Thoughts On Estimating Data Books

72chevy4x4

What are your thoughts on estimating data books such as the "National Home Improvement Estimator" http://paradigm-360.com/Bookstore/bo...CraftsmanNRIRE

I do not have the experience to acurately estimate larger jobs and looking for some help. What about 2005 or older books-are they still applicable? If the books contain unit hours for completing a task, wouldn't that info stay the same. I was considering picking up some of the off topic (for me) books such as painting, electrical & plumbing for educational purposes to learn more about time necessary to perform jobs.

The times quoted in these types of books, do you find the tasks are typically completed at the estimate, under or over?

Bob Kovacs

The times are probably the best items in the books (and yes, they stay fairly consistent over time). The ideal way to use the books though, is to look up an item that you have actual data on, and see how the book's values compare for that item. If the book value is off by 25%, it's likely that all of the values for tasks similar to that one are off by around the same amount. This will at least let you guage their figures against your own to some degree.

Bob

georgia dawg

I found the regional factors to be way off in my area. There were just not enough for the variations in my local market. Though once I compared a few of my actuals with their estimates, I was able to devise my own factor thats works pretty good for me.

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