Our experts
The construction cost estimators who develop our line-item cost data, review our numbers, and write our cost guides.
Every cost guide on this site is written and reviewed by people with hands-on construction estimating experience. Our reports have been produced for homeowners, builders, and appraisers for nearly 20 years — and the names below are accountable for the numbers you read.
Rob Mackle
Rob Mackle founded StartBuild and has spent more than 30 years in residential construction, the last two decades leading StartBuild's cost-estimating platform. He and his team have produced 90,000+ cost-to-build reports for 40,000+ customers across all 50 U.S. states and Canada.
Chad Kouse
Chad Kouse is StartBuild's Chief Technology Officer and has spent roughly 20 years building the cost-to-build platform behind CostToBuildAHouse — the estimating engine, the cost database the team refreshes 10–12 times a year, and the tools that turn any house plan and ZIP code into a localized, line-item estimate. A Computer Systems graduate of Miami University, he previously co-founded and served as CTO of TuneWiki, and has built and scaled mobile, web, and large-scale data systems throughout his career.