Pre-wire to walkthrough, estimated properly
Residential work is long-cycle and change-heavy. DarkBird holds the labor model across pre-wire, trim-out and calibration so the last phase is not the one that eats the job.
Where residential av / smart home estimates go wrong
Trim-out and calibration are open-ended
Pre-wire is predictable. Programming, calibration and client walkthrough expand to fill whatever the client needs, and the estimate rarely reflects it.
Builder schedules drive return trips
Work happens when the site is ready, not when you are. Trips are real cost and almost never a line item.
Every home is custom
Without a per-unit baseline, each proposal starts closer to blank than it should, and the knowledge stays with whoever wrote the last one.
Your workspace starts configured
Pick Residential AV / Smart Home at signup and DarkBird seeds the setup below — categories, a delivery phase set, resources with rates, and units of measure. All of it editable. Install Card hours are bracketed by quantity, so a card prices per room, per zone, per rack.
Residential Delivery
- Design & Proposal
- Pre-Wire
- Trim-Out
- Rack & Equipment Install
- Calibration & Client Walkthrough
Resources
- Lead Installer
- Programmer / Integrator
- Project Manager
Categories & units
- Residential AV & Smart Home
- Network Infrastructure
- Structured Cabling
- Units: Each, Hour, Foot, Room
How this work gets estimated
Per-unit labor patterns and field gotchas for the systems this trade installs.
AV & Conferencing
Display mounting, codec setup, conference room kits, control system programming, cable routing, and per-room labor by room size and complexity.
Structured Cabling
Cat6/6A per-drop hours, fiber pulls, patch panel termination, cable certification, conduit work, and ceiling/wall type effort multipliers.
Wireless & Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi site surveys, RF planning, AP deployment (Wi-Fi 6/6E), outdoor wireless, dense environment design, BYOD policies, and wireless network validation.
Questions residential av / smart home teams ask
Does it handle phased residential schedules?
Yes. The seeded delivery phases run Design & Proposal through Calibration & Client Walkthrough, and tasks attach to whichever phase they belong to.
Can we produce a client-facing document?
Yes. DarkBird generates a scope of work from the scoped project, with assumptions and exclusions carried through from the scoping interview.
Is there a free trial?
A 45-day trial with full Pro access, no credit card. Pick your trade at signup and the workspace is seeded with categories, phases, resources and units for it.
Estimate from your numbers, not averages
45-day free trial with full Pro access — no credit card. Your workspace arrives set up for residential av / smart home.