Site planning and estimating for renovation work
Renovation Planning
5 min read
Challenge
Planning and estimating renovation work efficiently
When James Karuttykaran founded JKDS in 2022, after 20 years working in high tech, he wanted to build a digital-native renovation company. He observed that very few local construction and renovation companies were leveraging technology to improve their operations.
James identified planning and estimating as areas that required improvement. He described the usual planning process as involving manual measurements, hand-drawn sketches, arrows, and written values, which takes a lot of time and becomes difficult to adjust when corrections are needed. He also identified the need to estimate the cost of each renovation quickly.
Solution
Using magicplan for project planning
James Karuttykaran had prior experience using the magicplan floor plan app while managing renovations in his own home before starting JKDS. Because of that experience, he decided to use magicplan for his renovation business.
magicplan is used consistently for new projects. In some cases, James receives measurements from a customer’s architect before meeting the customer. When that happens, he imports those measurements into magicplan and creates a sketch to bring to the meeting.
For many projects, James collects measurements himself. For example, when planning a whole-house thermal improvement project, he sketches the entire home using the magicplan LiDAR Auto-Scan feature. This allows him to visualize and document the work that needs to be completed.
Results
Planning and estimating workflows
James uses magicplan regularly to support his planning and estimating workflows. He describes magicplan as a key app for his business and notes that the time savings outweigh the cost of the app.
At the end of a customer meeting, James uses the magicplan Estimator feature to create a detailed estimate. He sends the estimate directly to the customer from the app. The estimate details the cost of different tasks so homeowners can understand how renovation costs are structured.
James also uses the magicplan Cloud to automatically back up projects and photos. This allows him to work across devices, switching between a mobile phone and an iPad.
Outlook
Future use of magicplan
As JKDS grows, James expects more employees to use magicplan. He anticipates that salespeople and in-house architects will use the app because it is quick to use and easy to understand.
