Your Estimators are one of your most valuable resources – learn the best practices from leaders across the industry to make them successful!
Construction cost estimators, who determine the costs of a construction project, play a critical role in commercial construction. Companies use the estimates of costs put together by these estimators to prepare their proposals and put together competitive bids on projects. Attention to minute details is a key aspect of the job since it requires a detailed analysis of architectural drawings and specifications. Time management and organization is also important because often estimators are dealing with a flurry of bid requests. Errors can be very costly.
Gamyte’s AI-enhanced Project Analyzer is a game changer for estimators - it catches every intricate detail on every page, and also accelerates their work. Learn more about how it works here.
Why is it important to have standardized training?
The purpose of standardizing the workflow is to avoid issues, delays in bid submission and missing information which can have a significant impact on your profit per job.
Gamyte designed the following best practices to assist companies with their estimating teams and workflows. It is a step-by-step illustration of processes and procedures estimators must follow in order to produce successful and (hopefully profitable!) bids.
Let's dive into the steps of producing strong bids.
Step 1: Initial Analysis
- Filter the trade-relevant documents
o Drawing sets
o Project Manuals
o RFI Logs
o Scope of Work
o Additional documents such as Instructions to Bidders
- Scan all documents to find the finish schedule
o Extract the finish schedule pages from the document
o Decide trade-related materials & highlight them
o Save the highlighted finish schedule as a separate file
P.S. Gamyte’s AI-Enhanced project Analyzer has been developed with many experienced estimators. It can perform initial analysis, find the finish schedule and highlight all trade-relevant symbols and details for you. Click here to see how it works here.
Step 2: Estimating
Step 3: Material Pricing
Step 4: Quality Assurance
Customer Documentation Check
- Review of all Customer Documents
- Project Description
- Project description information
RFI Check
- Has the RFI been sent?
- Has the RFI response been understood and implemented into estimation correctly?
Estimating Tools Check
- Finish schedule
- Keynotes
- General notes
- Scales
- Unit conversions (feet & inches)
- Heights
- Plans & Enlarged Plans
- Elevations
- Details
- Symbols & Codes
- Name of locations
- Finish types
- Millwork Details
- Typical unit calculation
- Legend Table
- Pattern ratio calculation
- Alternates
Material Check
- Missing material information in finish schedule such as generic treatments
Note Check
- Check if the notes are clear and legible
- Detail page information for custom materials
Takeoff Check
- Quantity check for 3 highest quantities
- Quantity check in Location Based View in Takeoff for any odd quantities
- Check for preparations: Waterproofing / Crack Membrane / Anti Fracture / Mud-Set / Self-Leveling / Epoxy grout / Soundproofing (note to Sila – please add preparations for other trades e.g. primer, glue etc.)
- Is the pattern marked?
- Work type information
You can learn more about Quality Assurance and get your copy of checklist here.
Published by Sila Keskin
Let’s meet if you would like to hear more.
