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Insights

One real number. One real mechanism.

Notes from the estimating desk. Each one opens with a figure from a named industry report and ends with the part of LumenTakeoff built to answer it.

63% of construction firm respondents had an owner postpone or cancel a project in the past six months.

AGC of America and Sage found that 63 percent of respondents had an owner postpone or cancel a project in the past six months, and a postponed job comes back to bid with a new revision and a new count. LumenTakeoff writes every confirmed fixture name to the firm's library, so the next set from the same engineer arrives partly pre-named for the estimator to accept or override.

Source: AGC of America and Sage, 2026 Construction Hiring and Business Outlook, 2026

Large projects average 796 RFIs, and each one takes 8 hours and $1,080 to review and answer.

The Navigant Construction Forum found large projects average 796 RFIs, each taking about 8 hours and $1,080 to review and answer, with a median reply of 9.7 days. LumenTakeoff shows the symbol count and the schedule tag count side by side with their discrepancy, so the estimator sees the disagreement before bid day.

Source: Navigant Construction Forum, Impact & Control of RFIs on Construction Projects, 2013

59% of AEC firms faced a cybersecurity threat in the last two years. Your bid set is the target.

Most AEC firms have faced a cybersecurity threat in the past two years, and most cannot work for five days without their documents. A takeoff tool normally asks for the entire bid set, so LumenTakeoff opens, reads and counts the PDF on the estimator's own machine and uploads nothing.

Source: Egnyte and Dodge Construction Network, Data Resilience in the AEC Industry, 2023

59% of AEC firms faced a cybersecurity threat in two years. A plan set is a bid document.

Most AEC firms have met a cybersecurity threat in the past two years, and the first thing a takeoff tool asks for is the entire bid set. LumenTakeoff opens, reads and counts the PDF on the estimator's own machine, so no drawing content leaves the building.

Source: Egnyte and Dodge Construction Network, Data Resilience in the AEC Industry, 2023

62% of construction firms run estimating on spreadsheets, so the takeoff should arrive as one.

JBKnowledge found estimating to be the construction workflow most likely to live in a spreadsheet, ahead of accounting and bid management. LumenTakeoff treats that as the destination rather than the problem, so Lock in produces one XLSX with Coverage, Quantities, Findings and Evidence sheets.

Source: JBKnowledge, 9th Annual Construction Technology Report, 2021

77% of contractors with an open estimator position cannot fill it, and the average respondent is 59.

Estimating is among the hardest roles in construction to fill, and the electrical contractors answering their own industry survey average 59 years old. The knowledge that makes an estimator fast is not in a manual, so LumenTakeoff writes every confirmed fixture name into the firm's library, tied to the engineer the set came from.

Source: AGC and NCCER, 2025 Workforce Survey; Electrical Contractor magazine, 2026 Profile of the Electrical Contractor

Specialty contractors keep 7.7 cents of every dollar, and lighting is the biggest line on the bid.

Specialty trade net margin runs at 7.7% while lighting is the largest revenue line on an electrical job, so a small counting error eats a large share of the profit. LumenTakeoff refuses to export a takeoff that does not reconcile, and holds existing-to-remain out of the bid number.

Source: CFMA, 2025 Construction Financial Benchmarker; Electrical Contractor magazine, 2024 Profile of the Electrical Contractor

Specialty contractors keep 7.7 cents of every dollar, and lighting is the biggest line on the bid.

Specialty trade contractors run a 7.7% net margin, and lighting is the largest revenue line an electrical contractor sells. A few percent off on the fixture count is therefore most of the margin, so LumenTakeoff separates scope from the count and refuses to export numbers that do not reconcile.

Source: CFMA, 2025 Construction Financial Benchmarker; Electrical Contractor magazine, 2024 Profile of the Electrical Contractor

Construction labor productivity grew about 1% a year for two decades. Manufacturing grew 3.6%.

Construction productivity has barely moved in twenty years while other industries pulled away, and a large share of preconstruction time still goes to counting symbols by hand off a file that already knows where they are. LumenTakeoff counts every repeated fixture symbol exactly and leaves the judgment to the estimator.

Source: McKinsey Global Institute, Reinventing Construction, 2017

Bring a plan set

See what LumenTakeoff finds.

Run a real lighting takeoff and review the result against the way your team works today.

  • Supported vector plan sets
  • Lighting fixture families and counts
  • Evidence you can check against the drawing

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