For commercial casework and millwork shops
Email us the plans. Takeoff by 7 a.m.
BlueLine is an outside estimating desk. Your shop emails us a bid set. We do the casework takeoff overnight and email it back by morning. You set the price and send the bid.
- You email the bid setDrawings, project manual, addenda. Nothing to install.
- We read every sheet overnightEstimators who do commercial casework for a living.
- Three files land by 7 a.m.Casework takeoff (.xlsx), spec checklist (.pdf), draft proposal (.docx).
You send email. You get email. Your first bid set is free.
Why a casework bid gets underpriced
Keyed notes. The same six leaks, every month
The casework hides on 38 sheets out of 400, and the money hides in the project manual. Nobody at the shop has the hours to read all of it before Thursday at two.
Bid's due Thursday. The set is four hundred sheets and the casework is on thirty-eight.
Addendum 3 moved the nurse station. Nobody re-priced it.
The spec called for AWI Premium with QCP labels. We carried Custom.
We passed on a good school job because nobody had two days to take it off.
Every one of these is a line in the set that nobody had time to read.
of every dollar is the median shop's operating profit. The top quarter keeps 17.8¢. INNERGY Industry Benchmark 2026, 148 woodwork and millwork shops
of shops name the time it takes to detail and engineer a job as their biggest pain. INNERGY survey of 124 shops, August 2026
cost-estimator openings a year in the US, mostly replacing people who retire, while the number of estimator jobs shrinks 3% by 2035. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook, 2025
How it works
Process diagram. Not to scale
BlueLine is not software your estimator has to learn. Nothing gets installed. Nobody signs into anything. You send email, you get email.
- Step 1
Email us the set
Forward the GC's bid invitation, the plan-room link, or the PDFs themselves to your shop's own address: bids@[yourshop].casework.systems.
- Overnight
We read all of it
Every floor plan, interior elevation, casework detail and schedule. Divisions 01, 06 and 12 in the project manual. Every addendum.
- By 7 a.m.
Three files arrive
Casework takeoff in Excel, room by room, in your item names. Spec checklist as a PDF. Draft proposal as a Word file.
- Then
You set the price
Open the Excel file in the estimating sheet you already use and price it. Edit the proposal and send it. Your number stays yours.
- Same day
An addendum drops
We compare it to your takeoff and email you the casework that changed, with sheet numbers, the day it comes out.
Who actually does the work
A takeoff is worth exactly what the person reading the set knows. So here is the promise: people who estimate commercial casework for a living read your set, and one of them puts their name on every takeoff before it is emailed to you. That is the skill you are buying, and it is the only skill we hire for.
We read the words, not just the pictures.06 41 00, 12 35 53, 12 36 61, and the Division 01 sections that quietly change your scope: alternates, allowances, AWI grade, QCP labels, SEFA 8 tops, hardware schedules, wall blocking. That is where the money hides.
We flag, we never guess.If the set does not say, you get a question with a sheet number on it. Every line we hand you points back at the sheet and detail it came from.
Your tools stay put.Microvellum, Cabinet Vision, Mozaik, AutoCAD: whatever runs your floor keeps running it. The takeoff is a spreadsheet.
The takeoff, and the drawing it came off
Sample. A made-up school job, drawn for this page
- Tall storage T1: spec 06 41 00 calls for locks. Your bid has none.
- Counter CT1: epoxy top, 1", SEFA 8. You carried it. Good.
- Addendum 2 changed wall cabinet W2 from 6 to 8. Re-price before Thursday.
| Mark | Item | Qty | From | Flag |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | Base, 1 drawer, 2 doors, PLAM | 6 | A-501/3 | |
| B4 | Sink base, ADA, open knee space | 1 | A-501/3 | 34" max. to top |
| W2 | Wall, 2 doors, adjustable shelves | 8 | A-501/3 | 2 was 6 |
| T1 | Tall storage, locking | 2 | A-501/4 | locks: 06 41 00 |
| CT1 | Epoxy resin top, 1", drip groove | 18 LF | A-501/3 | |
| RD1 | Reception desk, solid surface top | 18 LF | A-510/1 | 2 was 14'-6" |
| 311 lines on this job, 9 flagged for a look. Attached as an .xlsx file: totals by room, by item and by material. | ||||
Every line points back at the sheet it came from, so your estimator checks it in seconds.
The checklist, the addendum, the proposal
Same made-up school job. Figures illustrative
| Requirement | Your bid |
|---|---|
| 06 41 00, 1.6AWI QCP labels and registration | Not in bid |
| 06 41 00, 2.1AWI Premium grade | Carried Custom |
| 12 35 53Lab casework to SEFA 8 | In |
| 01 21 00Allowance: $5,000 hardware | Carry |
| Rev. | Change |
|---|---|
| 2 A-501 | W2 quantity 6 to 8. Sink base B4 moved 3'-0" east. |
| 2 A-510 | Reception desk RD1 lengthened 14'-6" to 18'-0". |
| 2 06 41 00 | Hinges now BHMA A156.9 Grade 1. |
You re-price it before the bid goes out, not after the job is sold.
| Clause | Text |
|---|---|
| Includes | Casework and countertops per 06 41 00, 12 35 53 and 12 36 61, Addenda 1 and 2. AWI QCP labels and registration. |
| Excludes | In-wall blocking, sinks, faucets and final connections (by others). Appliances. Fume hoods. |
| Clarifies | Alternate 2 priced separately. Hardware allowance carried at $5,000. |
And a draft proposal, written from the checklist, in your own wording.
