MT382 Unit 10 Detailed Construction Estimate Package Example

A Class 2 Estimate a Reviewer Can Test: An MT382 Unit 10 Detailed Estimate Package for a Recreation Center

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

MT382: Construction Cost Estimating

Unit 10 Detailed Estimate Package

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The project, quantities, prices and quotes are composite; the classification, practices and sources cited are real.

Part One: The Summary

Direct cost totals 13,236,000 dollars across twenty divisions, or 344.69 per square foot of the 38,400-square-foot building. The four largest divisions account for 44.7 percent: HVAC at 1,604,000 dollars; thermal and moisture protection, which carries the insulated metal panels and roofing, at 1,512,000; metals at 1,508,000; and electrical at 1,286,000. Concrete follows at 1,186,000 and finishes at 1,019,508. Site work appears in two divisions, earthwork at 612,000 and utilities at 634,492, together equal to the leveled site subcontract.

The Twenty Divisions

The remaining divisions complete the summary: existing conditions at 48,000 dollars for survey and demolition of a former tennis court; masonry at 642,000; wood, plastics and composites at 214,000; openings at 698,000; specialties at 182,000; equipment, chiefly the community kitchen, at 296,000; conveying equipment for the elevator at 118,000; fire suppression at 268,000; plumbing at 742,000; communications at 146,000; electronic safety and security at 132,000; and exterior improvements, paving and landscaping, at 388,000. Each total is the sum of its detail sheet, and the summary shows each division's share of direct cost so a reviewer can spot one that looks out of proportion.

General Conditions by Month

General conditions are priced from a staffing and facilities plan rather than as a percentage. A project manager at half time, a full-time superintendent and assistant superintendent, a project engineer, the field office, temporary utilities, cleanup, safety and testing coordination total 88,400 dollars a month. Fifteen months, from mobilization to final completion, give 1,326,000 dollars. A month added to the schedule would add 88,400 dollars here, which is why general conditions are tied to the schedule rather than to the building cost.

Markups in a Printed Order

Markups are applied in a fixed, printed order, because each rests on a different base. General conditions, priced by month for a fifteen-month construction period, add 1,326,000 dollars. The contractor's fee, at 4.5 percent of direct cost plus general conditions, adds 655,290. Bond and insurance, at 1.8 percent of everything above, add 273,911. The construction subtotal is 15,491,201 dollars.

Design contingency has stepped down to 3 percent at construction documents, adding 464,736 dollars. Escalation, from the estimate's September 2027 price date to the October 2028 construction midpoint, thirteen months at the forecast 4.2 percent a year, is 4.56 percent, or 727,250 dollars. The owner's construction contingency, at 5 percent, adds 834,159. The total is 17,517,346 dollars.

Part Two: Detail by Division

Each division has its own detail sheet, and each line carries quantity, unit, labor, material and equipment rates and the extension. Labor, material and equipment sit in separate columns, so a reviewer can question the crew rate without touching the block price. The masonry sheet shows the labor rate built in Unit 5, 13.19 dollars per block, as a visible line beside block, mortar and grout material and scaffold equipment, rather than buried in a combined unit price. Holm et al. (2005) recommend exactly this separation, because combined unit prices hide which component is out of line when an estimate is questioned.

Where subcontractor quotes replace in-house pricing, the leveled figure is used and named. Site work, for example, is carried at 1,246,492 dollars, bidder B's leveled price from Unit 9, including its unit-price allowance at the geotechnical report's quantities. The detail sheet notes the rock sensitivity found in that analysis.

Every figure on the summary page can be followed to a detail line, and every detail line to a quantity, a rate and a source.

Part Three: Basis of Estimate

The basis of estimate follows the recommended practice for that document (AACE International, 2014) in content, if not in every heading. It lists the construction documents priced and their dates; the pricing sources, including the contractor's historical cost data and current supplier quotes; the subcontractor quotes used and how each was leveled; allowances, such as the rock and unsuitable soil quantities; assumptions, such as a single construction phase and normal working hours; and exclusions, such as land, design fees, furniture and equipment, and utility company charges.

Estimate Class

With construction documents essentially complete and most of the cost priced from takeoff or leveled quotes, the estimate is a Class 2 estimate under the building-industry classification (AACE International, 2020), with an expected accuracy range far narrower than at schematic design.

Reconciliation to Design Development

The package closes by reconciling to the May design development total of 17,083,915 dollars. The new total is higher by 433,431 dollars, or 2.54 percent. Direct cost rose as the drawings were completed and quotes replaced allowances, while design contingency fell from 6 to 3 percent. The reconciliation table lists each division's change and each allowance's change, so the board can see that the increase came from priced scope rather than from new contingency.

How to Test the Package

A reviewer can test the estimate at three levels. At the top, the summary's division totals and markups should add to 17,517,346 dollars. In the middle, any division total should equal the sum of its detail lines. At the bottom, any detail line should equal its quantity times its rates, with the quantity traceable to a takeoff sheet and the rate to a named source. A failure at any level points directly to where the problem lies.

Escalation Basis

The price date is September 2027, when the last supplier quotes were received. The construction midpoint, October 2028, comes from the contractor's preliminary schedule: a March 2028 notice to proceed and a fifteen-month construction period, with spending weighted toward the middle months. The 4.2 percent annual rate is the same published forecast used in the January memo, so the escalation line changes only because the months changed. If the bid slips, the escalation line should be recalculated before the budget is set; each month of delay adds roughly 57,000 dollars of escalation at the current base, before the construction contingency applied on top of it.

What Remains Uncertain

Even at Class 2, three uncertainties remain and are named: the quantity of rock, the final price of the switchgear and transformer, and the steel joist market, which rose 11 percent between January and May. Each is covered by the construction contingency rather than added to the direct cost, and each will be reported against that reserve if it materializes.

References

AACE International. (2014). Basis of estimate (Recommended Practice No. 34R-05). AACE International.

AACE International. (2020). Cost estimate classification system: As applied for the building and general construction industries (Recommended Practice No. 56R-08). AACE International.

Holm, L., Schaufelberger, J. E., Griffin, D., & Cole, T. (2005). Construction cost estimating: Process and practices. Pearson Prentice Hall.