Schwehr Projects · Services · 02 · Estimating
A complete estimate from your drawing set: quantities, crew and equipment productions, material and subcontractor quotes, indirects and a scope sheet, in a workbook your own estimator can check line by line. Road and earthworks jobs, subdivision servicing and underground utilities. Fixed fee per bid, from Edmonton for contractors across Alberta and BC.
Who this is for
You run the company and the bids. When three tenders close in the same week, one of them gets priced at midnight. This service takes the one that would otherwise be rushed or passed on.
Your estimator left, or you are not yet big enough to carry one. Bids still need to go out. A fixed fee per bid costs less than a salary and nothing in a quiet month.
Overflow for a larger contractor: a complete estimate in your format, built on your rates and productions, ready for your chief estimator's review and markup.
You have the excavator, the crew and the local reputation, and a developer has asked you to price sanitary, water and road restoration to a municipal specification for the first time. The estimate, the spec reading and the proposal come from someone who has done it before.
Earthworks, aggregates, underground and grading subs who need a tight, defensible unit price schedule to hand up to the general contractor before their deadline.
What the estimate includes
What you get
The estimate workbook has a tab for quantities, one for crews and equipment rates, one for the build-ups and a summary in bid-form order. Change a production rate or a fuel price in one cell and every affected unit rate updates.
Items priced on an assumption carry a flag and a note, so your bid review meeting starts with a list of the risks rather than a search for them.
| Resource | Role | Rate /h | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excavator, 20 t class | Dig, lay, backfill | 195.00 | 60 | 11,700 |
| Skid steer | Embedment and backfill | 140.00 | 60 | 8,400 |
| Foreman and two pipelayers | Crew, straight time plus OT | 180.00 | 60 | 10,800 |
| Shoring box and compaction rentals | Per crew hour in use | 45.00 | 60 | 2,700 |
| 180 m at 30 m per 10-hour day | 186.67 /m | |||
Pricing and turnaround
Quoted within one business day from the drawing count, the number of bid items and the close date. The fee covers takeoff, build-ups, RFQs, quote levelling, scope sheet and a walkthrough call before closing. A first takeoff is usually back within a day or two of the set; the finished estimate follows the supplier quotes and your answers to the assumptions list, typically five to eight working days on a small job.
A second set of eyes on an estimate your team built, a pre-bid budget to decide whether a job is worth pursuing, or sitting in on your bid review are billed hourly.
Drawings, specification, bid form and addenda; your labour and equipment rates if you want them used; a list of subcontractors and suppliers you want quotes from; and the markup approach you prefer.
Invoice on delivery, net 30. Contractors with a steady bid calendar work under a master agreement with a fee schedule by bid size. First bid for a new client at a reduced fee.
Questions
Yours, wherever you have them. Labour, equipment and historical unit costs from your past jobs make the estimate yours rather than generic. Where you have none, rates are built from first principles and shown so you can adjust them.
No. The submission goes out under your company name and signature. I prepare the estimate and, if you want it, the tender package; you decide the markup and sign.
A takeoff is quantities. An estimate is quantities priced with crews and productions that fit Alberta and BC conditions: frost, haul roads, short seasons, union and non-union labour, and owner-specified equipment rates. That judgement comes from having run the numbers on a contractor’s side of the table.
Yes. The fee includes a walkthrough of the workbook before closing and being reachable on the day for last-minute addenda or quote changes.
The estimate’s cost codes and productions carry straight into cost tracking and forecasting, so the job is measured against the numbers it was priced on.
Where I work
Drawings, specs and workbooks travel well, so most work is done remotely for contractors in Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, Lloydminster and Lethbridge, and across the BC Interior including Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George and the Peace region. Site visits are arranged when a job calls for one, for example a pre-bid walk-through, a pit survey or a start-up week with the site team.
Schwehr Projects Ltd. is an Alberta corporation. Work in BC is done under the same agreement, with BC MoTI Blue Book and HETS equipment rates applied where the owner requires them.
Next step
Send the drawing set or a short description of the job and the tender close date. You will have a fixed fee and a delivery date back within one business day. First bid for a new client at a reduced fee.