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Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
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July 2024 #16300 Page #90
Design Connections
Geordie Secord, Senior Recruiter TheJobLine.com – Canada
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Estimating and the Cost of Quotes
ne constant thorn in the side of truss fabricators is the cost of preparing quotes, often multiple times for the same job through the life of a project. I find that this is especially true for custom homes, as they often go through numerous revisions for aesthetic, budget, zoning, and other reasons.
Often, as readers know all too well, the builder will visit his local truss plant – or often several truss plants – with early-stage house plans wanting the truss supplier to provide several key pieces of information for the project. Of course, one key piece is to establish a base price for the roof and or floor trusses. While I don’t intend to take anything away from those in the flooring, painting, insulation, or countless other trades that are involved in building a custom house, I would suggest that few if any other trades estimate pricing of their products and services in as demanding a fashion as we commonly do in the truss world. Paint, sheetrock, flooring, roofing, etc. can all be costed with reasonable accuracy using relatively simple area calculations. Plumbing and electrical rough-in costs are largely driven by number of fixtures, so they can also be determined with reasonable effort. But what is the common approach that we take in the truss industry? In my experience, and years of interaction with truss plant owners and managers across North America confirms I am not alone, we almost universally follow the same approach. We start by creating a truss layout from the information on the plans, which in truth is better described as a 3D model created from 2D drawings rather than just a layout. Since the project drawings are often incomplete at this stage, a great deal of questions and guess-work is required. This model is then used to inform our very sophisticated engineering software, which in turn provides us with information by which we calculate our estimated material, labor, and overhead costs, at which time we can add our target profit margin. Often, the truss supplier provides key feedback and problem solving on engineering issues during this time.
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