Patent ID: 7389255

Claim:
A parametric based residential construction cost estimation process not requiring home floor plans or elevations comprising the steps of: inputting residential project criteria wherein the project criteria includes project name, location, budget, contacting method, and number of bedrooms and bathrooms; selecting residential design characteristics wherein the residential design characteristics includes site characteristics and home characteristics; calculating of simulated parameters without calculating quantities from a generated home floor plan or elevations and based solely on the selected residential design characteristics and inputted residential project criteria; selecting residential assemblies of construction based on the calculated simulated parameters, selected residential design characteristics and inputted residential project criteria; selecting residential component options based upon the selected residential assemblies of construction, the calculated simulated parameters, selected residential design characteristics and inputted residential project criteria; calculating a cost of each of the selected residential component options without calculating quantities from a generated home floor plan or elevations and based solely on the inputted residential project criteria and calculations; calculating a summary construction cost of a residence at a component level, wherein the cost is dynamically linked to each of the inputted and selected options of the preceding steps, whereby the cost of the residence may be dynamically modeled at a detailed component level at any stage of the design development process and a user may obtain isolated cost feedback resulting from an isolated design criteria change allowing the user to modify the inputted and selected options and explore unlimited what-if changes and cost impacts resulting from the modified inputted and selected options.