To estimate a project’s whole-of-life cost from the owner’s perspective, work out what it will cost to build, operate and finance. • Break the project into packages. List the work you’ll buy: design, earthworks, concrete, structure, services and so on. Define what each package includes so you can check for gaps and double counting. • Prepare an early estimate. Use costs from similar projects, adjusted for size and scope. For example, multiply the building’s floor area by a suitable historical cost per square metre. Get indicative supplier prices where you lack good data. • Replace allowances with detailed prices. As the design develops, measure quantities and send drawings and scopes to contractors and suppliers for quotes. Compare their inclusions and exclusions, then allow for work or risks their prices leave with you. • Add the owner’s costs. Include land, approvals and project management. For costs such as project staff, multiply the monthly cost by the expected duration. Add allowances for identified risks and uncertainty. • Estimate ownership costs. If you’ll retain the asset, price its operation and maintenance using comparable assets or service-provider quotes. Allow for equipment replacements over its life and eventual removal where required. • Calculate funding needs. Put those costs and expected income on a timeline. Identify the cash shortfall and include the cost of financing it. • Review and set the budget. Test the assumptions, update the estimate as information improves, then organise the approved costs into packages the delivery team can track. Record what each figure is based on, what it includes and how certain it is. Watch the full explanation: https://youtu.be/3lhwUrXTgPI

There are five categories of tools we need to think about for estimating: - Take-off software - Estimating software - Document management - CRM and bid tracking - AI tools Some platforms do all of them, some only do one small, specific thing. Do I think you need five expensive construction-specific platforms? No. A smaller contractor could cover most of this with a purpose-built take-off tool, Excel, SharePoint or Google Drive, a simple CRM, and Claude or ChatGPT. As your team grows, dedicated estimating software or an all-in-one platform might make more sense. The important thing is choosing tools that suit your process and let you export your data. I broke down the different options in this video: https://youtu.be/AyL3tXCtz18 What does your current estimating stack look like? Which tools would you recommend?

Been experimenting with some ways to use AI to make savings in projects. The cheapest construction work is the work we can remove from scope AI can help identify value-engineering opportunities, but asking it to “find savings” across an entire project won't work. A better approach is to give it structured project data and divide the analysis into three focused workflows: 1. Design: Compare the developed design against the original contract requirements to identify scope growth, gold plating and over-specified products. 2. Procurement: Review major packages for items that could be purchased directly, free-issued or separated from a subcontract. Apply the “cable tie test”: the saving must justify the extra procurement and management risk. 3. Methodology: Test alternative crews, plant, sequences and production rates. Compare the direct-cost impact with programme changes and weekly preliminary costs. Each option should then be challenged by independent commercial, construction and site perspectives. AI’s role is to generate, compare and rank the options. Experienced people still decide which options are commercially, technically and practically viable. The quality of the result depends on the quality of the context: clear contract requirements, an itemized estimate, the construction programme and reliable productivity data. Anybody else found any strategies that work?

Hey everybody, thought I would kick off a new post for August. What are your goals for this month and what are you trying to get out of the community? Mine are pretty simple and straightforward 1. Keep experimenting with AI and sharing what I'm learning 2. Keep making a ton of youtube videos 3. Keep learning about construction project management and working out the best way to deliver projects and run a construction business Keen to hear what you're goals are and what you want to get out of the community

Electrical estimating is a procurement exercise more than a construction exercise. Some projects I've estimated have been upwards of 70% material cost. The installation is usually relatively simple — compare it to a civil job with in-situ pours and complicated temporary works. The complexity is in buying the right stuff. Which is why a tiny note on a drawing can wreck you. If the spec says fire-rated cable and you priced non-fire-rated, your materials are out. That cable is also bigger and heavier, so your productivity is out too. The fix is being back-to-back. Whatever your client asks for — spec, warranty, spare parts — goes straight into the RFQ you send your suppliers. And whatever qualification comes back in their quote goes into your letter of offer. If your cable supplier says their price is contingent on the copper index, that exact sentence needs to be in your offer to the client. Otherwise you've priced a job at a rate you can't actually buy at in three months. Full process end to end, with a worked example: https://youtu.be/HwqK2Luq9XU