A building estimator provides cost, material and labour estimates so projects can be better organised.Construction projects no matter how big or small are affected by a wide range of variables. From material scarcity to bad weather, labour issues and overruns, there are many hurdles that a construction project may face.
While it is unlikely that you will face all of these issues, you would be very lucky to avoid any issues throughout your construction project.
While completely accurate results are impossible to come by, estimates provide a lot of valuable information for all stakeholders and make planning and organisation that much easier for builders, suppliers and contractors.
What does a cost estimator do?
Whether it is a manual building estimator or construction estimating software which is used, there are a variety of roles taken care of by a building estimator.
If you are a small contractor, then you may undertake traditional handwritten cost estimates using plans and drawings from your client.
Anything bigger than this will often require building estimating software.
A Building estimator will use information gathered from:
- Architects
- Subcontractors
- Suppliers
- Investors
- Builders
- Other service providers
To arrange costs, material and supply estimates.
This can also be done under a process known as a quantity take-off. This can be done both manually and within the software.
The role of a building estimator includes:
- Examining architectural, utility and contractor drawings and plans.
- Assess and evaluate changes to projects as they occur and evaluate the impact on estimates and costs.
- Draft a bill of quantities for all materials required.
- Supply cost estimates.
- Evaluate the feasibility of each project to determine the cost and earning margins.
- Ensure quality is maintained within budget.
- Possibly determine payment and project progression schedule.
This provides builders and stakeholders with actionable information that they can use to communicate, plan progression and assess issues.
Why builders need to use a building estimator:
Builder estimators provide numerous benefits to builders and other stakeholders within construction projects. The benefits include:
Alleviating stress and freeing up time:
If you use powerful estimating software such as Cubit Pro, you will free up a large amount of time in the planning phase and throughout the project.
Estimating tools automatically provide cost analysis, can produce bills of quantities, allow you to do take-offs easily within the systems and can read numerous file types.
Rather than shifting through numerous file types and organising various information, estimating tools do all of this for you.
With more accurate estimates produced in a quicker time, you can spend this time on other tasks to move your projects along.
Improved communication:
With several access solutions, you can work in collaboration with other team members.
You can also allow viewing access to stakeholders and make real-time changes within your plans.
With all members having access to the same information, plans and models it is much easier to communicate tasks, follow up on issues and contact service and material providers.
Software such as Cubit allows for real-time changes so any last-minute plans can be facilitated and updated for all members to know.
Whether you are working on a large project or a single build, having channels of communication and viewing is pivotal to any project’s success, and building estimator software allows you to do this.
Reduced costs:
The primary purpose of a cost estimator is to ensure projects stay on budget and progress is tracked throughout.
Human error by traditional methods can lead to cost overruns or leave projects waiting for supplies.
Both of these instances can harm the progression of a project and stop work in some cases.
This will eat into profits and affect the bottom line of building projects.
Building estimators allow for bills of quantity and take-offs in a much better way than traditional methods can.
More accurate estimates ensure the margin for error is minimised and that cost can be kept low.
Price list information from suppliers and vendors allows you to pick the best options for cost-effectiveness.
Software such as Cubit records all this important data and provides it in an easy to read and use format.
Material and labour needs and costs can be kept low pleasing both investors and builders.
Traditional vs Modern building estimating:
Unless you are a very small building company you will face stiff competition if you do not adapt to the use of modern building estimating software such as Cubit Pro or MudShark.
With the savings in terms of cost and time, it is very difficult to compete without the use of such software.
Traditional methods can be prone to error, changes take much longer to determine, and it is more difficult to communicate.
Builders need cost estimators to improve the ROI of projects.
Using software lends credibility to companies and the learning curves for new software continue to improve, helping even traditionalists to transfer to the use of building estimating software.
BuildSoft and your Building Estimator:
Builders need estimators to maintain costs and spending. They allow for increased and improved bids; highlight saving areas and ultimately help determine the success and merits of taking on a particular job.
With continued improvement and advancement in estimating technology its important for builders and estimators to adopt rapidly.
To stay ahead of the competition and remain competitive businesses must adapt.
Estimators can bring their experience and knowledge along with new software to provide the most valuable information possible.
If you are interested in examining cost estimator software, then get in touch with Buildsoft today.
We have a variety of packages and software for each stage of the construction project.
Our powerful tools provide accurate and easy to manage and read software.
