Estimating Building Costs for the Residential and Light Commercial Construction Professional

How to succeed in the construction business--step-by-stepguidelines for estimating To be competitive, contractors and homebuilders need to know howto generate complete, accurate estimates for labor and materialcosts. This book guides readers through the entire estimatingprocess, explaining in detail how to put together a reliableestimate that can be used not only for budgeting, but also fordeveloping a schedule, managing a project, dealing withcontingencies, and ultimately making a profit. Completely revised and updated to reflect the new CSIMasterFormat 2010TM system, the Second Edition of this practicalguide describes estimating techniques for each building system andhow to apply them according to the latest industry standards. Costconsiderations and quantity takeoff and pricing are included forvirtually every type of work found in residential and lightcommercial projects, from demolition, concrete, and masonry towindows and doors, siding, roofing, mechanical and electricalsystems, finish work, and site construction. Complete with many new graphics and references to professionalconstruction cost databases, the new edition provides experiencedcontractors and novices alike with essential information on: * How to correctly interpret plans and specifications, reflectingupdates to contract documents since the first edition * Computer estimating techniques and new estimating software forperforming quantity takeoff * The best methods for conceptual estimating as well as theextremely useful topic of parametric estimating * How to allocate the right amounts for profit and contingencies,and other hard-to-find professional guidance * How a unit price estimate is built along with labor issues andbudgeting for subcontractor work