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Builders And Head Contractors
Estimating for Builders and Head Contractors in Melbourne
Trade package take-offs when your estimators are at capacity, and a standing estimating partner when you are ready to hand over tenders.
Estimating for builders at Sami Strategy Co. starts with a single trade package and can grow into a standing arrangement where our estimators work alongside yours on every tender. Send us the drawings and documents and we measure the packages you nominate, mark up the drawings and return them with notes on scope gaps, discrepancies and risks, within 1 to 5 working days and currently averaging 3. Builders do not need a meeting first; the documents are enough to begin.
This page is for the builder or head contractor pricing work across many trades at once. It covers measuring trade packages, checking the subcontractor quotes that come back, covering a tender peak, and what changes when you make us your estimating partner.
What We Do
What does estimating for builders cover?
A builder's tender is assembled from many trade packages: some quoted by subcontractors, some measured and priced in-house, some that arrive late or never arrive. We measure the packages you nominate from the tender set, mark the drawings to show what was counted, and note every item in the specification, tender conditions or contract that sits outside what the drawings show. Your estimator applies your rates and margin to quantities that drop into your own pricing sheet.
The same take-off does a second job when subcontractor quotes arrive. With measured quantities for the package you can see whether a quote covers the full scope, where an exclusion is hiding, and why two quotes for the same trade differ. In a tender peak, when several submissions close in the same week, you send us the packages your team cannot reach and keep the rest in-house.
Builders who want continuity can formalise the arrangement. We meet to understand how your estimating process runs, sign an agreement, and from then on you hand tenders across as they arrive and we work hand in hand with your team to win them.
- Trade package take-offs from the tender drawing set, by trade or work section
- Marked-up drawings that show your estimator exactly what was counted
- Measured quantities to compare incoming subcontractor quotes against
- Review of the specification, tender conditions and contract for scope gaps and risk
- A standing estimating partnership once the ad hoc work has proved itself
Who This Is For
Which builders use this service?
Two groups come to us for builder-side estimating.
Builders and head contractors
You run an estimating function and run out of hours at tender time, or you are a growing builder whose director still prices the work. Either way the first job is usually one package on one tender, and if the take-off holds up when your estimator checks it, more follow.
Learn moreDevelopers who build
Some developers construct their own projects, with a team that prices trade packages the way a builder does. We measure the packages for your tender or budget, and the same quantities can be issued to subcontractors so the quotes coming back are comparable. Developers who engage a builder receive a bill of quantities and mark-ups to issue or to check quotes against.
Learn moreHow It Works
How does a builder move from ad hoc work to an estimating partner?
The ad hoc steps come first; the partnership steps follow only if you want them.
Send the tender set
There is no set-up meeting for builders. Send the drawings, specification, tender conditions and addenda along with the closing date and the packages you want measured. We confirm what has arrived, flag anything missing and start.
Receive the take-off and mark-ups
Each nominated package comes back as measured quantities in your format with the drawings marked up. Notes on discrepancies between documents, scope the conditions push onto the head contractor and contractual risks come with it. Packages are returned within 1 to 5 working days; the current average is 3.
Run through the queries
We go through the take-off with your estimator, answer questions on how items were measured and settle anything that needs a decision before you finalise the price.
Decide to partner
When the ad hoc work has earned its place, we meet to discuss your current estimating process: the software and templates you use, how tenders arrive, who reviews what, and where we fit in your team.
Sign the agreement
A signed agreement confirms the start of the partnership and sets out its scope: the tenders we take, the format we deliver in and how we communicate with your team.
Hand over tenders
You begin handing tenders across as they arrive. We work hand in hand with your team to win projects, whether that means measuring and pricing alongside your estimators or representing your company through the tender process.
What You Get
What does the builder's team receive?
Everything is delivered in a form your estimator can check and your tender can use.
Package take-offs in your pricing format
Measured quantities for each nominated trade package, laid out to match your estimating software or spreadsheet so your rates apply without rekeying.
Marked-up drawings
Every quantity traced to the drawing it came from, so coverage can be checked at a glance and anything excluded is visible.
Scope, discrepancy and risk notes
A written list of items the specification or tender conditions add beyond the drawings, conflicts between documents, and contract terms worth a qualification or an allowance. Head contractors use the same list to decide which items pass down to trade packages and which stay with the builder.
A benchmark for subcontractor quotes
Quantities measured independently of any quote give your team a reference to test each submission against: items left out, exclusions the tender requires you to carry, and the reason behind a gap between two prices for the same trade.
Scope And Cost
What affects the cost of estimating support for a builder?
The fee follows the measuring and review hours in each tender. These are the drivers.
- How many trade packages you nominate and how many trades each one spans
- Size of the tender drawing set and how many addenda are issued before close
- How much of the specification, tender conditions and contract needs to be read for scope and risk
- How close the closing date is to our standard turnaround
- Whether packages are handed over one at a time or under a standing arrangement
Why Sami Strategy
Why do builders keep us on as their estimating partner?
We fit your process
The partnership starts with a meeting about how your estimating already runs, and we deliver in your templates and your sequence from then on. Your team keeps working the way it does now.
We have priced the other side of the quote
As EstimateOne specialists we tender for subcontractors as well as supporting builders. Knowing how a trade quote is built up helps when we measure a package for you and when you compare the quotes that come back.
Capacity that scales both ways
Send one package in a quiet month and a full tender in a busy one. The ad hoc service carries no commitment, and the partnership adds continuity without adding to your payroll.
Sandra and her Sami Strategy team are the professional Project Management resource for our projects. Very Highly recommended.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
How is estimating for builders different from estimating for a subcontractor?
A subcontractor prices one trade, so the take-off covers that trade's scope only. A builder or head contractor assembles many trades into a single tender and needs quantities package by package, in a format that sits alongside subcontractor quotes and in-house pricing. The review notes also differ, because the head contractor holds the contract with the client and needs to know which risks pass down to trades.
What should builders outsourcing estimating for the first time send across?
Send the tender set as it was issued: architectural, structural and services drawings, the specification, tender conditions, any scope letters and all addenda, with the closing date and a list of the packages to measure. Mention the format your estimator wants the quantities in. There is no meeting beforehand for builders, so the work begins when the documents arrive.
Can you help with trade package pricing when no subcontractor quote has arrived?
Yes. We measure the package from the tender set so your estimator has quantities to price at your rates or to carry as an allowance until a quote arrives. When the quote does come in, the same quantities show whether it covers the whole package.
How does an independent take-off help a builder check subcontractor quotes?
A quote is a lump sum built on the subcontractor's own measure and assumptions, which you cannot see. Measured quantities for the package give you a reference to test it against: missing items, exclusions the tender conditions require, and the reason two quotes differ. That turns the comparison into a scope conversation as well as a price one.
What does head contractor estimating support look like during a tender peak?
When several tenders close in the same week, you nominate the packages your team cannot reach and send those sets to us. Each package is returned in your format within 1 to 5 working days, currently averaging 3, so tell us the closing dates up front and we will confirm which packages fit. Your estimator checks the take-offs and prices them alongside the in-house work.
Once we are partners, do you work with our estimators or run the tender for us?
Either, depending on what you need. We can work inside your existing estimating team, measuring and pricing alongside your estimators, or represent your company through the tender process. The arrangement is set at the initial meeting and can change as your team grows.
Do you support builders after the tender is won?
Yes. Our contract administration service covers procurement, invoicing, progress claims, variations and project coordination, and builders can also engage project management on a short-term, ad hoc basis while the business grows. The scope and risk notes from the tender stage carry across to that work.