The estimate handover: what the project team needs from estimating
The drywall subcontract is signed $41,000 under the estimate, and the monthly report calls it a saving. In month four the drywall foreman points to his exclusions: bulkheads were never in his price. The estimate had carried them, on a takeoff sheet the project team never saw.
Estimating should hand over the basis of the price, not just the price: the quantities, methods, crews, quotes, exclusions, allowances and risks behind it. Do it in a working meeting before the first subcontract is bought, and leave with a list of every place the site will build differently from the way the job was priced. The US Department of Energy's project glossary calls this the basis of estimate, which should describe the methods, schedule, site conditions, risks and assumptions that may affect costs. Without it, the team builds on its own assumptions, and the cost report finds the difference months later.
One working session, before buyout
- Ask for the estimate file a week ahead: the takeoff, pricing sheets, quote comparisons, bid-day adjustments and the bid's qualifications.
- Put the builders in the room: the estimator, the project manager, the superintendent and whoever buys the subcontracts.
- Walk the self-performed work method by method: the estimator states the method, crew, rate and equipment priced; the superintendent says how the site will build it.
- Read each trade's line against its quote: what the estimate carried, what the quote excluded, whether it covered every addendum, and which lines had no quote.
- Check allowances, alternates and qualifications against the signed contract, and put uncertain assumptions in the assumptions log.
- Finish with a differences list: each gap between how the job was priced and how it will be built, with its cost, decision, owner and date, carried into the working budget.
Common mistakes
- Emailing the estimate summary and calling it the handover.
- Holding the meeting after the first subcontracts are signed.
- Changing a method quietly on site, so the overrun cannot be explained later.
- Hunting for the estimator's mistakes, so the next estimator hands over less.
Checklist
Questions to ask the estimator
- Which lines had no quote?
- What method, crew and rate did you assume for our work?
- What did each quote exclude that you carried elsewhere?
- Which bid-day changes are not in the detail?
- Which allowances or alternates did the contract change?
- What worried you most when you priced it?
Check your understanding
A framing quote comes in $30,000 below the estimate's framing line. What do you check before calling it a saving?
