Introduction

The Proposed Housing Development Project is now in the tender stage. This is the most sensitive and important stage of construction, where contractors are invited to make their offers for the execution of the project. Our construction organization has been invited to attend the tenders for participating, and our senior estimator has assigned us the task of preparing a preliminary estimate for this project. Preliminary expenses include general costs that are essential to the effective implementation of the building work but that have no direct relations to actual building activities. These mainly include employer's demands, management and staff costs, facilities and services, and other preparatory works.
The task is to price selected preliminaries from a set of categories. The objective is to prepare a strong and competitive estimate that shows accurate cost allocation, efficient resource utilization, and compliance with all relevant regulations and project requirements. Demonstrating effective research and estimating skills will ensure the production of a preliminary estimate maximally to increase our chances of securing the contract.

Objective

It aims to prepare a preliminaries bill, price it based on selecting one cost-sensitive item from each of the eight key categories associated with preliminaries. This will include:

• Each of the chosen items should be very well researched and priced on a standard of the industry, along with the specifics of the project.
• An appropriate preliminary estimating technique should be used for the project to achieve a good cost projection.
• Cost and time estimates for the whole project from the AIQS cost guide, and other guides relevant to the undertaking.
• Lastly, provide an all-inclusive, understandable, and competitive estimate that would help us win the project.

Section A: Preliminaries Bill

One significant item is selected from each of the eight categories listed. The selection will focus on items that are crucial to the execution of the project and are typically associated with significant costs.

1. Employers Requirements

Chosen Item: Compliance with Health and Safety

• Explanations: Number of the employer needs to have a safe workplace through proper qualification of employees, ensuring supply of safety equipment, and adhering to health and safety legislation.
• Quotation: The estimated budget for Sitemanager and staff salaries is $25,000 to cover salary cost for safety officers and personal protective equipment, as well as training sessions for all site workers.

2. Management and Staff

Chosen Item: Site manager and Staff Salaries

• Description: Cost of salaries of key management staff, which shall comprise the site manager, assistant managers, and administrative support personnel.
• Estimate: Industry salary benchmarks are taken into account to establish an estimate of $85,000 for the period of a year.

3. Facilities and Services

Chosen Item: Temporary Power Supply and Water

• Description: Provision of temporary electricity and water services on the construction site.
• Preliminary Estimate: Estimation of $15,000 for the temporary power lines and water facilities with $3,000 monthly operational costs for utilities.

4. Temporary Works

Chosen Item: Scaffolding Installation

• Description: It involves the erection and maintenance of scaffolds to enable accessing different parts of the building with safety.
• Estimate: The estimate of the scaffolding hire and labor cost is provided as $45,000, from the general surface area to be covered and the duration in months of the project.

5. Site Accommodation

Selected Item: Temporary Office and Labour Camp Accommodation

• Description: Letting of temporary on-site offices for the project management staff and labour camp welfare facilities - toilets and kitchen facilities
• Estimate: $20,000 for office setup which will be $2,500 a month for 12 months of project duration.

6. Contract Provisions

Selected Item: Public Liability Insurance

• Description: Public liability insurance to provide coverage for public liability when executing the project, relieving claims for accidents and damage.
• Approximation: Public liability insurance for such a large scale of undertaking would be around $12,000 from the contract sum.

7. Mechanical Plant

Item Selected: Hiring of Excavator

• Description: Hiring of mechanical plant equipment which would include excavation, for pre-site preparation and earthmoving work.
• Approximation: An excavator for hire will approximate cost approximately $50,000 based on an hourly rate and the number of hours it will take to complete excavation work.
• Concrete Foundation Formwork. Selected Item
• Description: The formwork erection and removal for the concrete foundation of the structures.
• Estimate: Based on the size and complexity of the foundation, the estimate for the formwork cost is put at $35,000 including labour and materials.

Project Cost and Duration Estimation

Total Preliminaries Cost

The total preliminary cost is the sum of the costs of the selected items.

• Health and Safety Compliance: $25,000
• Site Manager and Staff Salaries: $85,000
• Temporary Power Supply and Water: $15,000 + ($3,000 x 12) = $51,000
• Scaffolding Installation: $45,000
• Temporary Office and Worker Facilities: $20,000 + ($2,500 x 12) = $50,000
• Public Liability Insurance: $12,000
• Excavator Hire: $50,000
• Formwork for Concrete Foundations: $35,000

Total Preliminaries Cost: $353,000

Project Duration Estimation

Using the AIQS cost guide (Mills et al., 2022), an estimated time that the project will take approximately 12 months to complete, based on the project's size, scope, and complexity.

