The AI Construction Estimator in Auburn, AL: How Homeowners Get an Honest Starting Number
I'm Jake Bartol. I run Old Number One Customs out of Auburn, Alabama, a licensed residential general contractor (HBLB #27452, NAICS 236118) working across Lee County, Tallapoosa County, and the Lake Martin region.
Here's the question I get more than any other: "What's this actually going to cost?"
Two weeks ago a homeowner in Opelika called me about a master bath remodel. He'd already called three other contractors. Two of them said "I'll come out and get back to you." One of them ghosted him. He didn't have a number from any of them, just a vague feeling that it was going to be "around $40,000 or so."
What he needed was an honest first number he could plan around, something to take to his spouse and his budget that week, not after a month of phone tag. That's a reasonable thing to want before you hand a stranger the keys to your house.
This is the planning problem I built ONC's estimating workflow to solve. Here's how it actually works.
What "AI-Powered Estimating" Actually Means
Let me be straightforward about what's behind the curtain, because there's a lot of vague "AI" marketing in construction right now.
When you visit our project configurator, you're interacting with a tool that does three things:
Captures your project specs: project type, square footage, finish level.
Looks up real Auburn-Opelika cost data, pulled from ONC's actual completed projects, not generic national averages.
Returns a tier-based starting-point estimate, a range you can plan around in about a minute, scoped to your specific inputs.
It's not a binding quote. It's not a magic number that replaces a site visit. It's a scope-driven planning range, generated from real local cost data, that lets you start budgeting today instead of next month.
What You Put In
The configurator asks you for four things:
Project type: kitchen, bathroom, deck, porch, addition, custom home, garage, party barn, or whole-home remodel.
Project size: square footage of the affected area.
Finish level: Good, Better, or Best. Each tier corresponds to a real material and labor spec, not a vague "premium" label.
A few project-context questions: your timeline, whether your foundation is slab/crawl/basement, whether you have plans drawn, and how you heard about us. All optional, but the more you tell me, the better the follow-up conversation goes.
At the end, you give us your name, email, and project ZIP so we can send you the configuration and follow up within one business day.
That's it. No phone tag. No "let me check my calendar." No two-week wait for a starting point.
What You Get Out
The output is a tier-based investment range. For a 200-square-foot guest bath in Auburn, you might see something like this:
Good, $32,000 to $38,000: clean, durable, well-built, no unnecessary upgrades.
Better, $48,000 to $58,000: quartz, mid-range fixtures, tile shower with niche.
Best, $75,000 to $95,000: full custom, designer fixtures, premium tile and stone.
Those numbers are not pulled from thin air. They're scoped to the inputs you gave the configurator and grounded in what we've actually been charging on real Auburn-area projects in the last twelve to eighteen months.
Critical caveat, and I'll say this in every post I write about the configurator:
This is a starting-point estimate, not a binding quote. Your final price depends on a site visit, your specific selections, the condition of what's behind your walls, and the actual scope once we walk the project together. The configurator gets you a real range to plan around. The proposal you eventually sign comes after I'm physically standing in your house.
Typical Ranges in the Auburn-Opelika Market
Here's a snapshot of where most ONC projects land based on what we've been seeing in 2026:
Kitchens: $75,000 to $180,000 for mid-range, $200,000 to $400,000+ for high-end full-custom.
Bathrooms: $18,000 to $35,000 for a guest bath refresh, $45,000 to $120,000+ for a master with custom tile and stone.
Decks: $25,000 to $90,000 depending on size, material, and grade.
Porches: $35,000 to $120,000+ for full porch additions with proper roof tie-ins.
Home additions: $300 to $500 per square foot, scope-dependent.
Custom homes: $250 to $450 per square foot all-in, with Lake Martin work running higher due to site work and shoreline requirements.
Detached garages: $55,000 basic to $280,000 with finished living space above.
These are real numbers from real ONC projects, not industry averages. If your project falls outside these ranges in either direction, the configurator will flag it, and we'll need to talk about why before any of us invest more time.
Why I Built It This Way
Construction is one of the few industries where the standard practice is to refuse to give a customer a price until you've had multiple conversations and a site visit. There are real reasons for that. Every project is different, scope assumptions can be wrong, and surprises hide behind walls.
But the homeowner's planning problem is real too. You can't decide whether a $75,000 bath is worth it if no one will tell you whether your project is going to be $30,000 or $80,000. You can't talk to your spouse about scope tradeoffs without rough numbers. You can't apply for financing. You can't decide whether to keep saving or pull the trigger.
The traditional contractor response, "I'll come look at it," protects the contractor from being held to a number and offloads all the planning friction onto the homeowner.
I think that's backwards. You should be able to start planning your project today.
So I built ONC's estimating around a tool that gives you a real range based on real local data, and then the site visit happens once we've both decided your project is worth a deeper conversation. That respects your time and mine.
When You'll Still Want to Talk to Me
The configurator handles the planning-number question. It does not handle:
Complex existing-condition issues: load-bearing walls that need to move, foundation problems, plumbing routed in ways that constrain the layout.
Unusual scope combinations: a kitchen-plus-addition-plus-deck package, for example, doesn't fit a single template.
Code-overlay specifics: Auburn historic district properties, FEMA flood zone overlays, and Lake Martin shoreline rules affect cost in ways the configurator can flag but not fully price.
Material selections you have in mind: if you've already picked a specific quartzite slab or a specific cabinet maker, that's a conversation, not an estimator input.
In all of those cases, the configurator is still useful as a starting point. We just need a follow-up call to dial in the specifics.
What to Do With Your Range Once You Have It
A starting-point range isn't just a number to stare at. It's a planning tool. Here's what most Auburn and Opelika homeowners do with theirs in the first week:
Take it to a lender. A range tied to your project type, square footage, and finish level is enough to start a renovation-loan or HELOC conversation. You don't need a signed proposal to get pre-qualified. You need a credible number, and that's exactly what the range gives you.
Pressure-test your finish level. Seeing Good, Better, and Best side by side tells you fast whether your wish list matches your budget, or whether you need to drop from Best to Better to keep the project moving.
Have the real conversation at home. Scope tradeoffs are easier to talk through with a spouse when there's a number on the table instead of a guess.
Then, within one business day, I follow up personally. That call isn't a sales pitch. It's where we figure out whether your project and your range line up well enough to schedule a site visit. If they don't, I'll tell you that too.
Where the Number Comes From
I want to be transparent about the data behind the configurator, because the "AI" label gets overused.
The configurator is calibrated against real ONC project cost data: what we've actually paid subs, what materials cost at the supply houses I use, what my labor rates are, and what my markup needs to be to keep the business sustainable. When the configurator gives you a number, it's a real range from a real local builder, not a generic estimate scraped from the internet.
When material costs shift, and they shift, the configurator gets recalibrated. When my sub rates change, the configurator gets recalibrated. When a project type starts coming in consistently above or below the modeled range, I look at the data and adjust.
It's a living tool. Same as my proposals.
How to Use the Configurator If You're Just Starting to Plan
You don't need to know your final selections to use the configurator. You don't need plans drawn. You don't need to have made a decision.
You need to know roughly what you want to build, how big, and what finish level you're targeting. That's it. The configurator handles the rest.
If you'd like to see where your project might land, run it through the configurator. You'll have a starting-point range in about a minute, and within one business day I'll personally follow up to talk about it.
No sales call required to get the number. No two-week wait. No commitment.
Jake Bartol, Owner
Old Number One Customs LLC
Auburn, Alabama
Licensed AL Residential GC · HBLB #27452 · NAICS 236118
