Steps to Estimate a construction Project

Estimating a construction project budget can be a tedious task that is accentuated by the fact that there are three types of costs that need to be considered. Project budgets generally contain variable, fixed and per-use costs. Depending on the size of the project, it is beneficial to use a spreadsheet to calculate and set the project budget.

Instructions:

Set the variable pay rates. For costs that fluctuate based on the number of hours consumed, set a standard pay rate. Estimate the number of hours that the resource will be assigned to a task and multiply those hours by the standard pay rate. For example, if you need to hire a contractor and mason, you can set the market standard pay rates per hour, respectively. If you believe the project will take 160 hours for each employee, your total can be calculated easily. Create a pay rate and time estimate for each variable expense in the project. After multiplying the rate by the time estimate, add up these figures so you will have the total variable cost.

Calculate per-use costs of the materials. If a particular resource costs a certain amount each time it is used, take note of the cost per use and then estimate the total amount of times you will be using it for the project. This is generally one project task that has both variable and fixed costs. For instance, the project requires a piece of machinery that has large setup costs and then hourly employee wages to run it. Combining both of these costs of the task is more efficient than tracking them separately, so you can easily manage efficiencies. As with the variable costs, calculate the estimated per-use costs for each per-use expense you perceive in the project to determine the total per-use costs.

Compute fixed costs. List all the costs that are one-time expenses that will not vary throughout the project or that you don't expect to pay more than once. For instance, fixed costs could be purchasing software, machinery, equipment or licenses. Add up all of the fixed costs to get the project's total fixed costs.

List the variable, per-use and fixed costs and then total the amount. This is considered the total estimate for the construction project's budget.

Create an addendum to include estimates. Underneath the total estimate for the project's budget, include all of the estimates used for devising this figure. For instance, say you believe it will take 160 hours each for the programmer and website designer to complete this project.

If you find all these things too much complex then just hire a professional estimator. He will do the estimates of your construction project efficiently. Quantity-TakeOff is one of the websites who provides services in different kinds of estimating.