OUCH!!!! I missed some items on takeoff for first time!!

[quogueelectric]

This has never happened to me before!! This stinks@@!! I missed 4 recessed lights in a master br on the takeoff!! I was going over extras and was comparing room for room extras when I noticed for the first time in the history of the world I the infalable COW made a 500$ mistake. OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH !! CherryPitts!!!!!!

 

[quogueelectric]

This has never happened to me before!! This stinks@@!! I missed 4 recessed lights in a master br on the takeoff!! I was going over extras and was comparing room for room extras when I noticed for the first time in the history of the world I the infalable COW made a 500$ mistake. OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH !! CherryPitts!!!!!!

Add 4 arcfault tamperproof rec to the damage. Stop the bleeding. I got the hr thank the good lord.

 

[nolabama]

dont ever let it happen again - keep that up and youll go broke

 

[Lcdrwalker]

I was bidding a $150K project and forgot to add any profit and overhead.

I learned the hard way, double check, triple check, let it rest a day or two and check it again. If possible, have someone else check on my checks.

 

[mxslick]

I was bidding a $150K project and forgot to add any profit and overhead.

I learned the hard way, double check, triple check, let it rest a day or two and check it again. If possible, have someone else check on my checks.

I can relate. I forgot some key items in a recent $167k bid to install a screening room. Really going to take a hit in the profit margin.

But I have a second bid coming up which should be much higher in range, you can bet your tookus I'm gonna have some extra sets of eyes looking over that bid!!

 

[hardworkingstiff]

What was that post in another thread? Something like the better you are at estimating the fewer jobs you get? :smile:

Funny how when you go into a bid, you get the job, and you wonder, "what did I miss?".

 

[mdshunk]

I usually do the takeoffs at night, or over several nights, and look it over again in the morning after breakfast. I sometimes find things the next day that I didn't notice the night before. I still miss stuff from time to time anyhow. I wouldn't really call 4 recessed lights the end of the world, though. You didn't really lose $500. You only lost the cost of 4 fixtures, a little bit of wire, and a little bit of labor. Maybe you can get a change order on the trims or lamps to help out.

 

[celtic]

.... let it rest a day or two and check it again. ...

Best advice yet.

It is amazing what you can see when you stop looking ~ and then look at again.

 

[peter d]

Silly cow. Estimating is for human beings!

 

[Dr.Sparks]

I would love to be able to say that I only missed 4 can lights..My biggest to date was a 1200 amp switchgear. My vendors took their sweet ole time with the price and on bid day I had to go out of town so I had my secretary plug in the number when it came in and send it off to the primes. Well, she plugged in $45 for a breaker that I was also waiting on a price for.......She now knows exactly what a SQD 1200 switchboard with a GFI Main and shunt trip is....luckily as always there was an EC that put in a ridiculously low bid so goodbye and good biddins' to that near disaster!

 

[ITO]

Look its just how this works, if you don't leave something off you wont get the job.

Perfect estimates are rarely low bid.

 

[growler]

I wouldn't really call 4 recessed lights the end of the world, though. You didn't really lose $500. You only lost the cost of 4 fixtures, a little bit of wire, and a little bit of labor. Maybe you can get a change order on the trims or lamps to help out.

Missing 4 can lights on the take off wouldn't bother me at all, missing 4 can lights on the install would be bad. I would just be happy I caught a little mistake before it turned into a big mistake.

Marc is right almost any little mistake will cost more than those can lights.

 

[Rockyd]

Hardworkingstiff,

Would it be this niggling little truism?

The better you get at estimating, the less likely you are to actually get the job...

 

[masterinbama]

We all miss something every now and then. The ones I hate are the ones hidden in fine print or side notes. I make it a point to look for these first.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/shane.karen/laughs/humorous_definitions_for_constru.htm

 

[480sparky]

If you land the job, start selling extras.....

 

[barclayd]

I was doing some estimating a few years ago - upgrading some services on a university campus. I sort of missed the cost of a 500kva oil-filled padmount transformer. Had the pad, the conduits, wires, terminations - just forgot the transformer.
We got the job and still made a good profit.
If I had included the cost of the transformer, we wouldn't have got the job.
Life is crazy sometimes.
db

 

[ITO]

My favorite gotchas are when the Arch/Engineers puts electrical scope items in Mechanical, Plumping and Architectural plan and spec pages, with absolutely no reference to them at all in the E-Sheets or div-16 specs.

 

[Wireless36]

My favorite gotchas are when the Arch/Engineers puts electrical scope items in Mechanical, Plumping and Architectural plan and spec pages, with absolutely no reference to them at all in the E-Sheets or div-16 specs.

Why is that a "Gotcha"? Don't you specify what seets the bid is for?

 

[480sparky]

My favorite gotchas are when the Arch/Engineers puts electrical scope items in Mechanical, Plumping and Architectural plan and spec pages, with absolutely no reference to them at all in the E-Sheets or div-16 specs.

Still, the P and M sheets are well worth perusing. It may well increase your bid, but as Wireless36 points out, if your bid has dollars attached to those pages and Fly-By-Night Electric's bid doesn't.......

 

[cowboyjwc]

It didn't happen to me, but I was working on a job once and the general contractor realized when it came time to buy them, that he hadn't included the cost of the doors in his bid. Guess he and the owner were trying to decide which doors to get and when they hadn't decieded yet he just put in the bid, but forgot the note that stated "doors not included."