Metal Construction News, May 2014

BUSINESS FEATURE Common Estimating And how to avoid them Before the metal roof job even starts profi ts can slide out the window if the estimation is off Some consider estimating a delicate balance of science and art and usually its one of the last tasks a company owner will delegate Its just too important But if the company is growing the owners need to let go of this function and ensure the processes in place produce precise estimates of material and labor costs that will allow a job to be profi table Ray Smith is managing director of AppliCad a Blackburn Australia based software company that provides software packages for metal roofi ng and cladding So much of what we do is the result of trying to improve how metal roofi ng is quantifi ed says Smith To overcome all of the problems associated with estimating metal roofi ng labor and materials Smith estimates that in Australia and New Zealand metal roofi ng accounts for as much as 75 percent of all roofi ng in both the commercial and residential markets It is the dominant roofi ng type Metal roofi ng guys here have refi ned metal roofi ng to an extraordinary degree he says To the extent that waste reduction is key to being profi table as a roofing business But waste reduction is just one element of the danger that lurks in poor estimating Making errors is even more common A lot of the mistakes that I have seen or heard about are just genuine errors says Smith But many are due to incompetence ignorance of how to work metal roofi ng or just plain stubbornness With the proper checks built into the estimating process the errors can be almost totally eliminated Here are the eight most common estimating errors for metal roofi ng 1 Measuring The old adage of measure twice cut once has its precursor in the estimating phase Certainly an installer can make a mistake in the fi eld that requires quick and clever thinking to overcome but an estimator working from an incorrectly measured roof or architects plans that are confusing can take a small mistake and make it huge Bryan Duke is an estimator for Eastern Corp a Youngstown N C based metal roofi ng contracting company Sometimes I get plans where the scale is wrong he says Or there are multiple scales for one drawing I spend a lot of time with drawings and am calling architects every day The important lesson is verifi cation Whether fi eld measurements or architects drawings all measurements have to be verifi ed But part of the verifi cation process is being thorough Smith points to the common error of just leaving out a section of the roof in the estimate Duke has also encountered roof systems that actually have hidden areas Not long ago he had a project with a second fl oor roof plan that only showed up on the second fl oor drawings not the roof take offs Be thorough says Duke Check every single drawing regardless 2 Accessories The forgotten accessory can be a troubling bugaboo whose fi nancial damage far exceeds its cost A lot of time can be wasted driving around town to fi nd 10 clips because they were short in the delivery says Smith The clips arent pricey but the lost labor time and decreased productivity can be hugely detrimental Many contractors hire gofers whose job is to make sure job sites are properly stocked transport company tools from one site to another and run errands so that the higher priced skilled labor can remain on site doing the work That position is becoming an anomaly though as tighter estimating and better communication mean that job sites run more effi ciently and the gofer can become a thing of the past How much does a forgotten clip really cost if you have to maintain an additional employee to run and buy it 3 Trim When we think of roofi ng trim is not the fi rst item that pops to mind But Smith warns The trim can cost more than the sheets especially when labor to install them is accounted for He recommends that trim should be made in a rollforming machine at cents per foot instead of 10 foot lengths at dollars per foot from a press brake Plus cut to length trim from a rollformer is easier to install reduces labor and looks a whole lot better than a whole bunch of 10 foot lengths riveted together www metalconstructionnews com 36 METAL CONSTRUCTION NEWS May 2014