Estimating help
Estimating help
(OP)
After 13 years of doing this, I'm being asked more and more to provide cost estimates on projects, but have no background in doing so. For designed projects I can easily calculate volumes of concrete, tonnage of steel, and then call producers for prices. What do I do for new construction estimating for things that haven't been designed yet? I know of RS Means and things like that - are they good enough to generally get me in the ball park? Should I look for a 1-2 day course? If so, any suggestions?






RE: Estimating help
DaveAtkins
RE: Estimating help
RE: Estimating help
Beware of the liability that you are taking on by doing these estimates. Make sure you disclaimer them sufficiently. Get with your insurance carrier, they should be able to help you. The last thing you want is to underestimate and they try to get you to pay the difference because of your underestimate.
As for R.S. means, I think it's the industry standard where I'm at. With that said, there are a lot of nuance things to include. I haven't done a formal estimate with it, but in looking at it, I see lots of factors, etc. that are probably easy to include, but I wouldn't know when/when not to. In other words, just be careful if you use RS means to make sure you read through everything thoroughly.
RE: Estimating help
njlutzwe - that's my main concern in doing any estimating.
Even if it is a 'class' in how to use RS Means, it would be helpful...
RE: Estimating help
Using historical records, you scale the scope of most reasonable projects accordingly. To wit, if a new project is 3 times the size of a previous job, you can scale the historical data, and throw in a safety factor to cover the unk-unks. It's harder to attack historical billings than to attack "engineering estimates."
You should stay away from oversimplifying your hour estimates, i.e., you should have subtasks that are on the order of 1 to 2 manweeks of effort. This makes it harder for the customer to attack the numbers and negotiate a lower bid. The rationale is that while the percentage pad might be the same, it's harder to argue that an 80-hour task should only be 72 hr, while it's easier to argue that an 800-hr task can take an 80-hr "challenge."
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RE: Estimating help
RE: Estimating help
The bottom line is that for a new project with no a priori design, then the OP needs get someone to do sufficiently accurate proposal design that can be used for estimating purposes. That's not necessarily something a cost estimator can do on their own. Once that's done RS Means could be used to estimate costs, but if you have your own historical costs, so much the better, since there are always nuances that cannot be reflected in a generic estimate.
TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
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RE: Estimating help
Just have to make sure there's nothing that they could construe as you saying 'this is the cost', and giving them an opportunity to come after you when the cost is inevitably different. It's very likely that your (or your company's) professional liability doesn't cover this and will leave you high and dry if anyone is ever able to successfully claim you guaranteed or even implied a guarantee of a cost.
RE: Estimating help
Government clients usually require a cost estimate of the work when the drawings and specifications are complete. This is brutal, particularly when the economy is hot because it means that bidders are simply not hungry. Today, I read in the local paper about a hospital in Alberta where the prices came in at three times the cost estimate. I don't think it is possible for a consulting engineer to take all of the economic factors into account when making a cost estimate, so perhaps it is not a reasonable expectation to demand cost estimates of architects and engineers.
I always breathed a sigh of relief when bids came in close to the estimate but it certainly was not always the case; I have never heard of a client holding the engineer or architect financially responsible for the cost estimate, but there have been cases where re-design was demanded in order to bring the project in on budget; and some clients are not keen on paying additional design fees for that type of re-design.
BA
RE: Estimating help
Volumes and tonnages are easy - especially in Revit, it's the labor that is the hard part. I just ended up sticking my wet finger in the air to see which way the wind was blowing and decided that it should take "X" laborers "Y" hours to finish the work at "$Z/hour". Giving the client that SWAG was sufficient in this instance.
RE: Estimating help
As far as prices go, you'll need to do the leg work as far as contacting contractors. That's where being buddies with the local steel fabricator/foundation contractor pays off.
What gets me is: I've worked at a number of places that actually had "estimators". Yet I was the one who had to get prices for these guys half the time. I asked my boss once what was the point of having them around if they don't do anything other than dumping my quantities in a spread sheet? So I feel your pain.
RE: Estimating help
RE: Estimating help