Experience of Estimating

Last week we were given the task of estimating the concrete and supporting materials in a research facility in Roanoke. There were some problems but also a lot to learn. The take off is the first step and some problems arose with that. First the drawing we were using was in a very small scale and it was difficult to read the numbers for dimensions. Next we were to use the take off we did and RS Means website to get a unit and assembly estimate based on average building costs from Roanoke. Some of the problems with RS Means were that there were so many choices of materials and processes that it was hard to determine which ones to use since we were not given enough details. We then had to put in our number from the take off we did into the materials and processes in RS Means and it spit out a number for us. After that we exported that into Excel and manipulated the numbers of the materials to fit our project. Finally we put both estimates onto one sheet and save it, posted this to scholar and dropped a hard copy into the office. Above are screen shots of the unit and assembly estimates that I took from my Excel files that I posted to Scholar. The top one is unit and assembly is the bottom.