How many of you guys use cost books? I was looking at a 2010 edition just to see what it's all about. Seems to me the labor units are pretty high. Anyone have experiences with these? Good or bad?
They likely are somewhat similar to the cost books used by mechanics. My brother when he was service manager for a garage said something once like they are for one handed mechanics who only own one screwdriver. Real mechanics can almost always do the job in far less time than the book says. He also said the book is for guys working alone. He said with a little help at certain points you can cut a lot of time out of the job.
I assume you mean cost estimating books. There are usually regional modifiers.
They may also define how they arrive at the numbers and you may be able to make further modifications to the numbers.
There's software on the market for the same purpose if you prefer a keyboard to reading a book. RS Means is very popular.
So I guess the big question is anybody using them?
For service work and minor remodel we use CS2. We have been very happy with it and our sales and revenue gave increased.
Never heard of that one. Will have to do some research