For contractors and homeowners
Government bids found and read for you, and your own customers’ jobs from inquiry to payment. Homeowners hire and pay safely.
Government bids read for you, every customer inquiry in one inbox, quotes in minutes, and milestone payments released when the work is approved.
Describe your project in your own words, compare bids on the same job, and approve each payment when the work is done to your satisfaction.
Two kinds of work, one account
Public work comes as a stack of PDFs. Private work comes as texts, calls, and a customer who wants a number by Friday. RenovationRoute handles both, and you only pay for the side you use.
Chilled water filtration and a steam condensate polisher
What is involved, from the statement of work
Estimate by work item
Changed since it posted
Federal, state, and local bids
Bids worth pricing, already read.
01
The text
Set your trade, radius, and set-asides once. When a job fits, we text you.
02
The read
Scope and quantities, site visit, wage rules, and every change since it posted.
03
The price
A range by work item, and a bid checklist with the page each item is on.
04
The room
Who wins at that office, by name, with award counts and dollars.
$35,000, paid stage by stage
1 of 5 milestones paid · $7,000 released
From inquiry to a yes
Milestones
Change request
Quiet exhaust fan with humidity sensor +$650 · waiting on the homeowner to approve
Your own customers and homeowner jobs
Your customers, paid stage by stage.
01
The inquiry
Text, email, phone, or your website, all in one inbox with an instant reply.
02
The quote
Describe the job. Get scope, exclusions, cost, and payment schedule. You set the price.
03
The money
Each milestone funded and held before you start. Request the payout, they approve.
04
The record
Changes in writing, photos and receipts on the job. Nothing to argue about at the end.
Both screens are from real jobs. Counts as of September 2026.
Your state
Who spent it, who won it, and the biggest jobs, from federal award records. No account needed.
Most federal construction dollars, fiscal 2025
Source: USAspending.gov. Plus the top 30 metro areas. All states and metros
Free tools
Lookups and calculators for bidding the work and getting paid for it. Each one works the second it loads.
Open federal construction solicitations from SAM.gov, checked every 12 hours, plus state and local construction bids. Filter by trade, location, and contract value. No account.
Live mapPick a state and a trade. See the companies that won the most federal construction money, the agencies paying, and the biggest jobs, straight from USAspending.gov.
Live lookupPick a state, county, and construction type. See every classification with its base rate and fringe from the current wage determination, linked to SAM.gov.
LookupAnswer yes or no on the controls that cost the most points. Get an estimated readiness score, your biggest gaps, and a PDF report. A precheck, not an official SPRS score.
AssessmentEnter a contract value. See whether Davis-Bacon, Miller Act bonds, a bid guarantee, and other thresholds apply, with the regulation for each.
CheckerLook up the SBA size standard for any construction NAICS code and check whether your average receipts count as small.
CheckerPick a state and a contract price. See the most a contractor can take up front, plus refund deadlines, cancellation rights, and recovery funds for all 50 states and DC.
LookupEnter your cost and a markup, margin, or price. Get the other two and your profit, with the formulas shown.
Calculator
You should not be up Sunday night reading a 60-page bid package, or chasing a customer for a check you already earned. That is the work I took on.
Hi, I'm Jesse. I'm an engineer, not a salesman. My code runs in millions of cars, and I built security at JPMorgan Chase. Now I build this for you. When you reach out, you reach me.
Looking at a bid? Send me the SAM.gov link or solicitation number. I'll send back the bid checklist, everything except your price.
Jesse Edwards · Owner
Federal bidding, reading the package, and getting paid. Straight answers, no fluff.
At least ten MCP servers now put federal contracting data inside your AI assistant. What each one covers, how many tools it has, what login or API key it wants, whether it is hosted, and what it costs where the price is published.
Every "best AI construction bidding software" list is written by a vendor that ranks itself first. We make one of these tools too. Here's what each one actually does, who it fits, what it costs where the price is published, and when you should pick something other than ours.
ChatGPT and Claude can't see what posted on SAM.gov today. Connect them to live data and they can. Here's how to add RenovationRoute's free MCP server to either one, no login, no API key, and what to ask once it's in.
Every "best AI for GovCon" list is written for proposal teams. These are the AI tools that matter in 2026: what each one does, what it costs where the price is published, and which ones help a construction contractor who needs to read the package, not write 80 pages.
