Dennis's Thursday, Two Ways
8 lessons · 24 prompts
A day in the life of a Construction Estimator: what changes with these prompts.
Track progress as a memberDennis, a construction estimator at a mid-sized general contractor.
Dennis starts Thursday with a bid due Friday for a two-story school addition. The specs are long, and the architect's notes are scattered. He opens ChatGPT and asks it to list the door hardware, flooring, and ceiling scope from the spec sections he pastes in. He checks each item against the drawings before he trusts it.
Next he moves to Claude with a supplier quote for concrete and rebar. He asks it to organize quantities, unit prices, and delivery charges into a clean table he can drop into his estimate. One line looks odd, so he calls the supplier and catches a missing fuel surcharge.
After lunch, Dennis uses Gemini to draft a request for quote to a drywall subcontractor. He includes the wall types, finish levels, and the date he needs pricing back. Then he asks ChatGPT to turn his notes into a short bid cover letter that explains his assumptions without sounding stiff.
By 4:30, he has a cleaner bid package and fewer loose ends. He saves the prompts for the next school job, leaves the office on time, and makes it to his daughter's soccer practice with coffee in hand.
Before
- Specs pile up beside the drawings.
- Supplier quotes arrive in different formats.
- Bid night means cold pizza again.
- Every change feels like a new scramble.
After this course
- Prompts help sort the specs fast.
- Quotes become clean, checkable tables.
- Bid letters draft in minutes, not hours.
- Home on time for soccer practice.
What you'll learn
- Blueprint Review: Use prompts to pull key dimensions, notes, and scope items from plans and specs.
- Material Costs: Turn quantities and supplier prices into organized material cost lists.
- Labor Hours: Estimate labor hours from productivity rates and job conditions.
- Supplier Quotes: Draft clear quote requests and compare subcontractor responses.
- Past Project Data: Analyze historical costs and use them to benchmark a new estimate.
- Bid Preparation: Draft bid letters, tender documents, and submission checklists.
- Margin and Risk: Adjust margins and test how risk changes the bid.
- Client Updates: Write clear estimate summaries and updates for clients and your team.
How this course works
- 8 lessonsOne task of your job each, from blueprint & spec review to client & team communication.
- Ready-to-paste promptsCopy, fill in the parts in {{brackets}}, paste into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
- Tick and completeTick the prompts you tried and mark each lesson complete.
- Get certifiedFinish and keep the prompts as your own library.