Using Manual of labor unit for bidding?

[Gbeu92]

So I am attempting to use a manual of labor units to speed up my bidding process.

Typically I would do a complete take off based on my estimated time to complete each portion of the project.

I am doing a bid now and I figured I'd give this a try to see how it works for me.

I understand how to use it mostly. What I'm not sure about is if the number (labor units x hourly rate + expenses + profit) is supposed to include the material cost for said installation?

Example: 100 foot of 3" rigid conduit is 26.0 labor units for a "difficult" installation. Is that x hourly rate supposed to include the cost of conduit itself?

Thanks in advance for any insight on this.

 

[paulengr]

So I am attempting to use a manual of labor units to speed up my bidding process.

Typically I would do a complete take off based on my estimated time to complete each portion of the project.

I am doing a bid now and I figured I'd give this a try to see how it works for me.

I understand how to use it mostly. What I'm not sure about is if the number (labor units x hourly rate + expenses + profit) is supposed to include the material cost for said installation?

Example: 100 foot of 3" rigid conduit is 26.0 labor units for a "difficult" installation. Is that x hourly rate supposed to include the cost of conduit itself?

Thanks in advance for any insight on this.

No. Hint: Manual if LABOR units.

Expenses would include materials.

 

[Gbeu92]

Thought so lol. Felt like it was a dumb question but since I'm new to this method of bidding I figured I'd ask.

 

[paulengr]

Thought so lol. Felt like it was a dumb question but since I'm new to this method of bidding I figured I'd ask.

If you don’t have good representative costs it’s better than nothing. On most of our jobs we take materials marked up 10-20% depending on the job and estimate labor in man-days multiplied by a daily rate. Most of our jobs are service jobs with 1-5 days of labor with 1-;4 techs. Plus per diem and rental equipment if needed. Most include significant travel time so the daily rate makes more sense than hourly. So estimating is a bit crude but simple.

The toughest thing to estimate is contingency. I have the recommendations from the AACE. It’s crude and they even say that it is but it’s better than nothing. With their method you add about 10-25% depending on your level of comfort. So a job with few unknowns gets 10% while a high risk job that is not T&M with a lot of unknown gets 25%. Most jobs are 15%.