When pricing a Construction Progression job . . .

[BigAl07]

I just returned from a construction site that I do every 2 weeks for the client. This job has been ongoing now for almost 8 months with at least 3 more to go. While I was there the local Police Chief stopped by to hang out (he's a very good friend) and he asked a question that I'm not sure anyone has addressed here and I thought I'd put something out there. He said, "How in the world do you know how to price something like this because it changes so much from the beginning until the finished product. How do you know what it's going to be when it's complete and know you've put enough into the bid?"

When you're pricing/bidding a construction job you need to know what the finished product will look like and how much is expected of you. Let's take the current job as an example:

Initially there was a small strip mall standing that had to be demolished and removed. This covered about 8 acres of work and initially this is the only thing we had to go on in terms of size of the project.

Once the strip mall was gone the project grew by about 400% as the crews removed trees, asphalt, outer buildings and created a much larger clearing. So of course my Scope of Work just went up, by 400%.

After the initial "rough" excavating was done the crew moved to an adjacent area and started clearing more but at an elevated location. This doubled the size of the project once again. The project is now 800% bigger than it had originally looked like it was going to be.

Now as building progresses you have more "stuff" to take pictures of (we document inventory, equipment, catch drains etc) and as it goes along your shot list grows and grows. What started out for me as a 7 minute (from the time I turned off my car until I started it again) is now roughly 38min and it's still growing.

Fortunately for me we met with the Const company long before anything was done and got a vision for the COMPLETE project and also what they expected from us on each visit. We knew from the start exactly what they wanted/needed and built this into our bids for them. We bid it high and I'm pretty sure we got it because we had a strong high quality port folio that we presented in our initial meeting. We priced it on the final project and what was expected as opposed to what we thought the project would be. If we had not done the research and had those early meetings my $$ per minute would be minimal at best at this point.

So before you go pricing a big job know what you're looking at, what your client expects, and what you need to make per HR to maintain the company.

 

[R Martin]

So the bottom line is make sure you are bidding on the 100% documents and you also need to talk to your client and make sure you both understand the project scope and expectations. From the other side of the coin, any bid received and contract signed will be based on the 100% docs and any overages on your part you eat. Any additions to the project after the 100% docs are approved and notice to process has been given is covered as a separate cost under an RFI usually and is negotiable.

100% docs = final construction plans approved by the customer for construction
any other % = construction documents still under the design and review process; they are not considered complete**

**note: some companies may begin construction as early as 60% docs and design as they go. If you run into this type of job you really need to be on a cost plus agreement because no one knows how much this is really going to cost and the final scope of work.

 

[R.Perry]

I don't bid the construction jobs, but I know how it works. The job is bid based on the finished product. Here in is a problem that we encountered. The job was originally bid for progressions, elevations, and panos as needed. Two visits a week for three years, last year one visit per week. Everything went well and then our salesman wanted to show them mapping, but they didn't want to pay additional, go figure. So we realized they weren't viewing the elevations (the most time consuming shoot) so we cut back on the elevations frequency and started doing mapping once a month. Then I was asked could you possibly shoot a video for us, sure I can, figuring this was going to be a one shoot thing, not so, now they want a weekly video, and mapping twice a month. That is where we drew the line, no mapping twice a month without more money. We are still doing ok money wise, because a elevation shoot on just one building can run about 120 photos and a bunch of time, (hour minimum) and no body looks at them. Mapping takes the drone about 30 minutes and two sets of batteries, however the mapping isn't cheap to produce the end result.
Not only that now I need to overfly the active college once a month to perform the progression shoots on one of the building going up, fortunately the college approved it and included spotters to keep students at bay.

So my thoughts are bid high, let the client know additional services will include additional costs. Our client had never had construction documentation so they really didn't know our capabilities. That's where sales and good communications is to vitally important. Our salesman hasn't been on site for five months now, there in lies another problem.

 

[R.Perry]

The two buildings on left and top of photo are the ones I need to overfly to shoot the one on the right. The one on the left is student housing and the top class rooms and housing. I've been given a 15 minute window 8:45 to 9:00 to complete the shoot so there will be no elevations shoots but only progression. (picture and resolution has been downsized for posting.