Field Notes
Build vs. buy, with the arithmetic shown
A five-part series on what a residential site survey actually costs when you run your own crew, and where the crossover against outsourcing really sits. Every model on these pages is editable. Put your own numbers in and argue with the result.
The algorithm no one is running
Every residential installer knows what their survey team costs. Almost none of them know what a completed survey costs. Build the number line by line, then run it on your own inputs.
Utilization is the whole game
A real Tuesday, minute by minute: under a quarter of the paid day is spent capturing site data. Every fixed cost in the business divides by that number.
The break-even headcount
Demand is a dial; headcount is a switch. Why in-house cost per survey sawtooths instead of falling, and where the crossover actually sits.
The hybrid crew
Almost nobody should be all in-house or all outsourced. Size the crew to your worst month, buy the peak, and the staircase stops hurting.
Two technicians, two roofs
Same pay, same jobs a day, ten points of difference in rework rate. What that gap costs per year, and the capture spec that closes it.
How to read this series
The models are not a quote and they are not benchmarks. Every default is a plausible starting assumption for a mid-size residential installer, chosen so the arithmetic is legible, and every one of them is wrong for your company in some direction. The point is the structure of the calculation, not our numbers.
Nothing you type is sent anywhere. The models run in your browser and keep nothing.
They are also deliberately narrow. Cost per survey is not the only thing that decides this question, and it is usually not the most important one. Turnaround, coverage, capture quality and what happens when your volume triples all matter more, and only the last part of the series touches any of them.
Run it against your own volume
One site, fixed fee, defined deliverable. We will put a real number next to yours before anybody talks about a contract.
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