Construction / Trades
Trades weestimate
Subcontractors think in trades, not in disciplines, so this is the other way in. The order is deliberate and it reflects where the delivered work actually is.
Where the deepest experience sits
The first four carry the most delivered work and have pages written for them. They are also the four where no estimating firm currently competes in search, which is not a coincidence: they are the scopes most services will not take on. The rest is real delivered work whose pages are still being written, because a thin page helps nobody.
- 01Priority
Concrete restoration
Parking garages and decks priced from a condition assessment when no repair drawings exist.
SF patching / LF joints / EA anodes
Three garage programmes in one season. The deepest experience on this list.
- 02Priority
Acoustical ceilings
Grid and tile by type, perimeter angle, hangers, seismic bracing and cutouts by fixture.
SF grid + tile / LF angle / EA cutouts
Delivered as a major component of a large interior package.
- 03Priority
Interior demolition
Occupied and partially occupied buildings, containment, and disposal taken by weight.
SF finishes / LF partitions / TON disposal
A 129,000 square foot three storey retail building, floor by floor.
- 04Priority
Facade restoration
Survey and probe outputs converted to quantities, with access priced as the real line it is.
LF repointing / EA units / SF access
Facade scope review on record, and directly adjacent to the restoration work above.
- 05
Cast in place concrete
Formwork by contact area, reinforcing by weight, and every joint and embed counted.
CY concrete / SFCA forms / TON rebar
Delivered on multiple site and building packages.
- 06
Sitework and grading
Cut and fill reconciled against the engineer’s own earthwork table, carried in yards and tons.
CY cut + fill / TON import / SF paving
Street widening, wildfire rebuild and car wash site packages.
- 07
Drywall and ceilings
Assemblies by rating and layer, shaftwall, resilient channel and light gauge drops.
SF board by layer / LF partition by height
A 129 unit six storey wood frame building.
- 08
Masonry
Block and veneer with reinforcing, grout, lintels and anchors carried on their own lines.
SF wall / EA units / CY grout
One Division 04 estimate delivered. Real, but thinner than the trades above.
- 09
Commercial swimming pools
Institutional and school district pool scopes, including decommissioning and infill.
SF shell / CY excavation / LS equipment
Two delivered engagements, both public sector.
A note on trades not listed
If your scope is not here, ask. The measurement method does not change from trade to trade. What matters is whether we have priced enough of your kind of work to be useful to you, and if we have not, we will say so rather than take the job.
Bidding a package in one of these?
Send the documents and the bid date. A fee and a turnaround come back before anything is measured.