Estimating

Square Foot Estimating - and Assemblies.

It's simple, and can really speed up your job estimating.

Here's how it works. Let's say it costs $14.00 sheet for 1/2" CDX Plywood. Well you know there's 32 sqft in a 4x8 sheet, so $14.00 divided by 32 = .44 cents a sqft. Now if you spent some time analyzing wall framing for example, and estimated exactly how many lft of 2x4 it takes to cover 100 sqft of exterior wall including shoes and plates and anything else you wanted to include, you would find that it takes approx. 1.05 lft of 2x4 for every sqft of wall - based on 16" oc framing.

OK well if on average a 2x4 cost you say 30 cents a lft, then you could multiply 30 cents times 1.05 and get 32 cents a sqft. for your wall framing costs.

At this point you know 2 things. It costs $0.44 a sqft for the sheathing and it costs $0.32 a sqft for the framing. That's $0.76 a sqft for the "assembly" of 1/2" cdx and 2x4 16" oc framing. Now if you want to continue, you find out your sqft costs for sheetrock, insulation, roofing, sidings, etc.

If you knew how to run a spreadsheet like Excel or Quattro Pro or Lotus 123, you could amaze yourself with estimating. You could keep building assemblies. You have 2x6 16" oc - 2x8 16" oc - 2x10 16" oc - 2x12 - 16" oc - S/R - Insulation - Sheathings 1/2" 5/8" 3/4" - Roofing - reg. 25 yr. - Architectural - etc. etc.

In a spreadsheet you could maintain your sqft prices, then make your assemblies on demand or have them prebuilt.

If you did the spreadsheet right, every time a price change is put into effect, every instance of use of that item will automatically recalculate for all the assemblies.

It's our intention to start working on a program that will maintain a database of assemblies with monthly price updates for our dedicated contractors. You can dial in monthly and download the program.

OK - I got 1285 sqft of exterior wall with 2x4 16" oc - 1/2" cdx - 4" fiberglass insulation, 1/2" sheetrock - and perfections at 5-1/2" exposure.

Example Only

2x4 16 oc .35

1/2" CDX .45

4" Fiberglass .27

1/2" Sheetrock .30

Perfections @ 5-1/2" 1.25

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$2.62 sqft x 1285 = $3367

Doesn't that beat wasting time counting pieces and calling for a quote from your lumber yard !