01 · Websites
Contractor websites that sell the real company
Custom mobile-first sites built around services, project photos, reviews, service areas and clear estimate or service requests.
Websites, software & tools built around real contractor businesses
Contractor websites, software and tools built around the way real work gets done.
Ground Up Digital Media helps contractors and trade businesses look better online and work better behind the scenes, from fast custom websites and managed hosting to estimating software, free business tools, workflow automation and custom applications.
Built around actual contractor workflows, not generic software with a construction label stuck on it.
What We Build
One digital partner for the website customers see and the systems your team uses.
Ground Up focuses on practical improvements for contractors and trade businesses, starting with the places that cost time, lose leads, hide profit or make a good company look smaller than it really is.
02 · Hosting & Care
Managed after launch
Hosting, SSL, deployment management, backups, form oversight and reasonable content updates without making the contractor become the webmaster.
03 · Software
Software built for your process
From Ground Up products to custom applications, we build focused tools around the way contractors actually estimate, sell and manage work.
04 · Free Tools
Better numbers. Better decisions.
Free tools help contractors understand labor, overhead, crew efficiency, pricing and profitability without another subscription.
Websites & Hosting
Your website should look as capable as the company behind it.
We build contractor and trade websites from the ground up with real services, real projects, clear calls to action and local-search structure. Then we can keep the site hosted, secure and maintained.
Custom Design
The layout follows the company, services and customers.
Lead Focused
Click-to-call, service requests, project galleries, reviews and service-area pages.
Managed Hosting
Hosting, SSL and ongoing care without another dashboard to learn.
Contractor Software
Focused software built to solve specific contractor problems.
Ground Up develops practical software around real contractor workflows. Custom Deck Estimator is our dedicated estimating platform for professional deck contractors.
Featured Product
Custom Deck Estimator
A contractor-focused deck estimating application that connects layout, framing inputs, material selections, takeoffs, labor, pricing, proposals and customer approval in one workflow.
Visual deck layout
Material takeoffs
Railing quantities
Contractor pricebook
Customer proposals
Approval tracking
Custom Deck Estimator
Ready to get back to estimating?
Open your contractor workspace and jump straight into your estimates, pricebook and project tools.
Launch the CDE App → New to CDE? See features, pricing & start a free trial →
Custom Deck Estimator · A Ground Up Digital Media Product
Free Contractor Tools
Useful tools you can actually use without signing up for anything.
Ground Up's free contractor tools are built to help owners understand the numbers behind their business and make better pricing decisions.
Free · No Signup Required
Contractor True Cost Calculator
FREE
Crew Size
3 People
Paid Crew Day
8 Hours
Crew Efficiency
75%
Productive Time
6.0 Hours
The Number That Matters
Your True Rate
Payroll + labor burden + overhead + efficiency + profit
Contractor True Cost Calculator
Do you actually know what your crew needs to earn every day?
Your hourly wages are not your real labor cost. Enter your overhead, crew wages, payroll burden and real-world crew efficiency to see what your business actually needs to charge per productive hour and per crew day.
✓
Calculate true burdened labor cost
✓
Account for non-productive paid hours
✓
Recover company overhead
✓
Calculate required crew-day revenue
✓
Test different crew efficiency levels
✓
See what labor overruns do to job profit
Calculate My True Cost →
100% Free · No Account · No Credit Card
Practical
Built around real workflows
Focused
Software that solves a clear problem
Useful
Free tools contractors can use today
Built to Grow
Tools that can expand with the business
Custom Application Development
Looking for a custom app for your business?
If your team is running an important process through spreadsheets, shared notes, text messages, repeated data entry or software that does not quite fit, we can talk through what a purpose-built application could look like.
Start with the workflow, not the software.
Tell us what your business is doing today, where the friction is and what you wish worked differently.
- Internal business and field workflow apps
- Estimating, pricing, scheduling and customer tools
- Process automation and connected data workflows
- Focused web applications for unique business needs
Why Ground Up
Business problems first. Software second.
The goal is not to add another app to somebody's phone or browser. The goal is to make a real process faster, clearer, easier to manage, more profitable or easier to scale.
01
Built from operating experience
We begin with how the work is actually being done, including the shortcuts, handoffs and repeated tasks that generic software tends to miss.
02
Focused instead of bloated
A useful app does not need fifty unrelated features. It needs the right workflow, the right data and an interface people will actually use.
03
Designed to evolve
Products, free tools and custom applications can start focused and grow as the real workflow proves what should come next.
Built to Grow
One product and one calculator are only the beginning.
Ground Up is being built as a family of practical software, contractor business tools and custom applications for companies with workflows that deserve something better than another workaround.
Ground Up Products
Focused applications developed and supported under one software company.
Free Contractor Tools
Practical calculators and resources contractors can use without another subscription.
Custom Applications
Purpose-built solutions for businesses with specific workflow problems.
Connected Systems
Tools that reduce the number of disconnected places a business has to work.
Have a workflow that deserves a better tool?
Tell us what you are trying to solve and we can start with the process.