Price Development for Each Selected Item

Below is a detailed description of the price trend analysis for each of the preliminary requirement items, with sources of pricing, method, and assumptions. The support evidence for each of these prices- for example, quotations, supplier prices, and other references placed in appendices to this report.

1. Employer's Requirements

• Item: Health and Safety Compliance
• Pricing Source: Industry standards and safety gear suppliers for example SafeWork Australia guidelines PPE suppliers.
• Pricing Model: The cost involves PPE purchase as well as the safety training programs for the employees. The cost of the salary for the safety officer and the PPEs will be based on quotations given by the suppliers as well as market estimations.
• Givens: Safety officer salary, PPE cost
• Assumptions: The workers will receive all required PPE and the frequency of the safety training
• Total Estimated Price: $25,000

• Cost of safety officer salary: $10,000
  PPE for site staff, including helmets, vests, and gloves: $8,000
• safety training programs: $7,000

• Evidence: Appendix 1: PPE Supplier Quote, Appendix 2: Salary Benchmark Safety Officer

2. Management and Staff

• Item: Cost of site manager and staff
• Pricing Source: Industry Salary Surveys and contractor rates. For example, the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (AIQS) cost guide.
• Pricing Approach: The cost for the site manager, assistant managers, and staff administration was based on average salaries of general construction management employees engaged in comparable operations.
• Assumptions: The project duration is 12 months, with all management and administrative staff working full-time throughout.
• Total Estimate Price: $85,000

• Site Manager: $60,000
• Assistant Manager: $15,000
• Administrative staff: $10,000

• Evidence: Appendix 3: AIQS Salary Guide

3. Facilities and Services

• Item: Temporary Power Supply and Water
• Pricing Source: Quotations of power and water service providers, e.g. quotations of a temporary service provider, utility cost guides.
• Pricing Approach: Cost of temporary power lines, water access points, and charges for consumption of utilities during the project period.
• Assumptions: Utility services would be required for the entire period of 12 months and should be established during the first month.
• Total Cost Estimate: $51,000

installation of power and water infrastructure: $15,000

Monthly utility cost (12 months): $3,000/month x 12 = $36,000

• Evidence: Appendix 4: Temporary Power and Water Supplier Quote

4. Provisional Arrangements

• Item: Scaffolding Installation
• Costing Source: Scaffolding hiring companies (such as scaffolding hire quotation, suppliers price lists)
• Costing Method: Cost of hiring scaffolding equipment throughout the entire construction period, including scaffold installation, testing, and demolition
• Assumptions: scaffolding would be required for the entire construction period of 12 months
• Total Cost Estimate: $45,000

• scaffolding hire: $40,000
• installation and demolition: $5,000

• Actual evidence: Appendix 5: Scaffolding Hire Quotation

5. Site Accommodation

• Item: Temporary Office and Labourer Facilities
• Pricing Source: Hire firms of temporary accommodation, equipment (office cabin hire; mobile toilet units)
• Pricing Method: The cost is associated with the renting of temporary office cabins for the management and welfare facilities, such as toilets and kitchen units for the workers.
• Assumptions: All site accommodation is rented for a full 12 months
• Total Cost Estimate : $50,000

no Temporary Office installation cost : $20,000

no Rental charges for 12 months : $2,500/month x 12 = $30,000

• Evidence: Appendix 6: Quote from Temporary Office Supplier 6. Contract Conditions

Item: Public Liability Insurance

• Pricing Source: Quotations from the insurance company (eg, quotes from insurance brokers, industry norms)
• Pricing Approach: The price was determined using comparable case studies by offering public liability insurance quotations based on the size and nature of the project
• Assumptions: the construction period is assumed to be 12 months the value of the project falls within the mid-range for housing developments
• Total Price Estimate: $12,000
• Evidence: Appendix 7: Public Liability Insurance Quote

7. Mechanical Plant

Item: Hire of Excavators

• Price Source: Quoted by the equipment hire company (e.g., heavy equipment rental quotation sheets, supplier quotes).
• Price Basis: The cost was estimated upon an estimated hours for using the excavators for site preparation and construction activities.
• Assumptions: The excavator will be hired for approximately 6 months.
  Estimated Total Cost: $50,000
• Hire of Excavators (hourly): $100/hour x 500 hours =$50,000
• Justification: Appendix 8: Hire of Excavators Quotes

