Estimating
I have 28 years of experience in the rebar industry. The first 10 years were in detailing and past
18 years in estimating. During that time I tried several commercial estimating applications, but
wasn't really satisfied with any of them.
I started working on developing my own system. The first program was written for a hand held
Radio Shack computer that printed to thermal paper. The program allowed me to walk into a
customer's office, do the estimate and give them a price before I left.
The next version was written when Microsoft Visual Basic came out. Instead of a hand held, the
program worked on a PC under Windows. It became more sophisticated and used Excel to
handle the pricing and generate a printable proposal.
When Excel added VBA (Visual Basis for Applications), it was fairly easy to port the application
into Excel so everything was contained in one file. The takeoff, pricing and proposal are all in a
single file. The spreadsheet breaks down the quantities using codes. The codes can be
anything, numbers or words or a combination. If the customer wants a schedule of values, it is
easy to change the codes to break the estimate into substructures.
The beauty of using Excel for the takeoff is that formulas can be generated to handle the takeoff
for a part of the estimate, then copied and pasted for similar parts. For example, a tilt panel can
be done once for a height and width, then repeated for other panel sizes. The reinforcing for a
beam can be done for one span, then repeated for other spans. Highway standards can be
assembled in a template, then copied into the estimate for a quick and accurate estimate.
I have experience in all types and sizes of projects from 1 ton to thousands of tons, including
residential, commercial, highway and industrial. Estimates are available in either the basic
format shown in the screen shots or the full spreadsheet that generates a printable proposal
with full pricing for material and labor.
18 years in estimating. During that time I tried several commercial estimating applications, but
wasn't really satisfied with any of them.
I started working on developing my own system. The first program was written for a hand held
Radio Shack computer that printed to thermal paper. The program allowed me to walk into a
customer's office, do the estimate and give them a price before I left.
The next version was written when Microsoft Visual Basic came out. Instead of a hand held, the
program worked on a PC under Windows. It became more sophisticated and used Excel to
handle the pricing and generate a printable proposal.
When Excel added VBA (Visual Basis for Applications), it was fairly easy to port the application
into Excel so everything was contained in one file. The takeoff, pricing and proposal are all in a
single file. The spreadsheet breaks down the quantities using codes. The codes can be
anything, numbers or words or a combination. If the customer wants a schedule of values, it is
easy to change the codes to break the estimate into substructures.
The beauty of using Excel for the takeoff is that formulas can be generated to handle the takeoff
for a part of the estimate, then copied and pasted for similar parts. For example, a tilt panel can
be done once for a height and width, then repeated for other panel sizes. The reinforcing for a
beam can be done for one span, then repeated for other spans. Highway standards can be
assembled in a template, then copied into the estimate for a quick and accurate estimate.
I have experience in all types and sizes of projects from 1 ton to thousands of tons, including
residential, commercial, highway and industrial. Estimates are available in either the basic
format shown in the screen shots or the full spreadsheet that generates a printable proposal
with full pricing for material and labor.
Screen Shots
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