Top Factors to Consider When Estimating Ground Up

We estimate a lot of ground up construction projects. In doing so, we have developed what we consider to be the most important factors to consider that will affect the costs the most. In the interest of keeping this short, I’ll make a list of items and why they are important. To us a building is a building and while the design and features matter, they don’t matter to us as much as the civil/sitework portion does. Reason being is that you can build 10 McDonalds restaurants, and they can all have similar layouts and work out to roughly the same price per square foot…but the site costs can vary wildly. We have had McDonalds sitework estimates come to as little at $150K and as much as $900K depending on what is involved. So here we go, in order of what we think is most important to least important factors to consider:

1.      Access to the site- where are we going to put the laydown yard, the staging areas, where can people park, can large semi-trucks deliver to the site easily. If these items have to take place off site, they can add significant costs.

2.    Existing soils- do we have to remove and replace existing, or haul off hazardous soils and import new? These can carry the biggest costs on a sitework bid. Has a geotechnical report been done? If so, get it and read it.

3.     What are we demolishing to make the site ready? If there are buildings, do they contain asbestos? If abatement is required, it adds a lot of costs

4.       Utility tie ins- where are we getting sewer/drainage/water from? What is in the way that may require demolishing/replacing just to tie in the new to existing utilities? Sometimes this involves a lot of expensive curb/landscaping/pavement rework to run the utilities

5.       Is there room on site to store excavated soils from the foundation or must it be immediately trucked off? And how far is the disposal area? If we are working in the middle of Boston, the truck back and forth time is high so we will only be able to haul so many loads per day.

6.       For the foundation work, is shoring required? Shoring prices, to keep the dirt outside of the building footprint from collapsing in during construction, can be ridiculous.

7.       Now moving on to the building, what is the shell of the building made of? Steel, concrete, wood? Do we need a large crane or tower crane to get materials to upper levels or to the roof?

8.       What type of roof is it?

9.       What type of flooring is going in? Tile, expensive terrazzo?

10.   Is there any specialty wall paneling inside our outside? Wood and metal paneling can add significant costs

That’s our quick list. Mostly site work related but we always want to know a few things about the building as well - especially if the drawings are in an early schematic phase. By identifying these factors, that can save you from leaving a lot of money on the table and will allow you to have a more accurate bid.