins.
If you’re just hunting for the quick spoiler, I laid out the entire road-test for QuSoft’s blog in their piece I Tried Plumbing Estimating Software So You Don’t Blow a Bid.
My Setup Before Software (aka the spreadsheet shuffle)
I had Excel sheets, a price list from last spring, and a scale ruler. It worked. Until it didn’t. Copper jumped. A builder changed a sink count at 9 p.m. I missed valves on a hotel job and ate it. My crew felt that pain.
I wanted three simple things:
- A clean takeoff
- Live-ish pricing
- Labor I could trust
Quoting is only half the battle; managing water usage and conservation is its own beast. I spent some bench time with pure water-management platforms too—the best lessons are summed up nicely in QuSoft’s roundup, I Tried the Best Water Software So You Don’t Waste a Drop or a Sip.
What I Picked (and why I stuck with it)
I tried three tools over six months:
- FastPIPE by FastEST (pipe and fitting takeoff and pricing) — see this in-depth analysis of FastPIPE software for user reviews and comparisons.
- PlanSwift for quick plan takeoff (counts and lengths on PDFs) — a comprehensive review of PlanSwift dives into features, feedback, and pricing.
- ServiceTitan Estimates for small service quotes (fast approvals, less fancy)
I also kicked the tires on QuSoft, an all-in-one estimating suite, but kept it on my wishlist until we grow a bit more.
I’m not married to any one tool. I used what fit the job. That’s the real story.
Real Job #1: Middle School Locker Room Repipe
Scope: 24 water closets, 18 lavs, 12 showers, 4 floor drains, 2 mop sinks. Copper on hot, PEX on cold where allowed. Cast iron for waste. Tight summer window.
What I did:
- I opened PlanSwift and traced 640 feet of 1-1/2" copper and 480 feet of 3/4". I set conditions for sizes, so counts stuck.
- I exported the lengths to FastPIPE. I pulled copper and cast iron pricing using TRA-SER updates. That mattered. Prices were hot that week.
Assemblies I built in FastPIPE:
- Lav assembly: 1 lav, 1 P-trap, 1 angle stop, 5 ft 1/2" pipe, 2 90s, 2 tees, 1 escutcheon, 0.33 hr labor
- Shower assembly: mixing valve, trim, head, 10 ft 1/2" pipe, 4 90s, 0.75 hr labor
- Water closet with carrier: bowl, seat, carrier, wax ring, 1 shutoff, 2 ft 1/2" pipe, 0.9 hr labor
Numbers that made me grin:
- Old way: 6 hours to chase counts and costs. New way: 2 hours, start to finish.
- My first pass landed at $82,400. A supplier email hit. Copper spiked. TRA-SER pushed new prices. My bid changed to $86,050. I did not eat $3,600. That right there paid for the software for the year.
What went wrong:
- I forgot to mark no-hub clamps as a separate line in my waste assembly. FastPIPE didn’t guess that for me. My first printout was short 64 clamps. I caught it in review, but still, my fault.
- PlanSwift layers got messy when the GC sent Rev B of the plan. My traces sat on the old sheet. I had to re-link. Annoying, but I learned to lock file names and keep a clean folder.
Crew effect:
- Labor hours rolled out clear: 238 hours. I set a 4-person crew, 2 weeks. We beat it by a day because we pre-cut all the 3/4" sticks from the takeoff list. The guys were happy. Less scrambling.
Real Job #2: 12-Home Builder Package
Scope: Same fixture set in each home. Builder wants fast quotes and clean change orders.
Tool mix:
- ServiceTitan Estimates for speed and clean emails
- PlanSwift for rough counts
- My own assemblies copied per lot
My lav assembly in ServiceTitan:
- Pop-up drain, P-trap, 5 ft PEX, 2 elbows, angle stop, escutcheon, 0.35 hr
- Cost from my last Ferguson quote, with 12% material markup, 18% margin target on total
I made a template and dropped it into each house plan. I changed two lots to pedestal sinks. Price updated in seconds. I sent the whole package, 12 lots, with a pretty cover sheet and payment terms. The builder approved on his phone while at his kid’s soccer game. I’m not kidding. That fast.
The gotcha:
- ServiceTitan doesn’t handle deep pipe takeoff well. It’s more for service and small jobs. So I kept PlanSwift for lengths, then used the template pricing for the prose and polish.
Final result:
- Average per home: $7,450 base, $520 for upgrades. Fewer calls. Fewer “what’s this fitting?” chats. I slept better.
What I Liked (and what I didn’t)
Things that just worked:
- FastPIPE plus TRA-SER: price updates saved my bacon more than once.
- Assemblies: do the work once, reuse forever. Showers, lavs, mop sinks—done.
- Labor units: simple, and I could tweak to match my crew speed.
- PlanSwift: fast counts, clean markup, color layers for sizes.
Stuff that bugged me:
- Cost: FastPIPE is not cheap. I felt it that first month. But it paid back on the school job.
- Windows only: I’m on a PC, so fine, but my iPad plan review dreams? Not here.
- Learning curve: I messed up assemblies at first. If you skip setup, you’ll pay for it later.
- ServiceTitan: great for quotes, not great for heavy takeoff. Two tools meant two tabs open, always.
A Tiny Thing That Helped Big
I added tags to items:
- “Submittal req” on mixing valves and carriers
- “Long lead” on special order trims
- “Owner furnish” on mirrors and dispensers
When I printed the bid scope, those tags popped in notes. Fewer change orders. Fewer wide eyes.
Numbers That Kept Me Honest
- Material markup I used: 12% on stock, 15% on copper and brass
- Labor burden: 28% (taxes, comp, trucks)
- Target margin: 18% on the total bid
- Miss rate before software: about 1 big miss per 6 jobs
- Miss rate after: 1 small miss per 20 jobs, and it got flagged before award
Not magic. Just tighter.
When Each Tool Makes Sense
- FastPIPE: big commercial, many sizes, lots of fittings, carrier counts, hanger spacing. It shines there.
- PlanSwift: small to mid jobs, quick lengths and counts on PDFs. Cheap speed.
- ServiceTitan Estimates: service work, builder packages, repeat items, approvals on phones.
Shopping for software is oddly similar to picking a dating app—you scan features, weigh costs, and decide if the fit feels right. A good yardstick for that decision-making process is this candid Bumble review which breaks down who the app suits, its standout tools, and its deal-breakers; the structured pros-and-cons rundown is a handy template for evaluating any platform before you commit.
On a more face-to-face level, hitting a local speed-dating circuit can teach the same rapid-fire evaluation skills; the rotating five-minute conversations at the Speed Dating Ames event show you how to size up compatibility quickly, and their post-round scorecards are a neat reminder to capture impressions before they blur—exactly the habit you’ll want when short-listing software.
Could you use just one tool? Sure. But why? I mix them. Like wrenches. Right tool, right job. And if your work bleeds into facility maintenance, QuSoft’s year-long deep dive I Used CAFM Software All Year—Here’s What Actually Helped is a solid compass on what delivers versus what’s hype.
Little Tips I Wish I Knew Day One
- Build your lav, WC, and shower assemblies first. Don’t stall. You’ll reuse them daily.
- Lock your plan file names. If the GC renames sheets, your traces