SAN FRANCISCO — HOVER, the technology company that transforms smartphone photos and blueprint designs of any property into a 3D model, announced an update to their HOVER Estimates product to include estimates for siding. This new capability rounds out HOVER's offering for contractors to quickly and accurately quote both roofing and siding jobs in a single solution. Now, even the most complex, multi-trade projects become easier to scope and sell, empowering more contractors to grow and optimize their business.

"For years, HOVER has offered industry-leading property measurements for roofing and siding, with exceptional material recognition and 3D visual representations of any property," said A.J. Altman, founder and CEO of HOVER. "Today, we're excited to share that this visual data has been harnessed to make scoping and estimating projects simpler and more intuitive for contractors within the HOVER platform."

Siding jobs are high dollar projects, and errors or oversights in scope are very costly to contractors in the form of eroding profits. Accurately estimating and quoting siding jobs has generally required years of experience and a disproportionate amount of time to complete. Often, the person completing the estimate in the field doesn't have years of experience, but companies also don't have time to filter every job through one or two experienced employees.

HOVER Estimates addresses this problem by providing a simple, visual scope selection tool to ensure no detail of the project estimate is missed. It ties directly into HOVER's measurements, and includes the contractor's specific material and labor install preferences, providing a fast and accurate estimate for both siding and roofing. This reduces training demands and speeds up the sales process, allowing every sales representative, regardless of experience, to confidently provide project estimates in the field.

"There are formulas and math involved that make sales reps very uncomfortable with running customer appointments," said Tim Lengel, director of operations at Feldco. "HOVER Estimates has been a game changer for our sales team, making the previously difficult process of accurately measuring and pricing roofing and siding projects simple. The rep just answers a couple questions and gets a quick, accurate price."

HOVER Estimates empowers contractors to confidently provide customers with roofing and siding estimates for even the most complex, partial, or multi-trade jobs. Every element of the project scope is taken into account — from materials and labor to margin and add-ons — to ensure that every customer quote is profitable.

Siding and roofing estimates are generated on-site in three minutes or less from a mobile phone, tablet, or laptop. And with HOVER's visual estimation tool, the estimate can be easily modified to add or remove trades, adjust scope, or provide different pricing options in real time. Final estimates can then be populated into a custom proposal and signed onsite with an e-signature.

"It puts us in a much better position to win that job than other companies out there that are just spitting out a per-square price," said Charlie Wallace, general manager at Royalty Roofing in Ohio. "The rep knows exactly what the cost should be on every job."

After the job is sold, the line item detail from the estimate is available to project management teams and directly integrates with material distributors using real-time pricing — expediting material orders and the overall production of the project. 

"HOVER will even tell you how many boxes of nails, and how many tubes of caulk you need with the price for each," said Wallace.

All of this functionality is part of HOVER's complete contractor sales solution that starts with precise measurements and a visual 3D model. To learn more about how HOVER is simplifying the process for siding estimates, visit hover.to/siding-estimates.