Division 22 / Estimated

Division 22 plumbing estimating

The fixtures are the visible half of a plumbing bid. The expensive half is often thirty feet of pipe under a public street, and it is decided by a plan note rather than the plan.

What we measure, and in what units

LF pipe by size and material
EA fixtures by type
EA valves, hydrants and specialties
EA cleanouts and floor drains
SF insulation
EA equipment
LF trench by depth for underground

What the deliverable looks like for this division

Underground and above ground as separate scopes with different crews and rates. Pipe by size and material along the routed runs from the riser diagrams and plans, fixtures by type from the schedule, and the utility boundary read from the notes rather than assumed from the plan.

Scope items routinely missed on this division

Only someone who has priced the work knows what falls through the gaps. No competitor publishes this list.

Underground against above ground as separate scopes with different crews and rates.
Trenching, bedding and backfill for underground work, and who prices it.
Deep street connections, which carry engineered shoring, slurry backfill, traffic control and city surface restoration. On one real job a 31 linear foot street lateral carried roughly a third of the sewer package.
Carriers and supports for wall hung fixtures.
Insulation on domestic hot and cold.
Cleanouts to the standard plan the jurisdiction requires.
The utility boundary. The tap, service and meter often sit with the utility, and a pressure regulating valve is often assigned to the plumber by a plan note. Read the notes, not just the plan.
Testing and disinfection.
Trap primers.

Documents needed to price it

Plumbing plans and riser diagrams
The fixture schedule
Civil sewer and water plans
The specification
The jurisdiction’s standard plans

Questions people in this trade actually ask

Where does the utility scope end and the plumbing scope begin?

Wherever the notes say, and it differs by jurisdiction and by job. The tap, service and meter are often the utility’s, and a pressure regulating valve is often the plumber’s by a single note. The boundary is written into the estimate rather than assumed.

How is a deep lateral connection priced?

As its own operation: shoring engineered for the depth, slurry backfill where the jurisdiction requires it, traffic control, and the city’s surface restoration standard. It is short, and it is disproportionately expensive.

Is trenching inside or outside the plumbing number?

It is carried explicitly and labelled, so you can see it and move it. What is never acceptable is for it to sit in nobody’s number.

Work of this kind

Construction
Express car wash, new build
Southern California
Grading, concrete, storm drain and bioretention, sanitary sewer, landscape, site lighting and alley reconstruction. Seven scopes consolidated into one proposal.
Estimating & Takeoff / Bid & Proposal Support