ArcFlow Estimator — agentic estimating for commercial plumbing

02 — What it saves

Twenty-three minutes.
Not two days.

A commercial takeoff is eleven jobs in a trench coat — reading sheets, counting fixtures, measuring pipe, building assemblies, pricing it, typing it up. The system runs the whole set start to finish while you get a coffee, and every number it hands back carries the sheet it came from.

23 min

Median run, twelve logged runs

18m53s

Fastest logged run

Under 45

Every run, without exception

By hand

2–4 hrs a small fit-out

Days a full commercial set

One pass nobody checks the checker

Logged runs

18–40 min submission to delivered workbook

75 pages the largest set logged, in 35 minutes

Every line carries its basis, source sheet and confidence

Speed on its own is worth nothing on a bid. What makes the number usable is that you can take it apart: the measuring engine outranks the model on counts, the money is computed in code the same way on every run, and a second agent is briefed to attack the first one’s estimate before you ever see it.

Timing is wall clock from submission to delivered workbook across twelve logged production runs, 2 to 5 September 2026 — median 23 minutes, fastest 18m53s, slowest 40m12s. Run length moves with the size of the set. These are runs of the system, not a benchmark against other software, and the page states no accuracy percentage because there is no like-for-like comparison logged against a contractor’s own number yet.

03 — Inside the run

Six moves,
twelve stages.

Not a chatbot reading a PDF. A pipeline where a measuring engine, specialist agents and plain deterministic code each do the part they're actually good at. Scroll the stages — the two diamonds are where code overrules the model.

01

READ

Every page catalogued — sheet number, title, whether it carries plumbing.

02

UNDERSTAND

Scope decided before anything is counted. Systems in, systems out.

03

TAKE OFF

Fixtures counted from the drawings. Pipe measured run by run.

04

CALCULATE

Unit-hour labor, priced materials, deterministic money.

05

VALIDATE

An adversarial reviewer, then a senior estimator's judgment.

06

DELIVER

An Excel workbook in your inbox, with the audit trail behind it.

Vision Takeoff Enginemeasures the drawingsv1.5 · 46 nodes

04 — Blueprint intelligence

Every fixture,
on every page.

Every page in the document is reported back — including the ones it couldn't read. A page that's an image with no text layer is named as image-only rather than quietly skipped.

Plumbing sheet — sanitary & vent and water & gas floor plans

Tagged · sanitary & vent + water & gas plans

FDFloor drain0

HHHouse hydrant0

SHShower0

SDShower drain0

TSTrap seal primer0

WMBWashing machine box0

WCOWall cleanout0

WHAWater hammer arrestor0

DWDishwasher0

KSKitchen sink0

LVLavatory0

MSMop sink0

ETExpansion tank0

FCOFloor cleanout0

FSFloor sink0

TMVMixing valve0

RPRecirculation pump0

WHWater heater0

—Tagged on this sheet0

Sheet register

P-001Legend, notes & schedulesPlumbing

P-101Underground sanitary planPlumbing

P-201Level 2 — floor planPlumbing

P-401Riser diagramsPlumbing

M-201Mechanical — level 2Not plumbing

A-503Enlarged toilet roomsImage-only

If a set carries no biddable plumbing plans at all, the completeness gate rejects it and tells you what's missing — rather than producing a confident number from nothing.

05 — From count to cost

It doesn't count a toilet.
It builds one, then prices it.

A fixture count is not a takeoff. Every fixture expands into the parts that actually get installed — which is where forgotten line items and thin bids come from. Labor then goes on task by task, hours per unit against real quantities, and every dollar is computed in code — the same way on every run.

Fig. A · WC-001 · water closet, floor mountCounted once by the engine · expanded to nine installed lines

Unit hours, not a multiplier

Material

Takeoff × unit cost

Waste applied per line, then a 15% material markup from your configured settings.

Labor

Hrs × blended rate

Rate built up from base + burden + benefits + workers' comp + taxes — yours to override.

Overhead + profit

10% + 10%

Applied from configuration, not invented by a model on the day.

Contingency

5%

Every percentage is a setting you control, printed in the workbook.

The Senior Estimator agent produces its own totals too — but those are kept only as a cross-check. If the agent's arithmetic disagrees with the code's, the run flags the disagreement rather than shipping either number quietly.

