How to Estimate the Cost of Supply and Install of Restroom Accessories and Toilet Partitions

Introduction

As Construction professionals, we discuss risk often and there is no better time to focus on project risk than during pre-construction. Self-performance of work in place is a high-risk endeavor. Underestimated crew hours for any single scope and margin erosion can quickly derail your project and company outlook. Taking the proper time and precautions to review all scopes of self-performance work thoroughly to protect your company’s risk is critical to protecting project margins. Even a scope of work as deceivingly small as the toilet compartments and toilet accessories can impact your bottom line.

Toilet compartments and toilet acces- sories are common products found in all our jobs. They can also exist outside of a typical restroom, leading an estimator to miss them during takeoff and estimating. For instance, toilet compartments can also be used as changing stations or shower stalls. Soap dispensers and paper towel dispensers can be found throughout buildings at sinks. After COVID-19 the frequency of hand sanitizing dispensers on projects has increased as well. These items can also be missed during estimates due to the assumption that they are owner-furnished and owner-installed or OFOI. A proper review of the contract documents is important to ensure it is clear who owns the furnishing, and installation of these materials.

To set the stage, this paper is written from the viewpoint of a General Contractor (GC) bidding a K-12 school project in Adams County, Iowa. In this case, the General Contractor will be procuring the materials from a vendor and self-performing the installation of said materials. The project is also about ninety-five miles from the General Contractor’s home base, which will impact the approach during the Estimate.

MasterFormat Information Division

10 00 00 - Specialties

Subdivisions

10 21 00 - Compartments and Cubicles

10 28 00 - Toilet, Bath, and Laundry Accessories

Specific Factors

There are several considerations to review to protect your estimate from inherent risk. One consideration is project location. Where is the project located in relation to your office and in relation to your field staff? Would your field staff be local or would travel costs be required? Make sure you fully understand your company’s policy for travel such as mileage, subsistence, per-diem, travel hours, working hours, and union jurisdiction regulations to name a few. The project we are using as an example is ninety-five miles away and when reviewing company policy, field employees are entitled to mileage for travel each day but not hourly wages during their travel. For this example, we will assume the company is nonunion and the project has federal funding requiring prevailing wages. Public projects, especially those receiving federal funds, are often mandated to have prevailing wages included, also known as Davis-Bacon wage rates. These are the wage rate and fringe rate minimum guidelines set by the Government that must be reported on by each contractor. When researching the wage rates required, be sure to note which county you are in, what scope of work the field staff will be employed as the location and scope of work dictate the wages.

Understanding the project documents and installation setting is another critical consideration. Toilet compartments and toilet accessories experience substantial abuse by end users. The proper installation will determine whether the products function as intended or not. Why this is important to the installer is because we need to understand what the walls and wall finishes are made from. If walls are framed with wood or steel studs, most of the accessories will not align with those studs, and the required drywall anchors are installed first. Most projects, however, will require wood backing behind the drywall which will result in a faster installation for the accessory installer. If the walls are composed of concrete masonry units (CMU) or concrete (cast-in-place or pre-cast) then pre-drilling and anchoring will be required resulting in additional time required per accessory to install. We also need to understand the wall finishes, for example, ceramic tile walls are a nice wall finish but can easily be cracked or chipped when installing accessories. It is important for installers to take the time, prep the surface, and pre-drill with a diamond drill bit to prevent cracking or damaging ceramic tiles. It is the expectation of the tile installer that when they are complete, no other reed@estesconstruction.com Reed grew up in Iowa and attended Arizona State University where he received a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and a minor in Sustainability. After graduation Reed moved back to Iowa to work for Estes Construction in the Eastern Iowa office. Reed has continued to work for Estes for the past 12 years in roles as a Project Engineer, Project Manager, and now a Pre-Construction Manager. In that time, he also relocated to the Central Iowa Office. Reed has had the privilege of working on a variety of projects and industries across the state including K-12 education, Secondary Education, Healthcare, Athletics, Industrial, Corporate, and Areas of Worship. Reed currently lives in Ankeny Iowa with his wife and two children. trades will damage their work. Breaking that expectation will result in a “back charge” from the tile setter to the installer that damaged the tile. A cost that will directly impact the margin. If the walls exist, you must review the documents to understand if any other trades will be removing drywall to install wood blocking/backing or if drywall anchors need to be used. For example, in this paper, the walls are framed with steel studs and the documents require the drywall carpenters to install wood blocking at all toilet compartments and accessory locations. All restrooms have ceramic tile wall finishes and all areas outside of restrooms have painted gypsum board wall finishes.

Always, no matter what the scope, make sure you review all contract documents and ask for any clarifications. Often the specifications, drawings, and addendums will not align regarding toilet compartments and toilet accessories. For whatever reason, the coordination between documents is missed or conflicting which can lead to more risk for your estimate.

Overview Costs

Materials: Material costs for this estimate are based on recent project pricing for related products and suppliers. Tax is typically applied on all these materials at a rate of 7%, however in the state of Iowa all schools are tax exempt and therefore you should not include tax in your proposal.

Labor: Labor rates are based on prevailing wages for laborers and carpenters working in Adams County, Iowa. Rates and fringes can be found at Sam.Gov. Also included is mileage paid to each employee for the total number of trips required to site. Miles are based on round trips and paid out at the IRS stated rate of $0.67/mile. Confirm in project manuals/specs if prevailing wages are required. Always consult within your company to understand the “out of town” or “travel” work policies.

