Traditional Construction Cost Estimating
Traditional Construction Cost Estimating can benefit from LEAN business practices, a focus upon education and training, and collaborative technology.
Bills of Quantity (BOQ),Bill of Materials (BOM), and/or detailed line item methods provide the lowest level, and/or most granular construction costs. The opposite end of the spectrum, and least detailed, includes Order of Magnitude and Square Foot Costs.
Traditional Construction Cost Estimating at a detailed level fully considers construction components, tasks, quantities, and costs inclusive of materials, equipment, and labor items. Tasks are generally organized in a consistent manner by trade, associated with a construction[1] project. Quantities are expressed as “each”, “square feet”, “square yards”, “cubic yards”, “hours”, and related local standards of measure.
The sources of the information generally include historical cost data, estimator experience, and independent third parties (cost consultants, public “reference” information, and subcontractors).
A unit price includes material, labor and equipment for each component and/or construction task/activity at a granular level. A total project is therefore represented by multiple line items. Based upon the source and type of information, there significantly differences in levels of sophistication, detail and quality occur.
It is generally recognized that detailed line item construction task definition and associated costing methods provide the most beneficial and defensible form of information. That said, there are multiple related issues/concerns that must be considered in order to properly leverage and benefit from this highly refined level of construction costing. These include, but may not be limited to the following;
- Expertise in line item construction cost research
- Applicability of specifications to the local area
- Appropriate levels of granular and quantity of line items
- Cost to adequately research data
Unit price line item cost data collection is expensive in terms of resources required to develop and maintain current and defensible information. It is generally cost prohibitive for any single real property owner, AE firm, or construction contractor to maintain a cost research staff capable of generating an actionable 30,000 to 60,000 commercial construction line item database.
Learn more about the available locally researched unit price cost databases…
[1] The term “construction” is being used generically to describe any type of construction, including renovation, repair, maintenance, sustainability, and/or new construction projects, unless specifically otherwise stated.