Competitive Engineering Fees
Competitive Engineering Fees
(OP)
Hello,
Can someone tell me what the range is for competitive structural engineering fees and how it is broken down?
Best Regards,
Jim
Can someone tell me what the range is for competitive structural engineering fees and how it is broken down?
Best Regards,
Jim






RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
More details please?
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
I estimate the number and type of drawings required and determine a fee
I estimate the actual work required to prepare the documents and determine a fee
I look at the three values, determine the economy, determine if there are other bidders, and determine if I want the work, and then, take a WAG...
Dik
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
1. Task takeoff -
Break down individual design tasks, meetings, travel, submittal reviews, etc. into small, manageable items and assign work hours to each item.
Calculate the personnel rates (those expected to do the work) times the hours and total the cost
Add direct expenses such as mileage, printing costs, etc.
Total the amount as the total design fee.
2. Percent of construction
This varies greatly from region to region and in different markets.
Basically there is a generally understood basic rate - such as 0.5% to 1.5% of the anticipated construction cost. In our area it seems to range between 0.5% to 0.75%.
3. By anticipated number of sheets
This takes some experience with your staff but you can slowly add records of how much time you spend on various sheets.
For structural you might keep records of how much time framing plans take, foundation plans, general note sheets, typical detail sheets, section sheets, etc.
For a project, estimate the number of each type of sheet you think will be provided and calculate the hours of each times the personnel rate.
You might even set up a range of values - so a foundation plan may take between X and Y hours depending on complexity.
Then when you estimate your hours you can assign a complexity factor to it to zero in on the best estimate for hours needed.
Once you have all three numbers above, your great, wonderful, imaginative, analytical engineering intuition kicks in and voila! You have your fee.
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
If I get a star for my paltry 5 lines... you need one, too!
Dik
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
I sometimes do bids where I really think it will be a pain and therefore I mark up accordingly with the "pain and suffering" fees for good measure. Strange how I get these anyway. Maybe my pain and suffering just ain't worth enough yet... Truth is, sometimes you won't get hired unless you make it worth more. Humans are strange creatures, ahem, unlike us engineers.
______________
MAP
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
That really sums it up...
Dik
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
I had one client a few weeks ago, an architect, take 5% out of my contract before he submitted it to his client w/o me knowing. Then he complained to me that the owner wanted him to cut his fee by 5%. He didn't seem to mind cutting 5% from my contract, but when it came time for him to take a cut he wasn't happy.
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
Ultimately "competitive engineering fees" will depend on your market and degree of service you can provide.
www.FerrellEngineering.com
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
We normally would just take a look a the project, try to come up with what we thought was a reasonable number of drafting hours and engineering hours then threw about $65/hr for drafting and $85-$110 per hr at the engineering.
If the work was drawing heavy, we tried to sell the whole job based on the number of drawings....20 dwgs x $X per dwg = total.
Keep in mind this was only used for smaller projects.
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
Somehow I do'nt think we are on the same wavelength - please put me out of my misery.
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
Dik
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees
RE: Competitive Engineering Fees