From Private Investigation to Estimating
It turns out a background in private investigation can be surprisingly useful in estimating.
Before joining Chesapeake Glazing, Andrew Legare’s career took him through construction, fieldwork, drafting, criminal justice, and yes, even following people for a living. The jobs may have looked very different, but they all required many of the same skills: paying attention, asking questions, solving problems, and noticing when something did not quite add up.
For the past two years, Andrew has brought that same mindset to Chesapeake Glazing’s estimating team.
Estimating is often where a project first starts to take shape for us. Before anything reaches fabrication or the field, someone has to work through the drawings, specifications, systems, quantities, and details to understand what the project will actually require.
That means there is a lot more to the job than putting together a number.
Andrew’s previous experience gives him a unique perspective when working through a bid. His time in construction and the field helps him think about how something will actually be built, while his drafting experience gives him a better understanding of the drawings in front of him. Add in a natural tendency to investigate the details, and estimating turned out to be a pretty good fit.
Always Looking for a Better Way
He is also someone who rarely looks at a process and assumes it has to stay that way.
A big part of Andrew’s work at Chesapeake has been finding small ways to make estimating cleaner, more consistent, and more efficient. Sometimes that means reorganizing information, simplifying a process, or questioning why something is being done a certain way in the first place.
Those improvements may happen behind the scenes, but they matter. Better information and clearer processes at the beginning of a project can make things easier for everyone who touches it afterward.
Outside of Chesapeake, Andrew stays just as busy. He is a husband and father to six kids, trains in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and enjoys projects that give him another problem to solve or something new to learn.
His path to estimating may not have been a straight one, but looking back, it makes a lot of sense. Every part of it taught him something he now brings to the work he does today.
And for anyone still wondering, yes, Andrew really did follow people for a living. Now he just saves the investigating for the drawings.
Thank you, Andrew, for two years of curiosity, problem solving, and helping us continue to improve the work behind the build.
Meet more of the people who make Chesapeake Glazing here
