Bid a paving job from the aerial

The Crewtavo - Paving app adds a Paving section to the menu. It walks one job through five steps on one page: Takeoff, Estimate, Proposal, Schedule and Invoice. Each step uses the same quote, job and invoices as the rest of Crewtavo, so nothing is typed twice.

Tip

Don’t see Paving in the menu? An owner or admin can open Apps, choose Crewtavo - Paving and choose Install. Any business can install it, whatever its trade, and Roofing too: your trade in Settings → Company only picks your starter prices and terms. Uninstall takes Paving out of the menu and keeps every takeoff and estimate. See Install and manage apps.

1. Start a takeoff

1. Open Paving and click New takeoff.
2. Pick the client, or type a new name and choose Create … as a new client.
3. Pick the property, or choose Add an address.
4. Give the project a name if you like, such as “Lot sealcoat and restripe”, and click Start the takeoff.

The measuring map fills the page at the property, ready to find the paving (see below), with Takeoff items, Shapes and the totals in the panel on its right. The arrow at the top of the panel hides it for more map; Takeoff in the corner brings it back. On a phone the panel is under the map.

2. Measure the lot

Pick an item in Takeoff items, then draw it on the map. Everything you draw is that item until you pick another one, and each item has its own color.

• Pavement: Asphalt, Concrete and Gravel are areas. Click each corner, then the first one again to close it.
• Sealcoat and repair: Sealcoat area (only when part of the lot is being sealed; otherwise all the asphalt is), Patch, Mill and overlay and Crack seal (draw along the cracks).
• Striping: a Stall row is a line along the front of a row of stalls. It counts one stall every 9 ft and the 18 ft lines between them, so a row of 40 stalls is one line, not 40 taps. Tap single Stall and ADA stall spaces, draw White, Yellow, Blue and Red lines, Crosswalks and Stop bars, and tap Arrows and Stencils or symbols.
• Curb and site: Curb is a line; Wheel stops, Bollards, Speed bumps and Drains are counts. All items shows the ones that aren’t listed yet.

Use Cut out to leave islands and buildings out of the asphalt. Each item’s total shows in the list, in square feet or square yards (SF and SY). To change what a shape is, pick another item in its row under Shapes.

Let Find paving outline it

Find paving outlines the pavement for you, free and with no account. It’s the first tool on the left of the map (Find, with the sparkle, or press B), and a new paving takeoff opens on it:

1. Click two corners of a box around the lot. The map still moves as usual between clicks.
2. Drag the box’s corners to fit, if you like.
3. Press Outline, on the map under the box (or press Enter). The outline follows the lot’s edges inside the box, parked cars included, with buildings left out.

It outlines as the item shown on the banner over the map (Asphalt unless you picked another), and the banner has what you need to get the outline right:

• Add: tap anything it missed, and it’s added to the same outline. For a drive or sidewalk, a tap on it is often all you need.
• Take out: tap an island, a building or anything else that doesn’t belong, and it’s cut out. Holding Option (Alt on Windows) while you tap does the same.
• Box: put another box round a lot; Clear box takes one away to start again.
• Smaller and Bigger swap the last tap for the model’s next guess.
• New outline finishes this one, so the next box or tap starts another.
• Done (or Esc) finishes and switches to Edit, so you can drag any corners that are off.

Find paving under Takeoff items starts it too. Under it, Find everything in view with fal.ai outlines all the asphalt and concrete on the map at once and counts stalls, at about half a cent per thing it finds. See Find paving with fal.ai.

Where OpenStreetMap has the parking lot mapped, one tap outlines the whole lot, and buildings mapped there are cut out of every outline (a grey roof looks a lot like pavement). Find paving runs on your own computer, tablet or phone, so the aerial isn’t sent anywhere; it only asks OpenStreetMap what’s mapped around the view. The first time, it downloads a model of about 60 to 75 MB once your first box is drawn, and the model then stays in the browser.

Note

Find paving is quickest in a browser that can use the graphics card (WebGPU): Chrome, Edge, and Safari 26 or later. There, each box takes under a second. In other browsers it runs on the processor instead and takes about 10 seconds for each, and the banner says so.

Check every outline against the imagery. A row of cars parked along a curb can end up just outside the outline, and a cluster of parked cars can come out as a cutout: tap it with Add to put it back, or drag the corners.

Click Save measurement. The saved picture becomes a takeoff sheet: the drawing on the aerial with a graphic scale bar marked in feet, a north arrow, your business, the project and address, the date, the imagery credit, and a legend with every item’s quantity. The scale bar stays true however the sheet is printed. Then click Next: Estimate.

3. Price the estimate

The Estimate step lists the services in your price list whose formula reads what the takeoff measured, each with its quantity and price.

1. Under What’s the asphalt getting?, choose Sealcoat it, Pave it or Neither, so sealcoat or new hot-mix (and its stone base) is suggested, not both. For paving, set the Depth (in).
2. Tick each service to put it on the estimate, or click Add all … to the estimate.

The estimate shows each line’s quantity, price, cost, total and margin, then the cost, price, profit and margin of the whole job. If the takeoff changes, click Update quantities from the takeoff. For discounts, optional add-ons, deposits and notes, click Adjust on the quote.

Note

Each service prices from a formula in Settings → Price list, like sealcoat_sqft for sealcoat or stripe_ft for striping. Paving → Price book adds the standard paving services your price list is missing, with starting prices and costs to change to your own. Using formulas on the price list shows every value a takeoff gives.

Offer two or three options

Once the estimate has lines, you can offer packages side by side, like a sealcoat and restripe next to a mill and overlay. Click Offer options in the bar above the services and pick packages you’ve set up under Settings → Packages. The estimate as it is becomes option 1, and each package becomes another. See Offer Good, Better and Best options.

Each option is then a tab. The services you tick go on the option you’re looking at: beside “What you tick goes”, choose Only on that option or On every option. The totals are for the option you’re looking at.

4. Send the proposal

Turn on Show the takeoff sheet on the proposal so the client sees exactly what you’re bidding. Preview what the client sees opens it as they will. Click Send the proposal: the client opens it on any phone or computer, chooses one of the options if you offer them, picks any optional items and signs, with no account needed.

5. Schedule and invoice

Once it’s signed, click Create the job. The estimate’s lines become the job’s scope; with options, the lines of the option the client chose. If a client with options said yes another way, click mark it approved on the quote and pick their option first. Schedule the visits puts it on a crew’s day.

Under Invoice, Create an invoice opens the job’s invoice options: a deposit, progress or final invoice. Clients pay online from their link, and each invoice shows here with its status.

Projects

Paving lists your open projects with what was measured, the price and the stage: Estimate, Ready to send, Proposal sent, Changes requested, Won, Job or Done. All shows lost and finished ones too. A project that offers options shows how many, and its price from the cheapest one (“From $12,400”) until the client chooses.

For how these takeoffs compare with paid aerial takeoffs, see Free paving takeoffs. Everything else Crewtavo does for a paving company is on Paving and sealcoating software.