Construction Monkey is designed around the way professional estimators actually work: drawings, revisions, dimensions, specifications, scope boundaries, BOQs, rate evidence, commercial assumptions and controlled issue.
The engine does not simply read a drawing and produce a confident answer. It works through a controlled construction sequence so that the result can be reviewed by a professional.
Tender information is often incomplete. Construction Monkey is designed to distinguish measured evidence from commercial provision, so missing design does not simply become missing scope.
Where enough project information exists, the workflow can create a controlled provisional basis for lighting, power, sanitary, water, waste, heating, ventilation, drainage, plant and controls.
Where steel is clearly required but final engineering is absent, the system can carry a commercial steel allowance while explicitly avoiding invented member sizes, grades or claims of engineering adequacy.
Earthworks, drainage, roads, external works, utilities, concrete, reinforcement and related civil scope can be measured or provisioned where the available design supports a defensible basis.
Drawing-derived quantities remain distinct from benchmark or provisional commercial allowances so the basis can be reviewed and challenged.
The verifier actively searches for forgotten areas, runs, openings, repeated items, services, drainage, external works and interfaces.
If information cannot support a defensible measurement or commercial provision, the workflow stops and raises the exception rather than guessing.
A new-build first pass has been completed in 11 minutes at approximately 99% first-pass accuracy. For commercial comparison, we use a deliberately conservative 1–2 hour small-project processing allowance rather than presenting 11 minutes as a normal average.
The workflow is designed to feel like working with an estimating production team, not learning a new measurement application.
Drawings, specifications, SOWs and revisions enter the project record through the agreed submission route.
CMAI checks the document set, identifies missing or conflicting information and sets the measurable production basis.
Clarify scope, instruct preferences, challenge quantities or rates and decide what should be saved to your business rules and cost library.
Receive BOQs, Take Offs, marked evidence, costing and revisions in the agreed branded format for professional review and client issue.
The assistant is not just a chat box. It can work with the project output and, where the licensee approves it, build a reusable business knowledge layer around preferred estimating methods and cost information.
Preferred BOQ structure, terminology, inclusions, exclusions, presentation rules and recurring instructions can be stored as controlled business preferences.
Approved labour, material, plant and specialist rates can be saved with source and basis, creating a growing cost library instead of starting from zero each time.
Ask CMAI to challenge a rate, substitute a supplier basis or change a commercial assumption; affected items are recalculated while unaffected work is retained.
Business rules and rates become reusable only when they are intentionally approved for the library. Project-specific instructions can remain project-specific.
Construction Monkey can work within the measurement and classification structure agreed for the licensed territory or client. Our current construction knowledge base includes:
RICS New Rules of Measurement for detailed building measurement and Bills of Quantities.
Supported where existing projects, clients or historic schedules still require the legacy Standard Method of Measurement structure.
Civil Engineering Standard Method of Measurement for infrastructure and civil-engineering work.
Principles of Measurement International for markets and projects using international quantity-surveying conventions.
Agreed Rules of Measurement for Irish building measurement and BOQ workflows.
Australian and New Zealand Standard Method of Measurement conventions for local quantity measurement.
Client-specific schedules, trade templates and local conventions can also be configured where the agreed licence and production rules require them.
Return BOQs, take-offs and marked evidence for the licensee’s own pricing and commercial review.
Use approved local rates, licensee rate libraries, supplier evidence, specialist quotations and market checks where the licence includes pricing.
Compare revised information against the frozen project basis, isolate the delta and retain unaffected work rather than rebuilding the estimate.
The engine is designed to give Quantity Surveyors and Estimators more capacity without taking the professional business away from the client.