How To Estimate Construction Costs For Your House Renovation Project

Home Renovation

Whether you are a consumer looking to renovate your home or your a general contractor renovating someone else’s home you will need a clear idea of your costs.  Most contractors have a lot of trouble providing accurate construction estimates because it is very time consuming and hard to do.  Each line item that makes up the project should be accounted for and if you’re using a spreadsheet it gets pretty complicated fairly quickly.

So what’s the best way of knowing your costs?

A new, innovative construction estimating software, called CostCertified, makes it easy for the contractor to build and send accurate estimates while knowing their costs right down to each line item.  And instead of having to adjust every single line item from scratch for each project the software platform lets the contractor save pre-built assemblies and they only need to enter the dimensions of the project.

There’s nothing worse than a consumer hiring a contractor who really doesn’t know their costs.  Because the project can end in a disaster if the contractor didn’t quote it properly and starts to lose money.  Once a contractor feels like they aren’t making money they tend to put focus on getting other projects to make up for it which in turn negatively affects the project where they mismanaged their costs.

Platforms like CostCertified are a “cost first” type approach which really helps the contractor think about their costs and make sure they are all being accounted for.  And it is important to note that a lot of construction cost databases are not very accurate.  That is why certain software allows the contractor to do real-time construction bidding so they can get marketplace pricing instead of just guessing.  There’s no better way of getting an accurate picture of costs than having the subcontractors bid on their items.  The subcontractor is forced to think about their own costs and make sure they are giving an accurate quote as well.

Don’t forget about “hidden costs” that the consumer may incur such as making selections/upgrades after booking the renovation project.  Most contractors use “allowance based pricing” for selection items such as flooring, countertops, cabinets, backsplash, lighting fixtures, etc.  The problem with allowance based pricing is that the contractor doesn’t want their estimate to come in too high so they usually make the allowance pricing lower which means the consumer is most likely going to pay more when making their selections.  This can put a bad taste in the consumer’s mouth and start the project off on the wrong foot.  Again, technology such as CostCertified can solve this by providing real-time upgrades right within the renovation estimate.

In summary, knowing your costs for any renovation project is an absolute must so that proper expectations are set upfront and everyone involved ends up getting what they want.