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The estimators in our office are extremely busy people, often working on 4-5 projects at a time in varying stages of design. As an Owner, here are 6 steps you can take to get the most value out of your estimator during preconstruction.

1. Hire the right contractor for your project and process.

Some construction companies aren’t experienced in preconstruction work, thus they don’t have estimators who are capable of estimating projects throughout the varying design stages. Conceptual estimating and hard bid estimating require two different skill sets. Hard bid estimators tend to throw an arbitrary factor or contingency on their conceptual estimate to cover program and scope they don’t know how to anticipate. Make sure the company you hire has someone with proven conceptual estimating experience.

2. Get the contractor involved early.

The earlier you hire your contractor, the better. By getting us involved in the beginning of the design process, we can limit surprises and value engineering at the end of preconstruction. We help you make informed decisions to stay within budget. We can provide design assistance and continual cost forecasting by pricing multiple scenarios to provide the architect with feedback needed to meet both the program and budget goals. We can also provide systems recommendations that work with your budget.

3. Make your contractor a part of the team.

Don’t exclude us from key decision-making meetings. We don’t work in a bubble. Isolating our exposure to the team and the planning prevents us from helping you get the best value on your project and limits our ability to provide you with more than simply cost feedback. To streamline the preconstruction process, we need to work together, so we can provide regular feedback to the design team. They won’t have to redesign multiple times, so we won’t have to price things multiple times. In this approach, we’ll be counting on you to make timely decisions.

4. Openly share your expectations.

The architect is typically kept in the loop about the true budget for the project, while the contractor may not be. This doesn’t help anyone, especially you. In fact, you may be wasting your money by not communicating with us. We can provide better budget and scope feedback to you and the architect if we know the true budget. We also need to know how you define success for your project. After we understand that, our cost feedback becomes more effective, because it’s informed by your goals. This means we need to know what’s more important to you: your building program or your budget. It’s important to tell the estimator if there’s wiggle room in the budget to ensure that you receive your entire program. We often receive mixed messages about needing to cut construction costs while the owner continues to add scope to the project. Is your budget more flexible than you let on? Does the program need to be adjusted or can the budget be increased to meet the program needs?

5. Provide sufficient time for budgeting feedback.

Don’t give the estimator one week to turn around a formal budget. You won’t get the quality feedback you need, and the budget will suffer. Set realistic timeline goals by understanding how long each team member needs to be ready for key Board approval dates, then work backwards from there to set your deadlines. This helps you make timely decisions and creates an informal Lean approach to preconstruction by working backwards from key dates.

6. Limit the number of formal budgets to 3-4.

If you turn to the contractor to price out every little change in the design, you run the risk of burning out the estimators and subcontractors by going back to them too many times. It’s unrealistic to ask subs to price every minor change. However, if you’re following the suggestions above, this shouldn’t be a factor.

Contact us to see how we can help you with your next construction project.