GT Weldon Rediscovers the Joy of Estimating with SharpeSoft

The Story

Celebrating its 50th year of operation in 2025, GT Weldon Construction, LLC, is a general engineering and oil field services contractor based out of Vernal, Utah. GT Weldon has created a legacy of value since 1975, putting its culture of integrity and hard work to full use for its many water infrastructure, subdivision, grading, mass excavation, and pipeline focused operations.

1050 S 1300 E, Vernal, UT 84078

SharpeSoft spoke with second generation CEO Mike Weldon about SharpeSoft’s role in embracing construction estimating technology with an eye on the future.

The Challenge

After spending decades estimating by hand and Excel, upon taking over as CEO, Mike Weldon knew that something needed to change. 

“We’ve been very slow to adapt technology in the past, to tell you the truth. When I took over back in 2012, we were still doing a lot on paper, and that was one of the first things that I knew we had to do to compete was to embrace technology. So what I did was get us an accounting system, and start tracking costs. Before, when my mom and dad were managing the company, everything was kind of a gut feel, and looking at the checking account to see if we were making money. So I knew that was not going to cut it moving forward.”

“Back in 1999 I left for 13 years because I couldn't get them to embrace moving forward as a company. They were happy with being a mom and pop shop and I wanted to take the leap forward, so instead of fighting with them I moved out to California in the Sacramento area. I worked with some contractors out there and learned a bunch, and then I came back in 2012 and took over the company. So I brought a lot of what I learned out there and built that into the company. The first thing I did was put in a costing system, and with that we started putting budgets on our jobs, started tracking our costs, and then implemented an estimating system instead of just writing something down on a piece of paper and you know, shooting from the hip like before.”

A consistent issue that SharpeSoft hears again and again is a reliance on outdated forms of technology due to familiarity with legacy systems. This should never be an obstacle for company growth, especially given the ease and simplicity of implementation for products like the SharpeSoft Estimator. 

Previous Solutions

“The estimating system I used before was an Excel spreadsheet that I'd created back in California. It was pretty advanced, but nothing close to what SharpeSoft offered. I had actually bought the SharpeSoft system a couple years ago, and just didn't take the time to implement it. So these last two weeks while learning the system, every time I get up and talk to my office manager I tell her what an idiot I am for not doing it sooner.”

“I know I also looked at Hard Dollar. We looked at several, but there was just something about SharpeSoft that caught my eye. I think it was the ease of the Navigator, the way it flowed. It was just the simplicity of how it flowed to me. And I'll be honest with you, I liked the people I dealt with. William and the others were just genuine people. That's what sold me.”

More than just making the estimating process easier, Mike was especially interested in a system which would facilitate future transfers of knowledge. 

“My son wants to start estimating as well, so just teaching him how to use SharpeSoft is going to be really easy compared to the spreadsheet from before. There's so much to learn with a spreadsheet versus Estimator, where you just drag a crew, drag some equipment, drag labor, and then especially with the flowchart system that you've got now.”

The Workflow Navigator embedded into the Estimator is a simple, helpful flowchart to assist an estimator through the entire process, from creating a new job to printing that final proposal. 

Getting in Contact

A prior user of the SharpeSoft Estimator, Mike had the unique opportunity to directly compare his past experience to other estimating systems utilized by GT Weldon. But the results speak for themselves, and SharpeSoft ended up the winner.

Interaction with SharpeSoft

“The implementation was awesome. We sent out a rate sheet of all of our equipment, and they had it turned around in no time. My problem was that I just didn't follow through with implementation originally, and kept going how I was. We were really busy at the time and we didn't follow through on our end to make it happen. It's one of those things when you don't know how to do something, so you're scared. My thought process was; I was always going to take an estimate I had already done, and then use SharpeSoft to make sure that I got the same numbers. I was afraid I wasn't going to get the same number spat out at me, that either SharpeSoft was going to come out under or over, because I was so comfortable with the system that I had that I was scared of what something else was going to tell me. So I never had the time to try that duplicate system, and with this last big bid that I had, I finally came to the realization that I needed to be more efficient. There's a better way to kick out these estimates, and I just had to implement this new system, because that other one wasn't going to get us where we need to be.”

Integrating a brand new system, especially an unfamiliar program, can certainly be intimidating. We know, which is why SharpeSoft’s support team works as hard as they do to help facilitate a painless transfer. 

“The training went great. I think I went straight away into opening an estimate and starting, and then I called Johnathan the next day. I had a couple simple questions to ask him, and we emailed back and forth, and then I was off and running. I think that was the key, to just get right in the saddle and get after it. Working with it every day, it's really starting to make sense to me what the system is doing, so it didn't take much to really learn it.”

SharpeSoft offers numerous different levels of support, from explanatory blogs to on-call support staff. The bottom line remains, however, that a solid foundation must be in place first, and no product is more geared to the needs of estimators than SharpeSoft Estimator.

How has SharpeSoft Helped

“I can't believe the time it's saved me. I've got a guy that I've taught to estimate, he does my above ground stuff, and he's doing really well with it, but there's times when he asks me what he did wrong, or that he can't get something to work. I immediately know where to go, but when you're teaching somebody, there's just going to be mistakes as part of the learning process. There's no making a mistake with the SharpeSoft system. It's foolproof, and you don't have to worry about that anymore; it just makes life so much easier.”

“SharpeSoft takes all the risk out of it. When it comes to bid review, we used to have to print the whole estimate out. Now we have all these reports we can print off, so the time savings are amazing.”

“It's more time I can spend in the field on the job, and it's more time at home too. I just bid a 6 million dollar job about four weeks ago. I had spent about 16 hours a day for about seven days bidding this job, and I came in on the weekends too. I bid two jobs this last week, and I was still building crews and putting equipment into the system while I was doing it too. I was building up the database as I went along, and I was having fun doing it! With my other system, I got to the point where I was dreading estimating. It was like every time I would start an estimate, it was starting from scratch. A lot of times I could take an old estimate and copy and paste it to a new one, but you still have to build the bid items to match the new bid estimate. But the way you can bid from this software, it actually makes it fun again. It brought the joy back to it.”

The construction industry is defined by tough, if rewarding work. Respecting the effort put into a job shouldn’t necessarily have to come at the cost of hating what you do. SharpeSoft is ecstatic to hear that we can help construction professionals enjoy their time at the office!

Would you Recommend SharpeSoft?

Absolutely. 100%, I would recommend this system above all overs. I can't recommend it highly enough, I can't quantify how much time it's saved me, but I know that it's more than 50%.