Sarah Miller

Background

Sarah Miller began her construction career in 2011 after graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Delaware. Over 15 years, she has worked on residential, commercial, and municipal construction projects across the US Mid-Atlantic region.

Sarah has personally estimated, ordered materials for, or supervised construction on over 200 residential and commercial projects, including single-family homes, multi-family residential, retail buildings, industrial warehouses, and municipal road projects.

Why She Founded Buildcalchub

During her site visits, Sarah consistently encountered the same problem: homeowners and contractors using free online calculators that produced wildly inconsistent estimates. Every time she dug into why, it came down to the same issues:

• Hidden formulas with no way to verify the math
• Default densities that didn't match actual regional products
• Missing waste factors leading to shortage during pours
• No context for when the calculator's assumptions applied
• AI-generated content with obvious technical errors

Buildcalchub was founded to fix this. Every calculator here is built around transparent formulas, calibrated to real jobsite data, and reviewed by Sarah against industry standards.

Areas of Expertise

Asphalt Paving (15 years)

Sarah has designed and supervised asphalt paving for residential driveways, commercial parking lots, and municipal streets. Experienced with standard HMA, stone-matrix asphalt (SMA), polymer-modified binders, and cold-mix applications. Certified by Mid-Atlantic Pavement Preservation Partnership.

Concrete Construction (15 years)

Concrete experience spans residential slabs and foundations, commercial slabs-on-grade, structural concrete for multi-family residential, and specialty applications including post-tensioned slabs. Familiar with ACI 318, ACI 301, and IRC concrete requirements. Member of American Concrete Institute.

Aggregate Base & Drainage (15 years)

Base course design and drainage is foundational to everything else. Sarah has designed aggregate base systems for driveways, parking lots, retaining walls, and light commercial applications. Experience with French drain design, foundation drains, and subsurface drainage for sloped sites.

Landscape Construction (10 years)

Site development work often includes retaining walls, paver patios, decks, and fencing. Sarah adds these design recommendations to her construction projects as the hardscape component.

Construction Estimation (15 years)

Material takeoffs and construction estimating is the underlying discipline behind every Buildcalchub calculator. Sarah's estimates have been used on projects totaling over $15 million in construction value.

Engineering Standards Reference

Every calculator on Buildcalchub is calibrated against these references that Sarah uses in her professional work:

• ACI 318 — Concrete structural design
• ACI 301 — Concrete construction specifications
• ACI 350 — Concrete in water-containing structures
• AASHTO MP 1 — Performance-graded asphalt binder
• AASHTO Design Guide — Flexible pavement design methodology
• ASTM D448 — Sizes for aggregate
• ASTM C33 — Concrete aggregate
• ASTM D2487 — Unified soil classification
• IRC (International Residential Code) — Residential construction
• IBC (International Building Code) — Commercial construction
• OSHA 1926 — Construction safety

Publications & Writing

Sarah is the author of every guide on Buildcalchub and reviewer of every calculator. She does not write professionally outside of Buildcalchub at this time.

Contact

For questions about specific calculator outputs, engineering standards references, or correction reports: Contact Buildcalchub.

Sarah does not provide individual engineering consulting through Buildcalchub. For project-specific engineering, work with a licensed professional engineer in your jurisdiction.