Bidding and Estimating Procedures for Construction (2nd Edition) - Hardcover

Johnston, Hal; Mansfield, G.L.

9780130821973: Bidding and Estimating Procedures for Construction (2nd Edition)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0130821977 ISBN 13: 9780130821973

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2001

A textbook for students, beginning estimators, project managers, and contractors, offering an overview of traditional and computer-based estimating practice. Includes coverage of computer estimating, the bonding process, the selection of projects, the decision to bid through quantity take-off, pricing, and marketing. Previous edition: c1983. DLC: Construction projects.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Back Cover:

Offering a good blend of the estimating process and quantity take-off procedures, this new edition is suitable for students, beginning estimators, project managers, and constructors who need an overview of traditional and computer-based estimating practice. The estimate is one of the cornerstones of the construction process and it must be correctly organized, prepared, and presented—often within a short period of time. This book will help estimators meet the demands of the job in a professional and timely manner.

Key features of this new edition include:

A chapter on computerized estimating.
Coverage of the bonding process.
Comprehensive coverage ranging from the selection of projects and the decision to bid through quantity take-off, pricing, and marketing.
Well illustrated with charts, graphs, and drawings to work from.
Metric conversions provided to assist readers who are now working in metric.

PREFACE

This book reviews procedures and methods that would assist an estimator to prepare an estimate in a professional manner. Examples of quantity takeoff and pricing are limited to those trades traditionally performed by general contractors with their own labor force (although many of these are now subcontracted to specialty contractors): excavation and general earthwork operations, concrete and formwork, masonry, and rough and finished carpentry work.

This is not an estimating reference book that an estimator can flip through to find unit costs of plastering, or painting, or plumbing or heating installations, or other specialty trade work. There are many excellent books available that cover those and similar items.

For whom, then, has this book been written? The person we visualized when we started writing was a young person presently taking, or having recently completed, a two-year construction technology course at a university or polytechnic institute. This course would emphasize quantity surveying and estimating techniques. We hope this book might prove a useful source of reference or add further dimension or perspective to what had been taught and studied, or be equally useful to someone starting a career in the construction industry, particularly as a junior or trainee estimator.

Who else might find it useful? A construction company manager might dip into these pages for some background on estimating and bidding functions. Also, someone starting a new construction company—an ex-superintendent or engineer perhaps—might learn a few pointers about organizing an estimating division. Even a few veteran estimators (our peers, in fact) might gain a certain satisfaction from seeing some of their own methods endorsed or might feel even more satisfied with their own methods where they differ from those recommended in these pages.

The quantity takeoff examples are provided to demonstrate some of the fundamental quantity surveying techniques, although I fully agree that time limitations would restrict the indulgence in such meticulous recording and side-noting of the dimensions. However, it is beneficial to all of us, trainees and experienced estimators alike, to be occasionally reminded about the basic rules of good quantity surveying practices.

The quantities and examples of priced estimates evolve around a university or college building to be used as a research center. The drawings of this building in the text show only the pertinent details necessary for a demonstration of quantity takeoff. In some instances, items appear on the quantity sheets or in the estimate summaries for which no drawings or details are provided in the text.

A brief work should be said about the metric or SI (Systeme international) units noted on the Schedules of Items and Measurements in later chapters. These units are intended to show the recommended units of measurement for work measured in the metric system; they do not represent the exact equivalent in metric for an American unit of measurement. For example, the recommended unit of measurement for an item stated in American as a "square foot" is usually stated in metric as a square meter of m2, even though a square meter (10.764 sft) is closer in actual size dimensions to a square yard. Also the metric dimensions shown on the drawings are hard metric conversions, indicating what these dimensions would be if the project were designed in metric.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.