Time taken to Prepare Bids

[hairymclary]

I was curious to find out how long it takes other estimators to prepare their bids from site visit, plan review, take off, through writing up the formal proposal. I am an electrician that has worked my way up to estimating mid-sized commercial projects around $250k - $350k, although I am self-taught and have never been shown a formal method of doing it - I do manual takeoffs and use Excel to manage the counts. I also manage electrical construction projects as well as the service department concurrently with preparing estimates, so it is easy to get bogged down trying to get these quotes out the door. My boss has some electrical background but has never worked in estimating and we are trying to figure out what an acceptable time commitment to prepare a a bid of this size is. I would love to hear from other estimators to find out how much time you spend putting something like this together. Thanks in advance for your feedback guys!

 

[wamegojim]

Estimate Time

Estimate Time

There are a lot of variables to consider. Some Drawings have tons of notes and detail on them. Some are fairly simple but end up at the same dollar value.

Each project is different and the the rule of thumb i used to hear of 4 hours per E-sheet may not apply.

 

[active1]

I've been told by one person they will average $80-$100K per day in estimating, This was a few years ago. I could never do that much in a day. But like said there is a ton of variables. Site visits, RFI's, pricing fixtures, notes on plans. On one side of the spectrum you are bidding 1 high dollar item like a generator. On the other side you have a remodel full of small amounts of work spread over a large area with many unknowns. Or when your asked to bid the same project different ways. Some plans seem like a easter egg hunt looking for all the gotya's.

 

[dduffee260]

I am working on one right now that is due today. I recieved the plans Monday afternoon. I am around 800k. This one is stressful since I have not had the time to devote to it. I may be a tad pricey but that tends to happen when the time is squeezed back.

Most of the time I like to have 6 hours for every 100k in work. Just a rule of thumb for me. Some are different that others. You ask me to bid some restaurants and I can click one out in an hour since we have done so many.

 

[Dnkldorf]

It would take me a full week to do a $400k quote. (easy)

It would be three days waiting on suppliers to get back to me with a FULL list of prices.

(they always seem to miss stuff, even whole pages)