What resources do you use when coming up with an estimate? Do you use RSMeans? Are they a trusted resource in the industry?
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We do not use RSMeans for residential projects. Our experience has been that using our own historical cost data is very reliable when providing our clients with a cost projection.
We use a two step residential contracting process; initially entering into a Design Agreement followed by a Construction Agreement.
The Design Agreement deliverable is a package of three items: plans and specifications with which a Buliding Permit can be secured, a cost estimate, and a projected construction schedule. If the plans, cost project and schedule are acceptable to the client, we draft a Construction Agreement.
Our Construction Agreement is for a fixed total cost. We arrive at the fixed cost in the Construction Agreement by executing a full take off of the project including a fully costed line item breakout.
We allow very little guesswork in our costing process because we don’t like surprises; more importantly, we don’t like cost surprises for our clients.
We do not use RS Means, or any other published data for our cost projections. Rather, we rely on internal data generated over years of experinece and our established relationships with our subcontractors, vendors and suppliers.
As a Design-Build firm, we genrally cost a job prior to cmpletion of design and permit documents using allowances for various items that are not yet clearly identified in either quantity, quality or both.
Once design documents are completed, allowances can, if needed, be adjusted to suit.