Articles and Tips

The construction industry is a competitive field, where companies tender against one another to win a contract. Builders and construction companies must be competitive to win bids, yet need to protect their margins and remain profitable. Finding a balance between bidding low to attract clients and protecting against cost over-runs is essential. Estimating software is a useful tool that can help in preparing effective tenders. Running a successful construction business demands that you do not under-price ...

Construction take off software is a popular collection of programs, processes and information that are needed to form part of the cost estimating method in the construction industry. Construction managers and workers use construction blueprints, both electronic and manual, and begin planning a project by “taking off” quantities of items they will need from those planning drafts in order to prepare for a section of the overall estimate. An example of a take off could be estimating the amount of wiring nee...

Building estimating is probably almost as old as building itself. You would guess that the builders of the ancient pyramids of Egypt had to produce an estimate before they started building, answering some of the Pharaohs questions such as how much, how long and how many slaves required. To every estimator these questions will be very familiar, maybe apart from the slaves!  If we jump over to 1914 another good example of poor estimating was the Panama Canal, which ran $23 million under budget. This w...

There are two essential steps in costing and estimating construction works. Firstly you need to determine the area and amounts for every building element and secondly you need to price the materials, labour, plant and subcontract rates needed to build each component. At its heart every estimate is an assessment of quantity and cost. By working in tandem with take-off software to find quantities and estimating programs to build costs, you can create faster and more accurate tenders and quotes. One of the ...