FAQs
SAM.gov lists the job and hands you the PDF. RenovationRoute reads the package, breaks out the scope, quantities, site visit, and wage rules, tracks every change since it posted, and texts you when a job fits your trade. You decide what is worth pricing before you open a single attachment.
The account is free. Public work: browse every job free, with full details on 2 federal jobs a month, or $20 a month for every federal job, text and email alerts, and the bid checklist. Private work: quoting is free, you pay 1% plus Stripe’s processing fee when a milestone pays you out, and $20 to unlock a homeowner’s contact details, refunded if you win the job and finish it through RenovationRoute within 180 days. Homeowners never pay. See pricing.
No. We don’t sell a homeowner’s details to a list of contractors. You pay $20 to unlock contact details only on a project the homeowner posted, only if you want the job, and you get it back if you win.
You set the payment schedule. Your customer funds each milestone when it comes due. With a held payment, your payout is held in Stripe, not by RenovationRoute, until your customer approves the work, or until our team reviews the project record if a payout request goes unanswered for 14 days. Quick Pay skips the approval hold once you qualify.
No. RenovationRoute works on desktop, tablet, and phone.
Free account, no credit card. Start with the side of the work you need.
Before you post
You do not need to know the trade terms. Write what you want the way you would say it, and we turn it into a clear write-up, the steps involved, and a private budget only you see. The more you know going in, the better the job goes.
What you type
“Full cosmetic remodel of our 5x7 bathroom. Keep the layout and the tub. New prefab tub and shower surround, new vanity with a quartz top, new faucet, LVP floor, new trim, and paint the walls and ceiling. Mid to upper grade finishes. Want to start next month.”
What you get: the steps, in order
Code notes
Your budget · only you see it
From one real write-up of a 5x7 bathroom remodel.
Your words, their language
Contractors price what they can read. Every bid starts from the same page.
Know the steps before anyone shows up
When a contractor walks you through the plan, you already know its shape.
Every bid prices the same job
You compare like with like instead of three different guesses.
When you hire
Your money is held with Stripe and released when you approve the work. Not the whole project up front.
01
Set the milestones
The contractor lays out the payment schedule: each stage, its amount, and its due date.
02
Fund the next one
You fund each milestone when it comes due, not the whole project up front.
03
Do the work
The contractor finishes the stage and shares photos. Both sides see the same progress.
04
Approve and release
You approve, and the payout lands in the contractor’s bank in 2 to 5 business days.
1 of 5 milestones paid · $7,000 released
Contract signing and scheduling deposit
Jul 15
$7,000
PaidMaterials procurement
Jul 29 · Photos and receipts attached
$7,000
Payout requestedRough-in and surround installation
Aug 12 · Held until you approve the work
$8,750
HeldCabinetry, countertop, and finishes
Aug 26
$7,000
PendingFrom a real $35,000 bathroom remodel, shown partway through.
Before you hire
Pick your state and a price. See the most a contractor can take up front, plus refund deadlines.
Free lookupHow much deposit is normal, how to set up milestones, and why you never get ahead of the work.
GuideDescribe it in your own words. We turn it into a clear job contractors can bid on, with a private budget.
How it worksWhat we do with your money, what we check, and what we do not, in plain words.
PolicyFAQs
No. Posting a project is free. Once you pick a contractor and agree on the price, you fund each milestone when it comes due.
We cannot guarantee the quality of any contractor’s work. What we can do is keep the payout held until the issue is resolved, which gives you leverage. The project record keeps the accepted quote, photos, messages, and approvals so both sides can see what was agreed. RenovationRoute does not supervise, inspect, or verify the work itself.
No. Before a contractor account can be used, our team reviews the application to check the business does construction work and looks at its public reviews where we can. That is an application review, not vetting or an endorsement. We do not check licenses, insurance, backgrounds, or qualifications, and we do not supervise contractors. You are responsible for checking licenses, insurance, references, and qualifications before hiring anyone.
It depends on where the money is. Held payment: if the payout has not been released to the contractor, a full refund can be processed. Once released, the release is final, and a refund only happens if the contractor agrees. Quick Pay: since funds skip the approval hold, refunds have to come from the contractor and may be subject to chargebacks.
No. RenovationRoute works on desktop, tablet, and phone.
Free to post. Your budget stays private.
RenovationRoute