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. of Form 1/A

Description Unit 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 m3 6 120 $720

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
Slab: 4.4 x 4.4 x 0.1 = 1.94 m3
Beam: 0.3 x 0.5 x 4.7 x 4 = 2.82 m3
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
300 150 Say 6 m3
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 $1 786
Reo $480
Concrete $930
Material
Reo $810
Concrete $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 38@2.7 lm 103 2.60 268
70x35 noggins 4@5.1 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!