About Tools for Builders
Tools for Builders started with PondTools, a pond design program written because the usual rules of thumb for liner size, pump flow and rock were close enough to sound right and far enough off to cost a day on site.
PondTools measures the pond from a drawing or a photo, sizes the equipment on the manufacturer's published ratings, prices the parts, and renders the pond into the customer's yard. It also maps whole lakes from satellite photos and the USGS LiDAR survey.
Why three tools
Pond builders often work next to roofers, pool builders and solar installers, and all of those trades quote the same way: measure the property, work out the materials, price them, and try to show the customer what they are buying. RoofTools covers roofing and solar from one roof measurement, and PoolTools covers pools. They are in development, and each one will open when it gets its numbers right on real jobs.
How we work
Every number the tools produce says where it came from, whether that is your measurement, a manufacturer's rating or a public survey. When something is an estimate, like the depth of a lake bed, the tool says so.