The Estimating Process
What Goes into a Construction Estimate?
Construction cost estimating is a process that often involves many people on our team to accomplish thoroughly and precisely. It begins with a full understanding and visualization of the scope of the projects. But first, what is construction estimating?
A construction estimate is a pivotal foundation and start to our relationship with our clients. It provides the foundation on which the rest of the project will be built, and the estimate’s accuracy often determines whether the project will be finished on time and under budget, making it an important step in reducing cost overruns and delays. So what does our estimating process entail? Here’s how the Firmo team is uniquely able to provide detailed and accurate estimates to save Owners time and money on each build.
The Importance of Accuracy
Both challenge and opportunity arise with the estimating process within the construction industry. The challenge lies in providing a close estimate to the final cost of a structure that hasn’t even been built yet. With a strong estimating team that understand industry pricing, unit calculations, and the importance of maintaining industry cost averages, it becomes easier to provide an estimate that is as close to reality as possible.
The other facet of estimating is the opportunity for the GC that comes with the bid. This is where the contractor can really prove its efficiency, knowledge of the industry, and trustworthiness for the Owner. By providing an estimate that comes within the Owner’s budget, while maintaining a small margin of error for future potential expenditures, a GC can really shine when it provides the best estimate/bid out of all the others considered.
The Steps of Estimation
A good estimate will account for every possible expense associated with a construction build and includes every item both on the plans and in the specs. A complete one will contain many items that are also not explicitly indicated on the plans and in the specs, but that are still required to bring the structure to life. Examples of these include temporary shoring, project accounting, equipment rental, and even insurance.
After the plans and specs are drawn up, the next step in the estimating process is to convert the scope to quantities. This is everything from the amount of windows and doors to the number of cement blocks, or even amount of screws that will be required to assemble the entire building. The bigger the structure is, the more in-depth this research will be.
Often times, this is why the estimating process takes so long. Not only does it take time to calculate these amounts, it also takes time to find reasonable bids from subcontractors, vendors, and suppliers while also doing all of this accurately so the Owner’s project estimate is within their established budget. These are the steps our estimating team follows to provide an accurate and detailed estimate for each Owner.
Firmo’s Estimating Team
So, what makes us unique? It’s been established that the overall theme of estimation is the importance of detail and accuracy — both facets that our team is able to excel at. This is because of our experienced and knowledgeable estimating team and also thanks to the innovative techniques and resources we are able to use to provide more detail than your typical commercial GC estimate.
One of these resources is Bluebeam. We’re able to apply measurement tools within the software that allow us to capture each Owner’s project’s true scope. This creates a stronger, more detailed bid that actually can account for the all of the nails and screws that will be needed to build the structure.
Finally, the decades of expertise our estimating team collectively brings to the table when it comes to industry relationships and knowledge creates a foundation of trust between our team and the Owner — which is critical when millions of dollars, down to the cent, are being estimated.
To receive an estimate for your project, or to learn more about our estimating team, visit: www.FirmoConstruction.com.