Tool & Equipment: This will include any tools and equipment required to complete this scope of work as well as mobilization costs for bringing materials to the site from the warehouse. For this example, the company covers small tools and consumables as a percentage of total labor costs on a project. Small tools are defined as single handheld tools that are provided to employees such as drill and impact sets. Any tools or equipment larger than this would either be rented for the project, or the project would be charged a rental rate internally from the warehouse. Consumables are any products required that only be used on this project such as glues, fasteners, saw blades, drill bits, chalk, etc. Any items beyond those would be listed under materials.

Soft Costs: Soft costs can vary from company to company, in this example, we include a 5% contingency for risk protection, 10% in general conditions (covers safety, technology, office overhead, etc.), 1.5% business liability insurance, 1% bond (public projects require payment and performance bonds), and 12% fee (also known as margin). It is always encouraged to have open collaboration with your team regarding soft costs. Each project and scope of work has various levels of risk that affect your contingency, general conditions, and fee. Collaboration amongst the team will provide a clear understanding of where the risk is and how it is being managed.

Risk Consideration

Safety should always be the first topic when your team is self-performing work. The risk of injuring or losing a team member has impacts on your company’s morale, safety ratings, and margin. It affects your company financially now and potentially affects your ability to get future work based on a higher Experience Modification Rate (EMR) or Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR).

As mentioned earlier, self-performance work is an elevated risk regarding margin. Missing the estimate or having a poor plan heading into a project can result in a slow or fast bleed of margin that is difficult to stop during construction. Ensuring your team has reviewed all contract documents, requested clarity with the design team for any discrepancies, and performed extensive internal review of hours are just a few best practices to ensure your team is set up for success. However, that is just the first step. Once construction begins, communication is critical. Having leadership on site that can communicate the conditions and lead the on-site staff to completion in an efficient manner is critical to meeting or beating the estimated hours.

Ratios and Analysis

Having extensive databases and experience is critical to mitigating risk and maximizing margin. Databases can provide you with a typical or average installation time for each individual product you are estimating. This data is imperative to understand a baseline of what the scope of work will take in terms of hours. Keep in mind the more data you have, the more the information becomes normalized amongst the data set. What I mean by this is performance on installing five toilet compartments last week is specific to that project and that installation. If you are looking at an average of one thousand compartments set over the last ten years, then you must understand this is an average. You should use that average as a starting point in your review of labor produc- tion. Start with the average and then understand what is unique about this specific project that may break from the average whether it be new construction versus remodel, installation into a gypsum board wall with backing versus a wall with ceramic tile. Each little detail affects the hours required to complete the work.

If you are new to the scope and have yet to produce a database, use caution. Do not rely just on RS Means or other sources, talk through the work with your team and understand what is unique about the project that would differ from a normalized average.

Miscellaneous Pertinent Information

Review the bid documents thoroughly including the specifications, sample contract, drawings, and supplemental documents. The Division 00 and 01 sections are especially important and can have information critical to your estimate such as prevailing wages, liquidated damages, Buy America clauses, DBE/MBE requirements, etc. These clauses are not always consistent in the rest of the bid documents and should be clarified if conflicting. Once you have reviewed these divisions you can set up your estimate accordingly and source material pricing from the correct vendors.

Often the bid documents will not have any specific details or notes regarding installation instructions for toilet compartments or toilet accessories. If you are unfamiliar with the installation of these products consult with your local manufacturer rep or research the manufacturer's website for instructions. You will find instructions and details for what fasteners are and are not provided. For instance, most toilet accessories come with fasteners into wood blocking/backing, but if the installation is into masonry or concrete, you will need to source the fasteners.

For this example, we started by creating a list of all compartments and accessories that were stated as part of this project either in the specifications or the documents. Then a table was created to input data sourced from the takeoff process. Quantity takeoff can be completed using various software such as Bluebeam. For toilet compartments and accessories, it is imperative not to rely on the floor plans but also to consult the detailed elevations. Once all elevations are reviewed and a detailed takeoff is completed you can provide several checks. An example is if a product is listed in the specification but was not found in the plans, in this case, a baby changing station, then I use the Bluebeam search function and look for the missing accessory. If nothing is found in the search, then confirm with the design team that the item was listed in the specification in error. Another check would be reviewing the code sheet for the quantity of water closets provided, this should line up with the number of toilet paper dispensers. During the quantity takeoff also note unique features about the products that would affect the timing or require additional time such as recessed versus surface-mounted items.

Once the takeoff is complete, compare the quantities against what your vendors have listed and discuss any discrepancies. Then begin to populate your estimate with materials, labor, tools & equipment, and soft costs all separated. Review the labor hours required to install each individual item. Review with your field staff and/ or superintendent to determine a consensus of hours as well as any equipment required to complete the scope. Adjust the soft costs percentages accordingly based on the scope and risk. Double check for errors or inconsistencies.

If this work submitted as a separate proposal be sure to include clarifications and exclusions. This will help you communicate with the recipient what is included and protect yourself from scope creep. For this scope of work, clarify whether blocking and backing is or is not included in your estimate.