Quoting for large decking job?
Discussion
One of our contractors has been asked about a 400 square meter decking job and although the materials are relatively easy to work out they have no idea how long it will take them, to the point that they'd prefer not to quote and leave them with a big job and no profit. They said that based on their last decking job the cost would be over £100K!! (Obviously not realistic). This is out of my area so to speak so thought someone on here may be able to help?
Do they do proper estimating or do they guess the materials and time, add a bit then give a figure? I'm guessing the latter and they deal with smaller jobs so their pricing just seems to work.
I'm an estimator by trade (electrical) and whilst I don't do decking etc, in theory it's the same.
In short... Work out how much kit they need, put it in a spreadsheet line by line, add a realistic fit time for each item. i.e you need X lengths of decking and one length of decking will take Y amount of time to lay and screw down, times X by Y and you should get a realistic fit time. Do this for every bit of material needed, decking, frame parts, screws, even for labour elements like digging holes etc, The more detail you go into the more accurate the costings will be..
Then add a material cost to each line item from above.
Then add a material mark up for profit on each line item for material.
Then add a labour cost per hour.
Then add a labour mark up per hour.
After that it's just formulas in excel really... one template should suit for most jobs.
Material cost per unit * number of units
Material mark up per unit * number of units
Fit time per unit * number of units
total fit time * labour cost
total fit time * labour mark up
total cost being material cost + material mark up + total fit time cost + total fit time mark up.
Don't forget operational costs, overheads, travel etc if necessary. Hopefully they'll have the first two items known already in their "cost per hour price".
Hope that makes sense. But a fairly simple spreadsheet could be knocked up quite quickly to allow easy, quick estimating on a small scale. Just make sure they are realistic with their fit times to start with, then fettle it afterwards. They must have a rough idea of how long they think it'll take them..so once the spreadsheet is complete divide the total hours by 40 and it'll tell you how many weeks (or do it by days if smaller) is allowed on the job, then it's just a bit of common sense as to whether it seems realistic or not.
Don't forget as well that 40 hours is a week for one person, but it's only 2.5 days if you're using two people...and so on and so on...
I'm an estimator by trade (electrical) and whilst I don't do decking etc, in theory it's the same.
In short... Work out how much kit they need, put it in a spreadsheet line by line, add a realistic fit time for each item. i.e you need X lengths of decking and one length of decking will take Y amount of time to lay and screw down, times X by Y and you should get a realistic fit time. Do this for every bit of material needed, decking, frame parts, screws, even for labour elements like digging holes etc, The more detail you go into the more accurate the costings will be..
Then add a material cost to each line item from above.
Then add a material mark up for profit on each line item for material.
Then add a labour cost per hour.
Then add a labour mark up per hour.
After that it's just formulas in excel really... one template should suit for most jobs.
Material cost per unit * number of units
Material mark up per unit * number of units
Fit time per unit * number of units
total fit time * labour cost
total fit time * labour mark up
total cost being material cost + material mark up + total fit time cost + total fit time mark up.
Don't forget operational costs, overheads, travel etc if necessary. Hopefully they'll have the first two items known already in their "cost per hour price".
Hope that makes sense. But a fairly simple spreadsheet could be knocked up quite quickly to allow easy, quick estimating on a small scale. Just make sure they are realistic with their fit times to start with, then fettle it afterwards. They must have a rough idea of how long they think it'll take them..so once the spreadsheet is complete divide the total hours by 40 and it'll tell you how many weeks (or do it by days if smaller) is allowed on the job, then it's just a bit of common sense as to whether it seems realistic or not.
Don't forget as well that 40 hours is a week for one person, but it's only 2.5 days if you're using two people...and so on and so on...
Edited by MrSparks on Thursday 24th September 19:12
Well 500sqm of decking alone would attract a substantial discount on materials vs small orders from a local D&Q shed or merchant. Try getting the materials quoted by a specialist timber merchant or distributor.
100k suggests they think it'll be £200sqm which sounds about quadruple to double what it should be.
100k suggests they think it'll be £200sqm which sounds about quadruple to double what it should be.
My decking jobs (standard softwood) come in at around £100 per square metre. A lot depends on the ground levels, height of decking, shape, etc. Most of the work is in ground preparation and building the frame. On a large deck there would be a lot of work getting it level (with 5% slope for rain runoff).
Off the top of my head, for a residential, low-level, rectangular deck of 400 square metres on level ground, I'd expect the cost to be around £60K, allowing for some contingency. Of course, if it's a commercial job, with the possibility of use by the general public, everything has to be over-engineered for safety (a deck that size could accommodate hundreds of people at once). In that case, I'd want to use a steel frame, which would increase the cost dramatically.
Off the top of my head, for a residential, low-level, rectangular deck of 400 square metres on level ground, I'd expect the cost to be around £60K, allowing for some contingency. Of course, if it's a commercial job, with the possibility of use by the general public, everything has to be over-engineered for safety (a deck that size could accommodate hundreds of people at once). In that case, I'd want to use a steel frame, which would increase the cost dramatically.
Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff