Commercial Estimators

Hello,

I'm Bryan Baswell and I will be helping to moderate the Div. 2 area of the forum.  I would invite you to please post any site or Div. 2 questions, problems or unusual situations so that we can help to make this forum the truly dynamic learning and teaching tool that it was intended and has the potential to be.

I am a Senior Estimator with Skanska USA Building Inc. and have been dealing predominately with site issues and concerns for 15 years.  I will be monitoring the site daily and will respond to any post made.  Hopefully, others will get involved and exchange ideas and solutions as well. 

Please help us make this forum a true learning tool.

Bryan,

For budget estimates for clients, do you have a rule of thumb for SF or SY costs for site work?

Excluding soils reports.

Thanks CC

Hi Captain,

Could you be a little more specific?

Are you looking for numbers for site clearing, earthwork, utilities, flat work or all of the above?  All of these things have numbers and factors that can be applied for budgetary purposes.  You can even apply per square foot or per acre numbers to specific types of projects such as greenfield medical office buildings, schools, retail etc..  But you have to be careful as to where you get the information because of the regionalism involved.  For example, where I work in south Florida, a three foot rise in a hundred linear feet is quite a hill.  But in western North Carolina among other places they could see that kind of grade change in just a few feet.

Having said all of that (most, or all of which I'm sure wasn't a huge revelation) what specifically are you looking for?

I will be away tomorrow doing some training in another office but I will be back in on Friday and will be happy to help in any way I can.

I would like to encourage anyone else who would like to weigh in on this subject to do so.  Let us know what your budget methods are for various site items and please make sure to include what area of the country you are working in.

Thanks for the post Cap.

Bryan

Bryan,

Yes that is exactly what I am looking for.

Perhaps we can all share these types of numbers and methods in all 16 dinisions, we have all been there when a client of future developer has asked for these.

Your help would be of great benefit, Thanks

CC

This opens up the discussion on Conceptual or Budget estimating.  That is an entire SIG here on this site.  A few SF prices can get you in big trouble.  I have bid jobs where the architect has done budgets that way without the use of a true conceputal estimator and the owner usually gets a big suprise on bid day.  If the architect or engineer specializes in a field, like sewerage treatment plants, and they keep a record of actual costs on many projects, then they can be very close.  In conceptual estimating, the budget is a plus or minus percent figure.  As the plans get more developed, that percentage gets smaller and smaller until bid day when it's zero.  It's not a 5 minute process.

I don't believe it was ever "Carl's" intent to use unit numbers going into a GMP.  And, as I mentioned in my reply to him, knowing what you can have 10" HDPE installed for in S. FL will not help anyone anywhere else because of the regional pricing involved.  We all, as conceptual estimators,  use unit numbers for "Cost Model" estimates when all you have is a conversation with the owner, a written narrative and maybe a floor plan and or a partial elevation.

I don't believe that the intent of the first post was to have someone tell him what prices to use for what, as much as what methods different estimators use to come up with those prices.

I myself, never throw away a quote I get on any job, whether we are the successful CM or not for at least 6 months.  I keep all of this information scanned into a data base that I can go back to and find pricing on similar items for future cost models.

But you are correct that EXTREME CAUTION needs to be exercised when developing cost models, and it should not be done at all by the inexperienced.

All of us are aware that different areas will represent pricing that is adherent to the respective area, however, all of us, at one time or another, will bank on someone else's number to get the project(s). There is still a "rule of thumb" that will apply to all. That is what this forum is for. If I need pricing and submit it to this forum, it is most likely because I do not have adequate coverage at the time. We are all aware of that. So, with that being said, if I need a number that I can rely on, and I submit it to this forum, let's all know that this is a worst case scenario. We are all here trying to help one another...

Let's make this a site we can all really use!

Thanks!

I am interested in the "scanned into a database" method that you use.  Is it just a digital copy, PDF, TIFF, etc of each quote received or is it into an actual, searchable database? 

Well, its both really.  First I scan and save the quotes as a PDF.  Then, when I have time, I will average out the unit prices from my lowest three bidders for various line items and compare it to the pricing that I have in a searchable Excel spread sheet that I created for this purpose.  If the new prices are significantly different, and I can justify the rise (ie. concrete prices have risen due to limerock mining restrictions) then I update my spreadsheet to reflect the new pricing.