8. Non-Mechanical Plant

• Item: Concrete Foundation Formwork
• Source of Price Data: Formwork vendors and labour cost indices like the ones quoted in formwork material supply catalogues and labor cost estimates.
• Method of Pricing: The following is the materials and labor quantities used to build and dismantle the foundations for the building.
• Assumptions: Employ standard concrete foundation formwork.
• Approximate Total Cost: $35,000

materials: $20,000

labour: $15,000

• Evidence: Appendix 9: Supplier Price Quotation for Formwork

Final Preliminaries Bill in Bills of Quantities Format

Selection of Estimating Software: LibreOffice Calc for Producing the Priced Bill of Quantities

The estimating tool chosen while preparing the Priced BOQ for the given project has been LibreOffice Calc. LibreOffice Calc is the kind of spreadsheet program which is similar to other popular software like Excel and provides robust functionalities for estimating and calculating costs. If you have a budget or a small operation, LibreOffice Calc is another means estimation software can be made available that avoids the highly marketed, sometimes expensive propositions like CostX and Bluebeam.

Below is the Preliminary Bill of Quantities (BOQ) recreated using LibreOffice Calc:

Key Features and Functions of LibreOffice Calc in Estimating

1. Ease of use-This software is quite user-friendly with functionality almost the same as Microsoft Excel making it easy for many people to use. Formula functions and formats of cells, one can make direct estimations of quantities, rates, and automatic calculations with no need for training in complex software. This, therefore is helpful for small construction projects where cost constraints usually limit the budget for more expensive estimating software like CostX.
2. Flexibility and Personalization: LibreOffice Calc offers full personalization for the setting of the BOQ. Estimators can have multiple worksheets to track various aspects of the estimate (preliminaries, main work, contingencies, etc.), and they can link cells to derive automatic updates. For instance, whenever rates are changed, then total costs may be updated automatically throughout the estimate. This automatically eliminates manual recalculations and chances of error (Dasovi? & Klanek, 2021).
3. Open Source Nature and Cost Effectiveness LibreOffice Calc is a free, open-source product. It means no subscription cost or licensing fee to use the product. This makes it a good fit for small construction firms or individual estimators who have to run tight budgets. CostX software, on the other hand, is a high-cost item that is expensive to obtain and costly to maintain. High upfront cost and ongoing cost can be prohibitive to very small-scale projects.
4. Data Analysis Tools: Though a far cry from the sophistication of the 3D BIM takeoff of CostX, Calc features basic data analysis tools in the form of pivot tables, charts, and conditional formatting for effective analysis of project costs. These tools are pretty important for summarizing cost data, spotting trends, and preparing financial reports for senior management or clients.
5. Integration with Other Applications: LibreOffice Calc can import and export various file formats including Microsoft Excel (.xls and .xlsx), CSV, and PDF. This makes it an easy tool through which to share the estimate with stakeholders using other software. Calc also easily integrates with LibreOffice Writer to produce very elaborate reports involving text descriptions combined with numerical data from the estimate.

Advantages Over the Estimating Function

1. Fast Setup and Easy Learning Curve: Since LibreOffice Calc is very similar to Excel, the learning curve for new users is pretty short. Estimators can immediately start producing bills of quantities without wasting much time on learning the software, which is ideal for companies that want to implement this tool quickly without delay for onboarding (Weber, 2016).
2. Cost Monitoring and Calculation: LibreOffice Calc is very handy for cost tracking and keeping a running tally of the cost of projects. Calculating the sum, subtotal, and total for each section using formulas can thus keep track of every detail of the costs of project work. This thus efficiently monitors project costs to ensure that they will not go beyond budget. Continuous tracking also minimizes the risks of overestimating or underestimating part of the project costs.
3. Suitable for Any Project Size: While the advanced software known as CostX is very suitable for large, complex projects involving 3D model takeoffs, LibreOffice Calc is pretty adaptable for a variety of project sizes. Its adaptability makes it possible for estimators to use the same software for small residential projects, like the one in this exercise, to more major developments requiring numerous phases of work.
4. Collaboration and Sharing: Given the fact that the Calc files can quickly be shared with all devices which can help show the files, this enhances team collaboration. Such people as estimators, project managers, and clients can view the preliminary bill from anywhere in the world as the need arises, giving their comments and updates about the same. This makes communication relatively efficient and fast for approval processes (Laloo et al., 2022).

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