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Multifamily countertop estimating software
Counterly is countertop estimating software built for multifamily work. You upload the architectural plan set as a PDF. Counterly finds each kitchen and vanity type, measures its runs, depths, cutouts and finished edge from the drawing, multiplies by the number of units of that type, and nests the pieces on slabs. The result is square footage, linear feet of finished edge and a slab count per unit type, ready for an estimator to check and price. It is the right tool when a job arrives as a drawing set with repeating unit types, and the wrong one for a single retail kitchen you measure yourself.
Why multifamily estimating is its own problem
A 200-unit building does not have 200 kitchens to measure. It has perhaps a dozen kitchen and vanity types, each repeated. The work is to measure every type correctly once, get the count of each type right from the unit schedule, and carry both through to stone. Tools made for retail work ask the estimator to draw each layout by hand, which is fine for one kitchen and slow for nineteen types that will be reissued in a revision next week. Counterly starts from the plan set instead of a blank canvas.
The workflow, start to finish
- Upload the plan set. Counterly takes PDF, or JPG and PNG images of the sheets. Include the unit schedule and the enlarged kitchen and bath sheets, since those establish quantities and scope. A separate unit matrix can be added as its own PDF.
- Set the job scope: material, slab size, whether kitchen backsplash is in the bid, and whether bath vanities are yours. Counterly asks about scope it cannot settle from the drawings instead of guessing.
- Review the result by unit type. Each type shows its runs, depths, cutouts and finished edge against the drawing it was read from, so a wrong dimension can be traced to the sheet.
- Correct what is wrong. Name the unit type, the sheet and the dimension, and Counterly reworks that type and its totals.
- Check the slab nest and export. The cut sheet downloads as a PDF and the takeoff as a spreadsheet.
What comes back
For each unit type: countertop square footage, backsplash as its own line, linear feet of finished edge, sink and cooktop cutouts, and the number of units of that type. For the job: total square footage, a slab nest on the slab size you chose with yield and waste, a slab count, and the open questions and assumptions the takeoff rests on. Open questions stay visible in the export, so a number that depends on an unresolved assumption is marked as one.
What happens when the architect revises the set
Revisions are where multifamily estimating time actually goes. A drawn takeoff has to be redrawn for every type the revision touches. A read takeoff is read again from the new set. This is the claim worth testing on your own work: take a job that was revised after you bid it and compare the hours.
How to check a multifamily takeoff
Check each unit type on its own, not only the job total. An over-measured type and an under-measured type can cancel and leave a total that looks right. Then check the unit counts against the schedule, since a wrong count multiplies a correct measurement into a wrong order. Counterly publishes how its results compare with completed production takeoffs, including the misses, on the
accuracy page.
Where Counterly is the wrong tool
Counterly is a first pass that an estimator confirms. It is not an unattended replacement for one. It reads best from dimensioned architectural drawings and worse from sheets with no printed dimensions. It is built around repeating residential unit types, so a single retail kitchen or a one-off commercial millwork package gets much less from it. It does not schedule installs, track jobs, manage slab inventory or replace field templating, and it does not produce machine files for a saw or waterjet.
How pricing works
Counterly's pricing is usage-based. What a shop pays follows how much takeoff work it actually runs through Counterly, so a shop is never charged for more than it uses. A shop bidding two apartment jobs a month does not pay what a shop bidding twenty pays. Counterly does not publish a fixed price list; the number comes out of a short conversation about your job volume. To get it,
book a demo.
How to evaluate it on your own work
Bring a multifamily job you have already bid, where you know what you quoted and ideally what you cut. Run the same plan set through Counterly and compare square footage, finished edge and slab count type by type. A vendor's sample drawing shows that software runs. Your own finished job shows whether it is right.
If your bids arrive as plan sets with repeating unit types, upload one you have already quoted and compare the two takeoffs line by line.
From the shop floor
We publish what estimators tell us about these pages, including the parts where the software was wrong. If you run takeoff in a shop and this page got something right — or got it wrong — send it to us and it goes here with your name on it, or without it if you prefer.
Book a demo
Bring a plan set you have already bid and compare Counterly's takeoff with your own.