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Lynn Javoroski CSI CCS LEED™ AP SCIP Affiliate
Senior Member
Username: lynn_javoroski

Post Number: 757
Registered: 07-2002
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 11:56 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post

I know this will be a difficult question to answer, but approximately how many hours do you estimate per project? Assume a middle road: moderate size, medium complexity, stand-alone, new construction, no surprises, standard materials, cooperative consultants and owner. I think this has been discussed before, but danged if I can find it...thanks.
Wayne Yancey
Senior Member
Username: wayne_yancey

Post Number: 34
Registered: 01-2008
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 12:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post

Lynn,

I used to budget 2 hours per section for moderate complexity and 3 hours per section for more complex projects. Start counting at beginning of 00 documents. Some sections may take a day but some only 1/2 hour. It all averages out in time. Obviously, as new sections are added, the total hours increase. Add a reasonable amount for coordination with others and add a 10-15% contingency.

I confess, in my current inhouse role, it is "just do it." I do not prepare a time budget, except for just in time delivery.

Wayne
Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI
Senior Member
Username: rliebing

Post Number: 826
Registered: 02-2003
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 12:32 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post

Lynn do a search on here-- it is a 2004 discussion titled, "Budgeting Time"
Anne Whitacre, FCSI CCS
Senior Member
Username: awhitacre

Post Number: 751
Registered: 07-2002
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 12:42 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post

to build on Wayne's "budget", I also used to estimate 1 hour per section up to 10 hours per section, depending on complexity of the project and submittal process.

then did add-ons:
8 hours for every packaged submittal after two.
20 hours for division 1 (about half my clients had their own division 1, so I always billed it as extra)
some items were flat fee: I had a client who did chain restaurants, and after the first of those projects, I just billed $500 for each iteration of the project; short-form specs (or a DD spec only) was a flat fee of $2000. (this is only where the DD spec was the final product -- often used for lending requirements or bidding purposes); Custom residential was a whole other price structure based on ability to pay; and battered womens' shelters were a flat $250 (supported by the custom residential projects)


I didn't bill at all for questions during construction, since I felt that added to my knowledge.
William C. Pegues, FCSI, CCS
Senior Member
Username: wpegues

Post Number: 717
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 05:04 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post

I think that first, you have to determine what is the 'scope of time' you are talking about. Preliminary project description through end of CA or just construction document production.

Being an internal specifier, we do frequent outline specs for design development. Those amount to little more than a few hours to no accountable time. We have a very complete master outline spec that the project manager marks up. I tell them, do it complete you may not get it back right away and it will be billed for several hours of effort. But, make multiple quick passes, think of what it might take me 15 minutes or less to do, and bring me several of these multiple passes. Then, I do them as a break in something larger, they get it back probably within a few minutes of giving it to me...and too small an increment to bill. But even when I do bill, its typically not more than 3 or 4 hours.

Construction document phase: For something like the past 10 years, my time on a project has been consistently 80 hours from start of CDs to issuing the project manual to the contractor. We do a draft at 75% that goes to all consultants and the owner, and to whomsoever he wants it sent to. Then we do the final from that. Typically the draft spec is somewhere around 90% complete. Anything under 80 hours is extremely rare, anything over 90 hours means that the project was in trouble in some fashion.

Types of projects, high rise residential, commercial office buildings, corporate headquarters, hotels. Hotels take the higher end of time, 90 or so, due to the complexity of their review process and being directed often by a developer to do one thing that then has to be redone after the hotel operator makes their review.

Recently in the past year, having made further developments to the checklist and to our masters, this time has dropped a bit, probably somewhere around 2 to 3 hours consistently. Thus we have also picked up doing 2 separate terminology reviews. Now, at 50% drawings, and again at 75% we get a full set of all architectural drawings (and interiors if it is our interiors group doing the project) and we make a thorough review of all terminology and then go over it with the project architects. When doing this, though we are not specifically reviewing details, we do keep our eye out for things we know to be issues.

We do not use any form of automated specifications - we use Word, and we do NOT even use automatic paragraph numbering. I use that as a tool to make me look at every paragraph.

William
Jo Drummond
Senior Member
Username: jo_drummond_fcsi

Post Number: 19
Registered: 06-2007
Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 12:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post

I figure an hour per section, a flat rate for Division 1, $500. for coordinating engineers specs, $200 for shipping documents, 10 percent for corrections, $500-1,000 per meeting for meetings. If a dd outline spec is required, I do them for $3,500 - 4,000, depending on the apparent complexity of the project when I figure it. I add all these up, adjust them for the client - upward for difficult ones or slow pay, downwards for repetitive work, good clients, fast pay.

I agree with William, I don't use automated paragraph numbering either. Numbering paragraphs gives me a "last" look at the section in full.

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