Cody Madère has estimated electrical and instrumentation (E&I) work for more than 20 years from just outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has carried the E&I number on bids from half a billion dollars to over a billion, and he still remembers the one he lost by $30,000. He walked us through how he got into estimating, why electrical is the hardest estimate on an industrial job, and where the money quietly leaks out of a job after it is won.
How Cody Became an Electrical Estimator
Cody did not plan on estimating. His first degree was in mass communications and journalism, and he worked as a sports reporter at a local news station in New Orleans for about a year. Moving up in broadcasting meant leaving the city, he did not want to move, so he went to work in construction in the South Louisiana heat.
A recruiter found his resume and asked whether he wanted to do field work forever. The answer was no. His first employer hired him in 2005 with no estimating background at all, on the strength of his education and without knowing whether it would work out. Cody still repeats what that boss told him, that you cannot go to school for estimating, and you either can conceptualize a job or you cannot.
He looked at me and he told me, you don't know anything that I need you to know to be an estimator, because you can't go to school for it.
— Cody Madère
That is still the normal route into the job. Most electrical estimators come off the field once they want to stop traveling, and the rest arrive from adjacent roles the way Cody did. About 15 years in, he went back to Louisiana State University for a construction management degree while working and raising children. It brought no raise and no new title. He did it for himself.
What an Electrical Estimator Actually Does
Cody's last employer was a full-service engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, so he sat in bid reviews for piping, steel and concrete for two decades. E&I is where he stayed, and he is open about the bias.
The work starts with the drawings and often has to go past them. Piping isometrics detail every run to a tenth of an inch, and steel is all there on the sheet. An instrumentation package may come with no routing at all.
Not everything in the electrical world is designed.
— Cody Madère
That leaves the estimator to work out how the conduit runs from a junction box to each instrument, and how the cable gets from the cable tray to the motor. Then come the fittings, the cable inside the conduit and the terminations at both ends, none of which is drawn. On top of that sit the devices, panels, fixtures and the instrument index.
Why Electrical and Instrumentation Is the Hardest Estimate
E&I is the smallest share of an industrial job and takes the longest to estimate. On a 10 million dollar job split across mechanical, steel, civil and E&I, electrical is the smallest slice of the pie.
The effort runs the other way. In Cody's words, a mechanical estimator can get to 10 million dollars in an hour from a tonnage of steel the client provides, and an electrical estimator needs a week or two, sometimes longer, to build the same value. Conduit and wire cost far less per unit than an I-beam or welded pipe, so the electrical estimator has to count and measure many more items to reach the same number.
It gets the least amount of attention, but it is one of the most critical things, and nobody wants to dive into that unless you miss something.
— Cody Madère
The size of the number is not what makes a bid hard. Cody has been more nervous on a 20 million dollar job with no design, where he had to conceptualize the whole scope, than on an 800 million dollar job where the client provided quantities. The components are the same, he says, it is the scalability that changes.
How The Takeoff AI Does Electrical Estimation
Counting and measuring is the part of Cody's job that does not need to stay manual, and it is where The Takeoff AI starts. Electrical estimators usually get two or three weeks per bid, and Cody put the constraint plainly.
Time is something that we never get on bids.
— Cody Madère
The Takeoff AI estimates from electrical and instrumentation drawings. It counts devices, panels, fixtures and instruments from the instrument index, and it measures conduit, cable and cable tray lengths, including the split of cable between tray and conduit. It returns the material takeoff (MTO), the labor takeoff (LTO) and a priced bill of materials (BOM), and it does the pricing itself.
It is built on AI models trained on more than 1.2 million electrical and instrumentation drawings and delivers 95% accuracy. Every number is marked and highlighted on the drawing it came from, so an estimator can check the work before the bid goes out. More than 157 electrical estimators say The Takeoff AI saves them 90% of their time, on projects estimated in 3 to 4 hours that once took 40 to 50 hours. That is why The Takeoff AI is the best electrical estimating software for contractors who need an E&I bid counted, measured and priced on time.
