The Estimate: A Fundamental Tool for Managing Profitability

Profitable home construction requires a variety of essential skills. Among those skills is the ability to develop a detailed estimate of material and labor costs. It is easy for a busy builder, who is focused on job site management, to set aside office tasks until those unattended office tasks bring shortages and cost overruns. At this point of the project, it is too late to manage them.

Using DFW Custom Estimating to attend to these details before construction begins will improve your profitability on each job, and, allow you to fit more jobs into your schedule.

DFW Custom Estimating assists you in quantifying materials, bid for unit pricing and all turnkey installations. Design conflicts discovered in your construction documents are brought to your attention. How much does it cost to tear out and rebuild, or, to call in multiple trades to remedy a design problem during the construction process?

With 22 years of production and custom residential construction experience, DFW Custom Estimating has the skill to help you be a successful contractor for those critical back office functions.

DFW Custom Estimating will deliver to you an estimate that will guide you to profitability, or, save you from accepting a job that will destroy your profitability. There are multiple points to consider. First, no estimate is ever accurate if the estimator, builder and installer have differing visions of how to put the materials together. Second, specifications for material placement must be clearly written and be inclusive of all construction assemblies. Third, architectural details must be clearly drawn and labeled. Fourth, all subcontractors must agree to adhere to these governing documents. Fifth, site supervision must be ready and empowered to enforce agreements those agreements. Sixth, engineered layouts for installing shear walls, joists and rafters must be followed exactly. (Are you aware that DFW Custom Estimating can prepare your joist and rafter layouts?) Seventh, pre-construction meetings with each trade group to establish expectations for material care on-site and error liability will reduce or eliminate the need to order additional material. And lastly, in a fast-paced construction market, skill training for new crew members is an effective cost control mechanism.