06 — Why you can check it

One agent estimates.
Another tries to break it.

The validation agent is instructed adversarially — its literal brief is "do not rubber-stamp". It re-reads the raw blueprint findings and attacks the estimate built from them. A senior agent then rules on what it raised, and flags what a person still has to look at.

VALIDATION AGENT

Reconciles counts across schedule, takeoff and labor

HighFixture schedule lists 26 WC; takeoff carries 24. Reconcile against P-001 before bid.

MediumNo insulation line for DHW mains — spec section 220719 requires it.

MediumRoof drain bodies present, no overflow drains taken off.

Verdict: Pass with concerns. The estimate is usable; the flagged items need an estimator's eye before it goes out.

SENIOR ESTIMATOR

Resolves conflicts and decides what a human must see

DecisionStorm scope retained — plans show roof drains inside the building line with no by-others note.

DecisionUnderground carried as PVC per P-101 keynote 4; cast iron priced as an alternate.

Human review required. Set automatically when there are critical or high findings, low confidence, or a heavy reliance on assumptions.

Engineered for audit, not vibes

The engine outranks the model

Where the vision engine has counted a fixture type, that number is written into the takeoff and the agent is not allowed to re-count it. Pipe, insulation, hangers and permits are never overridden — only what was actually measured.

Money is code, not judgment

Extended costs, subtotals, markups and the total are computed the same way every run from your configured percentages. The agent's own totals are kept as a cross-check and flagged on disagreement.

Every line is traceable

Each takeoff line carries an id like TKO-014, a basis of shown, calculated or inferred, and the sheet it came from — printed in the workbook.

Every run writes an audit row at intake, page analysis, takeoff, estimate and delivery — so a bid can be reconstructed months later. V1 is in limited beta and the system is configured per company; it is not a product you log into.

07 — What you receive

A workbook
you can defend.

Not a chat transcript. An Excel estimate where every row carries its basis, its source sheet and its confidence — so when a GC asks where a number came from, you can point at the row.

ESTIMATE — EST-260903-141207 · R0XLSX

Section	Item	Size	Qty	Unit	Unit cost	Ext cost	Labor hrs	Basis	Source	Conf.
Fixtures
Fixtures	Water closet — floor mount, 1.28 GPF	—	24	EA	320.00	7,680.00	96.0	Engine	P-201	High
Fixtures	Lavatory — wall hung, vitreous china	—	18	EA	210.00	3,780.00	63.0	Engine	P-201	High
Sanitary & vent
Piping	Cast iron no-hub — horizontal branches	4"	1,240	LF	34.00	42,160.00	310.0	Calculated	P-101	Medium
Piping	Vent risers to VTR	2"	620	LF	18.50	11,470.00	124.0	Inferred	P-401	Requires check
Domestic water
Piping	Type L copper — corridor mains	1-1/2"	1,580	LF	18.00	28,440.00	237.0	Calculated	P-201	Medium

✓ Excel workbook generated ✓ Emailed to the submitter ✓ Copy stored & run logged

Watch a run

Seventy seconds,
start to finish.

08 — Talk to us

This gets built
around how you bid.

There's nothing to sign up for and nothing to log into. We build the system around your company — your labor rates, your assemblies, your supplier pricing, your scope rules — and tune it against jobs you've already estimated, until it bids the way you bid.

01

A 30-minute call

You tell us how your company estimates today — what you bid, how you price it, what you always get burned on.

02

We run your own set

Send a job you've already bid. We run it and put our number next to yours, so you're judging it against an answer you know.

03

Tuned to your pricing

Your rates, markups, waste, assemblies and scope rules go in. It stops being a generic estimator and starts being yours.

04

A pilot on live bids

Real jobs, alongside your normal process, until the numbers hold up on work you're actually chasing.

Book the call.

Two minutes here saves a discovery call. We'll come to it already knowing what you bid and how much of it you're doing by hand.

We take on a small number of companies at a time, because each one is configured and tuned individually. If it isn't a fit for the work you do, we'll say so on the call rather than sell you a pilot.

Got it — pick a time.

Choose whatever works. If nothing fits, reply to the confirmation and we'll find a slot.

Twenty-three minutes.Not two days.

Six moves,twelve stages.

Every fixture,on every page.