Estimating Methods

Wouldn't it be great if we could travel into the future and then look backwards to see where we have been? If we could do that we could see how long any job took and just copy it down. As it is we can't so we do the next best thing. We standardize things. ? ? There is absolutely nothing better than experience to know how much it will take to paint something. ? This is one reason for job-costing. And the more we breakdown the units of costing the more accurate picture we get when using these figures to estimate a job. ? After that it is easy enough to count doors and windows, or measure walls or ceilings. We then just plug in our historical figures for doors, or take our square foot historical price per square foot and multiply by our total square footage. The way I do any estimate is to take the time to paint an item with very little prep done. If there are special circumstances concerning prep then I add that to the estimate as a line item. Like 2000square feet siding = $312 + scrape and sand = $125 = total price of $437. This is an easy way to compartmentalize your items, otherwise it gets too complicated trying to standardize your historical data. We will have a line item for anything of an amount that can't be absorbed into the estimate. At the end of every subtotal we have a line item that includes the time to setup and prepare a room. This is where we usually add things like removal of switch plates, small spackling, clean up, caulking and putting it all back together. ? As we mentioned before we hate time and material. So the very best way to estimate things like wallpaper removal is to try and see if you can remove a little behind something or just ask if you can take a little off. Compare this with your historical square footage removal costs and multiply it out. ? Wallpaper removal can still be a crap shoot, that's why we always go a little high if there are unknowns. ? Imagine painting 6 windows all at chest height, with your paint on a small step ladder next to you, and you are standing on firm flat level ground. Now imagine that the windows are all at least 15 feet from the ground. We have a concept that we use all the time, we call it high time difficulty. What this means is in our effort to standardize we will say that the factor to paint the first scenario is x 1, o r no change. The second scenario is to count windows and multiply by a factor of 1.2, 20 feet we use 1.6. You might use something different. The idea of using a factor like this, saves time in estimating. We use a similar factor when estimating clapboard siding or shingle/shake siding. We take a flat wall price and multiply it by 12% or add 12% to the total siding to account for the time and material extra it will cost to paint the exposed edges of the boards. Another type of factor has to do with texture. A smooth sheetrock wall takes less time to paint than a rough texture stucco wall. Another factor might be to paint brick that has deep joints. ? The idea behind this type of estimate is to break the job down in your mind to all of its pieces in relation to a paint job. So that all 6 panel doors take 20 minutes per side, if we have to strip each door then that gets added to the cost of painting each door. By doing your estimates this way you only have to worry about the count, that you use the correct historical and difficulty factors. It also becomes easy to double check your estimates this way. The estimate becomes an objective exercise rather than a subjective estimate based on loose variables.