If you hand someone a book you do the world a favor. The reader learns. This works well until you hand someone an estimating cost reference book.
As an estimator I encounter project after project that has a budget that was prepared incorrectly. These projects hurt the owner/developer and the contractors that bid them. It is a common theme that these budgets were developed by non-estimating personnel. Sometimes these people even used cost reference books as their documentation.
You can’t necessarily blame the publishers of this information. They have developed a book with very specific conditions attached to each line item of cost information. When the project conditions do not match the conditions set out in the book, the estimate will be wrong if the line items are not adjusted. Very few non-estimating personnel will ever adjust the costs taken from these publications! Apparently it is too much trouble.
The next area is determining the scope of work for each line item of the cost information. If the non-estimating professional does not understand the components required to prepare a complete estimate, the estimate will never be right. In order to have a chance of success with a budget, the scope of the estimate must be correct.
No cost reference book has every line item of cost that will be encountered on a project. Just because a line item is not there doesn’t mean the cost is zero. The users must read between the lines to know what is missing so it can be included.
The use of a cost reference book by non-estimating professionals can be hazardous to the construction industry’s health. Is the project underfunded or overfunded? Can bids be taken and awarded immediately so the schedule can be met? These issues, and more, need to be considered the next time the non-estimating professionals use one of the cost books for your project.