Your first bid set is free
Bill of materials. What it costs after that
| Every bid set you send, read in full.Drawings, project manual, every addendum. No cap on how many you send. |
| The casework takeoff by 7 a.m.The next business day, as an Excel file, room by room, in your item names. |
| A casework estimator checks every takeoffand puts their name on it before it is emailed to you. |
| A spec checklist and a draft proposal on every set,and every addendum read the same day it drops. |
| Up to 10 people at your shop can email us sets.They all cost the same: nothing extra. |
For scale: a second estimator costs about $110,000 a year once taxes and benefits sit on the $78,740 median pay (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025) — if you can find one to hire. BlueLine starts next week and does not take a week off in July.
Email us one set you are bidding right now. The takeoff, the spec checklist and the draft proposal come back by 7 a.m. the next business day. No card, nothing to sign. One free set per shop.
- Today you pay nothing. The first set is free and takes no card.
- When you sign up: $2,500 once, to set your shop up. Once, never again.
- Then $2,500 a month. Send one set or send forty: same price. It does not go up after the first year.
- Or $25,000 for the year paid up front, which drops the setup fee and saves you $7,500.
- To stop: send one email. We stop billing you and you take every file with you.
What we promise, in writing
Three guarantees. All of them cost us, not you
Three promises, and all three cost us money, not you. The free set needs nothing signed. The other two are written into the agreement you sign when you start, not just left on this page. (The stamp is the one an architect puts on shop drawings when nothing is wrong and you can go build it.)
The first one costs you nothing.
Email us one live bid set. You get the takeoff, the spec checklist and the draft proposal by 7 a.m. the next business day. If it is no good, you are out one email and we are out a night. No card, nothing to sign, nobody calls you.
7 a.m., or the month is free.
Email a set by 6 p.m. your local time and the takeoff is in your inbox by 7 a.m. the next business day. If one takeoff is late, that month costs you nothing. You do not have to ask: we take it off your next invoice, or send that month's money back if you paid for the year up front.
It pays for itself, or you get it back.
At kickoff we write down, with you, what an estimator hour costs your shop and how many hours a set takes today. At day 30 we put the hours saved and the missed scope we caught next to what you have paid, at your rates. If it did not pay for itself, you get back every dollar — money back, not a credit.
The conditions, so nobody is surprised. You email us the full set, and every addendum as you get it. Your estimator looks at each takeoff within two business days. The numbers we start from are written down at kickoff and signed by both of us.
General notes
The questions shops ask first
How do we send you a set?
By email. Your shop gets its own BlueLine address. Forward the GC's bid invitation, the plan-room link, or the PDFs. If it is too big to email, forward the link and we download it. That is the whole handoff.
Do you price the job?
No. You set the number. We give you the quantities and the scope the project manual asks for. The price, and the risk, stay with the person who signs the bid.
Do we change our software?
No. The takeoff arrives as an Excel file in your item names, so it drops into the estimating sheet you already use. Nobody at your shop retypes anything.
What work do you read?
Commercial casework and architectural millwork: K-12 classrooms, science labs to SEFA 8, healthcare, government, higher ed, reception desks, paneling and countertops. Divisions 06 and 12, plus the Division 01 sections that change your scope.
Who sees our drawings?
Your shop, and the estimators assigned to it. Your sets sit in a private folder on our own servers in the United States, are never shown to another shop, and are never used to train a public model.
One shop per territory.
Shops in one territory bid the same GCs, often on the same set. BlueLine works for one of them. When a shop signs, its territory closes to every other shop for as long as they stay. Every territory below is open today.
Territory schedule — status as issued, 09.20.2026
| T1 | T2 | T3 | T4 | T5 | T6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta & N. Georgia Open |
Middle & S. Georgia Open |
Charlotte & the Piedmont Open |
Nashville & Middle Tennessee Open |
Birmingham & Central Alabama Open |
Jacksonville & N. Florida Open |
Send us your first bid set
For your review and action
Get your free takeoff
Leave your work email. We email back your shop's BlueLine address within one business day. Forward one bid set to it — drawings, specs, addenda — and the casework takeoff, the spec checklist and the draft proposal come back by 7 a.m. No card. Nothing to sign. Nothing to install.
Received
Got it. We will email you your shop's BlueLine address within one business day. Forward a bid set to it and the takeoff comes back by 7 a.m. the next business day.
Or talk to a person first
Twenty minutes. Bring one bid and the job it turned into. We put the estimate next to what actually happened and show you where the money went — on your numbers, not a demo file. You can send us a set afterwards, or not.
Either way, the first takeoff is free. We would rather you judge the work than the website.