I have a little gripe with the trend I have noticed in the past couple of years with bidding documents (and it’s not how poor the documentation is). I have noticed more projects requiring the contractors to purchase the plans and specifications instead of using the deposit system. Contractors already have to absorb in their [...]
I was talking with a client about the state of the construction industry. He is involved in the owner end of the business. They develop numerous properties around the world. It is capital intensive and they rely upon borrowing for their capital construction program. They are a well know, very reputable firm and have great [...]
Owners, at the suggestion of architects and engineers in many cases, use the lengthy listing of alternates to keep the cost of the project within budget. Did you ever wonder why? Some would say it is to allow the owner to add features at an inexpensive price. I would postulate it is because the owners, [...]
I get this question all the time. The answer is it depends. The factors that you should use to find out how often to update the schedule are length of the project and the amount of upcoming critical activities that need to be closely monitored. The shorter the project duration the more updates will need [...]
In the past few months I have received calls from others in construction looking to work with me as either an employee or as a consultant for estimating assignments in various locations around the country. For the most part I do not know them or their qualifications however; I usually take the call or will [...]
When preparing an estimate for a budget there are three components that are critical. They are scope, scope and scope. The budget estimate has to present the right scope for the direct cost of construction, indirect costs of construction and the right markups to apply to them. Even though there may be minimal information and [...]
Many times people have the tendency to try and make the construction schedule show a better picture of the job than what is really happening on the project! The optimism looks great on paper and gives everyone a warm fuzzy feeling when they go home for the day or show the owner that things are [...]
Full credit for this line deserves to go to my Dad. I heard it first from him many years ago. It accurately identified the types of estimators out there then and continues to hold true today. Estimators start out green. The training starts with a person that has a good grasp of math, English and [...]
I earn my living by providing estimates for a fee. Before going too far, a disclosure is in order – ninety percent of my clients are contractors, construction managers and subcontractors of virtually all types. We provide them with estimating services for design-build and design-bid-build bids, changes orders and claim situations. We also have been [...]
Owners constantly request and require the successful contractor to prepare comprehensive Critical Path Method (CPM) schedules for their projects. However, a lot of owners do not know what they are really asking for and looking to receive. A good CPM network diagram will have activities connected by predecessors and successors. The activities will contain a [...]
