Community

Q & A

Integrations (In Progress)

Blog

Help Center

Back to All Channels

11d 5h

New to GC Estimating - Production Rates, Equipment Rates & Assembly Libraries Question

I’m relatively new to GC estimating, although I have several years of experience preparing detailed subcontractor estimates.

On the subcontractor side, I’m used to estimating from a historical cost database and building assemblies around known labor production rates and man-hours from previous projects. As I transition into GC estimating, I’m curious how other estimators establish their labor production rates and equipment rates, especially when they don’t yet have much company-specific historical data.

I know RSMeans can sometimes be viewed skeptically in the construction industry, but for a GC that is just starting to build its estimating database, is it reasonable to rely on third-party production and cost data as a starting point and then refine those rates with actual project performance?

If so, what third-party resources have you found to be the most reliable for production rates, equipment rates, and general estimating benchmarks?

Also, does anyone have a GC estimating assembly library or sample database they would be willing to share? I’m mainly looking for something to use as a starting framework while we develop our own historical data.

Kyle Bonde - Vertical GC 11d 3h

You’re still thinking like a sub. We don’t track any of that as a GC…. Yet anyway.

watch this overview I did and let your Zztakeoff rep know if you want a similar GC template we start with. LINK

Now if you self perform work as a GC then we absolutely go to that level and have a process for that.

Different worlds, different people, separate buckets. I feel like I should write a children’s book on these two worlds 🤔.

Book Title:

GCs Don’t Count Like Subs Do.

Kyle Bonde - Vertical GC 11d 3h

Oh RS means is a great baseline for production and they will have a integration here soon depending on their MCP eta.

@Sam with Gordian update?

Sam Giffin 11d 3h

@Kyle thanks for looping me in! We are looking into additional integration capabilities and would love to learn more about what's capable here.

@Josh - in my experience, what you're describing (start from 3rd party benchmark like RSM and then refine with your own data) is a strong model. Happy to connect anytime to talk about getting an assembly library started.

Victor Tengowski 9d 15h

@Sam I'm a RSMeans Online/Gordian Cloud Platform user. It would be incredible to see a way to send zzTakeoff quantities to RSMO/GCP or have RSMO/GCP data in zzTakeoff. Any chance of that happening in the not too distant future?

👍1🎯1

You must be logged in to post replies. If you don't have an account you can signup here.