Estimating & Tendering
Estimating work involves dealing with
Measurements and quantities
Pricing and rates
Subcontract packages
Tender preparation
Types of contract
-Lump Sum or Hard Money contracts
-Cost plus %-age contracts
-Cost plus fixed fee contracts
TERMINOLOGY
Provisional Cost sum, is a cost to supply and fix
an item
Prime cost item, is the price for supply only
Example 1
A $10 000 PC sum was allowed for A/C in the contract.
The actual cost ended up being $8 500, so the
client gets a $1 500 refund.
Example 2
A $10 000 PC sum was allowed in the contract. Actual
cost was $11 500. Charge the client the extra $1
500 plus your margin of say 10-%, a total of $1 650.
Example 3
$35/m2 for a 100 m2 tiled floor was allowed in the
contract. If the tiles the client chose cost $30/m2,
the client gets a refund of $5/m2 x 100 m2 = $500.
More Terminology
Client Contingencies: This is an amount set into the
contract to cover an unknown amount of work. Say
you allow $10 000 for excavating through rock. At the
completion of the contract the contractor must
accurately account for the actual costs and offset it
against the allowance made.
Contractor Contingencies: Contractors can use
contingency allowance for unknown events that they
are contractually bound for. In this instance it covers
the contractors risk and can be a %-age on the
contract value and dependant on how risky you think
the job is. If the contingency is not used, it is not
returned to the client but increases the contractors
profit.
Factors to consider when tendering
- How much work have you already got on? Do you
want or need more work?
- Can you handle more work and is it going to be
profitable?
- Are you technically and financially capable?
- Who is the client or Architect? Good to work
with?
- How many tenderers are there likely to be?
- Who is the main competition? Are they desperate
for work?
- What are your chances of success?
EARTHWORKS
Demolition?
Clearing and levelling the site
Setting out new buildings
Excavating for footings
Minor demolition example
Estimate:
Machine hire: 20 hrs @ $60/hr = $1 200
Labour: 1 person 20 hrs @ $25/hr = $500
Truck hire: 15 hrs @ $50/hr =
$750
Dumping fees: 85 ton @ $8/ton =
$680
Total = $3 130
Terminology
A Foundation is the prepared soil that you are
going to start building on
A Footing is usually made from reinforced concrete
and is the first thing you build upon that
foundation
ESTIMATING SHEET
Project:
Estimator:
Location:
Extended
Date:
Sheet No.
Description
Unit
Form 1/A
of
Quantity
Rate
Estimate
Example raft slab footing
5 x 5 m in plan with 500 x 300 mm beams around the
perimeter and a 100 mm thick slab. Edge rebate for
brickwork.
86
100
120
150
500
300
150
TRENCHING incl edge form
Description
Unit
Qty
Rate
$
Setting out: 1 person day
hr
4
30
120
Backhoe 1 day
hr
8
55
440
Clear site to 150 mm
m2
25
25
625
Labour: 2 persons 1 day
hr
16
30
480
Spoil removal 6.8 m3
ton
11
11
121
Total to summary
$1 786
CONCRETE placement and finishing
Description
Unit
Qty
Rate
$
Labour 2 persons 1 day
hr
16
30
480
Concrete pump*
No.
1
350
350
Vibrator (own)
No.
1
Miscellaneous
100
Total to summary
$930
Due to limited site access
Concrete supply
$720
m3
120
Quantity of concrete (Use centre lines to measure)
5000 mm
5000 2 x 60 = 4 880
5000 2 x 150 = 4 700
5000 2 x 300 = 4 400
5000 2 x 350 = 4 300
86
100
120
150
500
1.94 m3
2.82 m3
Slab:
4.4 x 4.4 x 0.1 =
Beam:
0.3 x 0.5 x 4.7 x 4 =
Wedge: 0.15 x 0.15 x 0.5 x 4.3 x 4 =
0.19 m3
Rebate: -0.12 x 0.086 x 4.88 x 4 =
-0.20 m3
4.75 m3
Add 20%
0.95 m3
5.7 m3
Say 6 m3
300
150
REINFORCING
Description
Unit
Qty
Rate
$
Reo bars 6 Y16
20 lm x 6 + 20% lap/waste
lm
144
2.80 403
Ligatures pre-fab W10
@ 0.6 m cts. 20/0.6 + 20%
No.
40
2.50 100
Fabric F72 to slab
5 x 5 = 25m2 + 20% laps
m2
31
5.50 171
Chairs and ties
item
1
50
50
DPM 100 x 2 m roll
No.
1
86
86
Total to summary
$810
Labour 2 persons 1 day
hr
16
30
$480
SUMMARY
Labour
Trenching
Reo
Concrete
Material
Reo
Concrete
$1 786
$480
$930
$810
$720
Total $4 726
Example Carpentry
Say we have a four walled room 5 x 5 m with 2.7 m high walls.
All timber is 70 x 35 pine with studs at 600 mm c/c.
Description
Unit Qty
Rate
$
70x35 top and bottom plates
lm
41
2.60
107
70x35 studs [email protected]
lm
103
2.60
268
70x35 noggins [email protected]
lm
21
2.60
54
Damp Proof Course roll
No.
1
21.50
22
Nails and Dynabolts
item
20
First fix carpenters 2p x 2 day
hr
32
35.00 1120
Miscellaneous
100
Total to summary
$1
691
How many bricks per square metre of wall?
Standard brick size 230 x 76 mm
Mortar joints nominally 10 mm
Area taken up by one brick is 0.240 x 0.086 =
0.2064 m2
We get 1/0.02064 = 48.45 bricks/m2
For small areas round off to 50/m2 and add a %-age
for waste
Tendering process
- Ensuring that you are invited to tender, if that is
limited
- Taking the tender documents, which consist of
drawing, specifications and sometimes a bill of
quantities, and breaking them down into packages.
These packages must be appropriate for your
subcontractors to bid for.
- Inviting subcontractors to bid and evaluating the bids.
- Adding up all construction costs plus the preliminaries
or overheads plus your margin to form the tender
price.
- Finally, you need to submit the tender as per the
instructions, and dont be late!