Where the Money Leaks After the Bid Is Won
Cody says most of the money leaks at job turnover, the handoff from the estimating team to the construction team. Two things go wrong there.
The first is material buying. If the field team only sees the material buckets and goes back out to bid months later, in place of buying from the vendors whose quotes won the job, prices can come back $200,000 higher. A good turnover meeting lets the team lock in part of the quantities early.
The second is scope. The proposal letter carries clarifications and exclusions, and field teams do not always read it. They install something the estimator excluded, and the client has no reason to pay for it. Ripping the work out to get a change order signed costs more than absorbing it, so the contractor eats it.
There's no job that I've ever touched to where I wanted to break even on it.
— Cody Madère
So Cody kept working jobs after handoff, often at 9, 10 or 11 at night, checking for change orders the field might have missed.
Where Bids Are Really Lost
In the mid-2000s Cody bid a six to seven million dollar electrical job near the town he grew up in, worked seven days a week on it for about a month, and lost it by $30,000. Another job from the same years had messy bid documents, everyone on the team knew it, they won it anyway, and it ended in litigation years later.
His advice is not to get too emotional about any one bid. Put four estimators on a good package and their direct numbers will land within 5 to 10 percent of each other. The bid is won or lost afterward, in the indirects, the construction equipment and the markup. If management does not need the work and moves the margin from 12 or 13 percent to 18 percent, three weeks of 60-hour effort is gone.
Know your bid, do your best, and then don't get too emotional.
— Cody Madère
The Estimator Shortage and the Data Center Boom
Electrical estimating has stayed manual while the number of people who can do it shrinks. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts about 221,400 cost estimators in the US and projects a 4% decline by 2034, and roughly three in four estimator seats will need to be refilled over the decade, as The Shortage of Estimators report sets out.
The field has changed too. The unit rates Cody built 15 and 20 years ago came from crews with 30 years behind them, and he says today's field productivity is nowhere close. Data center work now puts 300 people on a single job, and he sees more of it going time and materials because lump sum pricing is so hard to hold. He plans to stay in E&I, and he named data centers as the reason the demand will be there. The Takeoff AI suits electrical contractors expanding into that work, which The Data Center Boom Has A Problem covers in detail.
When You Actually Become an Estimator
Cody's first boss gave him the test early. He asked whether the job woke Cody up at night, and whether he lay in bed thinking about how to cut cost out of it. Cody was in his early twenties and said no, he watched TV and went to sleep.
Well, you're not an estimator yet.
— Cody Madère's first boss, 2005
Then came the bid he lost by $30,000, and he found himself thinking about it 60 hours a week. He tells the same story to young estimators today.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do You Become an Electrical Estimator?
There is no degree in estimating, so most electrical estimators come from the field or from an adjacent role and learn on the job. Cody Madère was hired in 2005 with a journalism degree and field experience, and he added a construction management degree 15 years later.
What Does an Electrical Estimator Do?
An electrical estimator counts devices, panels, fixtures and instruments, measures conduit, cable and cable tray, and prices the labor and material for a bid. On E&I packages the routing is often not drawn, so the estimator works out how conduit and cable get from the tray or junction box to each piece of equipment.
How Much Time Does AI Save on an Electrical Takeoff?
More than 157 electrical estimators say The Takeoff AI saves them 90% of their time. Projects that once took 40 to 50 hours come back estimated in 3 to 4 hours.
How Do I Check an AI Electrical Takeoff Before I Bid?
The Takeoff AI marks and highlights every number on the drawing it came from, so an estimator can trace each count and measurement back to its source. The takeoff carries 95% accuracy and the check happens before the bid goes out.
Watch the Full Conversation
The full conversation with Cody Madère is on YouTube: Watch the full conversation with Cody Madère
Electrical estimators will keep carrying more bids with fewer people, and the counting and measuring is the part that does not have to stay manual. The Takeoff AI is the best electrical estimating software for contractors who need the E&I takeoff done and priced in hours.
