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FastPIPE

Score10 out of 10

3 Reviews and Ratings

What is FastPIPE?

FastPIPE is a construction and estimation software offering from FastEST, Inc.

Categories & Use Cases

Top Performing Features

  • Plan markups & sharing

    Users can annotate plans from the field and easily share plans/markups with other project stakeholders.

    Category average: 7.6

  • Takeoff tools

    Allow users to list the materials and quantities they will need for the project either manually from hardcopy blueprints or electronically from digital blueprints.

    Category average: 7.6

  • Job costing

    Tracking and monitoring of the costs of all materials, labor, subcontractors, & equipment required for a given construction project. Allows users to compare actual costs to estimated costs, see how the job is progressing, identify which parts of the job are using the largest parts of the budget.

    Category average: 7.5

Areas for Improvement

  • Plan distribution & viewing

    Users can compare different versions of plans, and view live updates/revisions to plans (usually from a mobile device in the field).

    Category average: 8.4

  • Document sharing

    Users can share/attach other documents related to construction projects, such as specifications, contracts, drawings, etc.

    Category average: 8.3

  • RFI tools

    Users can create, send, receive, and archive Requests for Information (RFIs), to record exchanges with subcontractors, vendors, and other suppliers.

    Category average: 8.3

FastPIPE estimating tool: time saver for bidding!!

Pros

  • FastPIPE was very fast to learn, very straight forward and user-friendly. It's easy to use and teach new interns and project engineers how to quickly takeoff sections to backup change orders or assist in heavy bid load.
  • It's fantastic at keeping up to date on price changes. I'd get updates often, and they were usually within 2-3% of our discount prices with local vendors. In the few instances it wasn't, FastPIPE was very easy to adjust or factor for project costs.
  • Is great at being able to pull up reports and graphs and track different materials and labor costs for factoring. We bid on a lot of high rise residential buildings, so we do takeoff by floor. It would give detailed reports per page as opposed to just a lump sum. Very detailed so it was easy to adjust per our project approach.

Cons

  • It was a trick or two learning how to upload prints correctly, I think that interface could be a bit easier, but it's already better than most of the competition.
  • Might be nice to have easier labor factoring, in case we want to pre-load our own instead of MCA time factors for piping labor
  • It would auto update upon opening occasionally. It's fairly fast, but I prefer to OK that in case I just need to come up with something quickly and don't want to wait.

Return on Investment

  • Best impact is time saved. It's so much faster to do bid takeoff and hit the ground running
  • Being able to 'draw in' on design-build and being able to print my takeoff has been helpful when turning the job over so the field install understands the approach taken to get the job.
  • Ease of use and learning has made it much more cost effective to bring new people up to speed.

Other Software Used

NoteVault, QuoteSoft, ViewPoint ProContractor