V.R.

Siddhartha Engineering College::Vijayawada

Department of Civil Engineering

17CE3603- Estimation, Costing and Valuation

Lecture Notes
 UNIT-I

PROCEDURE AND METHODS OF BUILDING ESTIMATES

Introduction, Main items of work, Deduction for openings Degree of accuracy; Units of
measurement. Individual wall method; Centre line method; comparison

ESTIMATE OF BUILDINGS:

Estimate of RCC framed residential building with footings,.

CO1: Understand the Drawings, Procedures and different Estimating methods of

Buildings.
Introduction of estimating and costing
Estimation and rate analysis

General

During construction project planning and implementation, we need to know the quantities and
costs of various items required to meet the objective of the project. That is, construction project
manager has to anticipate the cost of project. The process of calculation of quantities and costs of
various items in connection with the construction project is called an “estimate”.

An estimate is prepared by first obtaining the quantity of the items required to complete the project
and multiplied by unit cost of the items. Details of the estimate depend upon the purpose of
carrying out estimate.

The preliminary estimate should be accurate enough to produce the cost of the project within 10%
to 15% variations.

During the life cycle of a project, different parties for various reasons require an estimate. The
details and method of estimations depend upon the needs and level of management decisions.
Suppose a philanthropic organization wants to start an academic institute. The organization is
interested in knowing how much money is required to be spent. It can be just calculated from the
experience with previous project of similar kind. Such as, 20 thousand money per student has to be
invested. If academic institute is to be planned for one thousand students, 20 x 1000 thousand is
required. Next level of details may be required is how much money is to be invested on different
subheads, equipment, laboratories, hostels etc.

Suppose a philanthropic organization wants to start an academic institute. The organization is

interested in knowing how much money is required to be spent. It can be just calculated from the
experience with previous project of similar kind. Such as, 20 thousand money per student has to be
invested. If academic institute is to be planned for one thousand students, 20 x 1000 thousand is
required. Next level of details may be required is how much money is to be invested on different
subheads, equipment, laboratories, hostels etc. These can be calculated based on knowing the area
of construction and cost of construction per unit area. But suppose hostel has to be built based on
specific drawing and specification. Now an estimate will be prepared from the drawing and
specification using specified rules. This estimates form the basis for contract evaluation by the
client.

Similarly when contractor is bidding for the hostel, he will prepare his own estimate such that he
can buy the contract, also gets profit from the execution of the project. But during construction
period the construction, company has to prepare an estimate for order and supply of the material,
also for resource planning.

Thus we have seen from the above example that the estimate of same item of works differs in
details based as need of the project implementation. Also the level of accuracy needed for the
estimate is dependent on the purpose of estimate. Like estimate for material supply has to be very
accurate because storage of material will be the burden for the project. But the accuracy of the
estimate to know the total cost to study the feasibility of the project will not be very high.
Different body involved in preparation of estimate can be grouped into following three classes.

1. The owner or owner's staff such as project manager.

2. Contractor's personnel such as senior manager, planner, and site management staffs etc.
3. Materials suppliers and contractors

The owner generally employs a project manager/engineer, who helps him in preparation of
contract documents. The contract documents require the bill of quantities. Also, owner should be
aware of the cost to sell the contract. Thus an estimate is required of various quantities. The
owner's project manager prepares these estimates. Tender for the contract in a construction
company is prepared by higher management. This management is helped by estimators, site
engineers and material supplier to prepare the estimate of the job.

Challenges in Estimating:

The job of an estimator is not only to calculate the quantity and cost of the material, but to co-
ordinate different parties involved in the project or construction in particular. An estimator of the
construction company has to get involved with the site engineer, material supplier, instrument
(plant) manager and senior management staff to obtain the various details of the cost and
explaining the calculation to higher management. An estimator has to understand the project
details, study drawing and specification, obtain working conditions, labour and equipment
productivity and collecting other data from the site. An estimate also assesses the temporary work
at the site such as formwork for concreting, temporary plant for the storage of materials. Virtually,
an estimator has to build the project on paper to obtain the right guess.

In the organization, background work for estimation is carried out by higher management and
organizations keeps the details regarding unit cost of the items called schedule of rate,
productivity, and guideline for basic calculation. The basic calculation is carried out by junior level
engineers or assistants.

In preparing detailed estimate, we need to know the following two things

1. Quantities of the items involved.

2. Obtaining cost of the items involved.

Methods of obtaining quantities of the items involved is called quantity estimate and method
obtaining unit cost of the items involved is called rate analysis.

Types of Estimate:

Based on the rigor with which an estimate is prepared, the estimate can be classified as

1. Preliminary estimate.
2. Detailed estimate.
Requirements of preliminary and detailed estimate:

To prepare a preliminary estimate, quantity of work to be planned is measured in terms of unit of

person, built up area; extent of work in kilometer such as a preliminary estimate of housing can be
calculated based on type of house and number of house to be built. Similar preliminary estimate of
highway can be calculated by knowing the type of road in terms of lane or pavement and length of
the load.

Preliminary Estimate

Different methods of preliminary estimate can be grouped into the following categories –

 Time referenced cost estimate

 Cost capacity factor
 Component ration/installation cost ratio
 Parameter cost

The preliminary estimate is obtained during early phases of project. As the project progresses, an
estimate keeps on getting refined and lastly we get definitive estimate.

Measurement In Civil Engineering

Measurement of civil Engineering work executed in the field is carried out based on thumb rule.
Indian standards provide the approximate rules to measure the quality in the field. They are
comprehensive and follows almost all areas. Following are the list of Indian Standards -

Indian standards

Standard Description
IS 1200 : Part 1 : 1992 Methods of measurement of building and civil engineering works: Part 1
Earthwork
IS 1200 : Part 2 : 1974 Method of measurement of building and engineering works: Part 2 concrete
works
IS 1200 : Part III : 1976 Method of Measurement of Building and Civil Engineering Works - Part
III : Brickwork
IS 1200 : Part 4 : 1976 Method of measurement of building and civil engineering works: Part 4
stone masonry
IS 1200 : Part 5 : 1982 Method of measurement of building and civil engineering works: part 5
form work
IS 1200 : Part 6 : 1974 Method of measurement of building and civil engineering works: Part 6
refractory work
IS 1200 : Part 7 : 1972 Method of measurement of building and civil engineering works: Part 7
hardware
IS 1200 : Part 8 : 1993 Method of measurement of building and civil engineering work: Part 8 steel
work and iron
work
IS 1200 : Part 9 : 1973 Method of measurement of building and civil engineering work: Part 9 roof
covering (including cladding)
Degree of Accuracy and Unit measurements
Methods of building estimation