Employment History

2003-Present              President.  Outsource Estimating Inc., Williamsburg, Va.  Estimating consultant to commercial drywall contractors around the country.   Projects include schools, hospitals, stadiums, arenas, performing arts auditoriums, hospitals, military facilities, hi-rise offices and condos, etc.   Scope of work includes drywall and sheathing, light gauge framing and trusses, insulation, sound caulk and fire-stopping "at our work," acoustic wall and ceiling treatment, plaster, stucco and EIFS, rough carpentry, finish carpentry and Hardie siding.  Attended scope reviews and contract negotiations either with clients or on their behalf when needed.  Have trained numerous clients and their staff in the use of Quickbid and On-Screen take-off, both on-site and at my office.  Customized Quickbid databases for several clients so the software would work the way they prefer and not the other way around. See Testimonials.

2001-2003                   Chief Estimator (promoted to Chief Estimator in September 2002).  Suncoast Wall and Ceiling Systems, Inc., Ocala, FL.  Estimated and coordinated the work of estimating staff for same type of projects and scope of work as above.   We used the services of a couple of consultants that were high-paid and who often missed items on the take-off.  I left to re-start my consulting business with the boss's blessing. He was my first client and remains a loyal client today. 

1986-2001                   Estimating Consultant for subcontractors in CSI divisions 3 to 9 and for several GC's in the Jacksonville, Florida area.   I started this business after my previous company sold out to Centex in early 1986, at the request of several of my subcontractors.   Did take-offs, pricing, proposals and some contract negotiation for architectural precast concrete, masonry, miscellaneous metals, wrought iron rails, rough and finish carpentry, insulation and all the drywall related trades above, as well as handling sub-bids and material take-offs for several GC's, all on commercial and institutional work.   Occasionally went on a client's payroll for health insurance benefits, but with the understanding that I was strictly independent.  And I even put my tools on for a while in the early 1990's after commercial construction came to a halt with the "savings and loan crisis."

1983-1986                   Construction Vice-President.  Arms Corporation/Commercial Division, Jacksonville, FL.   Completely responsible for everything from feasibility studies, preliminary and final estimates, coordinating sub bids and scopes of work, project management through final completion of commercial construction projects for large builder/developer in Jacksonville, Florida.  Working with a very lean staff (one secretary, one assistant PM and one superintendent, and wearing all those hats myself as well), we completed three major projects in that time: a conversion of a 32,000 SF, 4-story, 30-unit apartment building into 24 luxury condos, with added elevator, a conversion of a "single-plex," downtown theater into a three-story, 30,000 SF office building, with added elevator, and new construction of a 6-story, 56,000 SF condo, with 2-way CIP flat slabs, and CIP concrete radius walls, a very contemporary structure at the time, which won an award for the architect from the American Concrete Institute.  When the company was sold to Centex in early 1986, which they bought for Arms Corporation's large residential holdings in the region, Centex closed our commercial division.

1982-1983                   Estimator.  Miles Plastering & Associates, Inc., Albany, Ga.  This is where I learned to estimate large projects, mostly hospitals, high rises and government projects.  My mentor, "Foots" Wilkerson, who started as an ornamental plasterer, was known as one of the best estimators in the southeast at the time.  Miles did $15 million a year in 1983 dollars and had their own plane, for work from Florida to DC to the Mississippi.  When the company was sold to Cecil Carrington, I left to take the position at Arms. 

Childhood-1982          All-around tradesman.  My step-father was a residential and light commercial builder in South Jersey (NJ), who raised me since I was three, and who taught me all (probably not quite all) he knew, since I was in elementary school.  I helped him on weekends, after school and in summers.  I loved being on construction sites, and was sure that I had found my life's work.  He was an old-school Italian craftsman who did practically everything himself.  I remember in my teens laying out and cutting everything from stair stringers to rafters, crown mold to chair rail, sweating copper pipe, finishing drywall, making up custom Formica counters, laying tile, running electric wire, etc., etc.   I moved to Albany, Georgia after college, to get to know my real father, and started a design/build residential construction company, which I closed in 1982 (when mortgage rates went to 17%).