Hello to all the friends that I have made over the past 25 years of facilitating construction estimating seminars. I have figured that I have facilitated about 8,500 hours of classes on estimating, Job Order Contracting, and project management related topics. I have been off the seminar trail now for 18 months and do not miss the airports, hotels, rental cars and restaurant food! I have totaled about 1,000 nights stay at hotels and have eaten over 3,000 restaurant meals (mmm...mmm). This means I have been on 1,000 different flights with some dating back to when people actually smoked on the airplane. I remember there was actually a Hughes Airlines that was yellow like a banana. For all those that think traveling is glamorous ….not! There was one great result to all this travel in that I made about 8,000 new friends across the country that also have an interest in construction estimating (sick, sick individuals). And there were other friends (you know who you are) that just had a good sense of humor and only showed up for class because your boss told you to. To all of you Happy New Year!!!
Many of you have stayed in touch over the years and are interested in continuing discussions related to cost estimating; scope, quantity takeoff, pricing, assemblies, Job Order Contracting, square foot models, using published cost data correctly, escalation adjustments, relative city adjustments, home office overhead, site overhead, prevailing (and Davis/ Bacon) wages, spreadsheet templates, estimating software….and more! The good news is (I think) that I have decided I would start a blog on these topics in construction estimating. I have a good feeling about our construction industry (and our country) in that the next couple of years I am predicting that the dark cloud that has been hanging over us will start to lift in this year and next (Yes!). The inventory of houses on the market is declining which is good for residential construction and on the commercial side there are many aged facilities that are in need of renovation or replacement. Things will start to happen as a degree of certainty and predictability return to the marketplace and everyone returns to work. We construction estimators are at the front end of this cycle and should expect a busier year for budget estimating. When the dust starts to settle and things pick up again what impact will this have on the cost of materials? Labor? Labor Productivity? Equipment? Overhead? Profit? All stuff I would like to stay on top of with you.
The Plan is to keep the blog up weekly which means even with my full time job (with the Gordian Group) I will most likely have to find some weekend time to keep this going. I am also hoping to do some complimentary speeches at select organizations such as AIA, IFMA and others that will have me on topics in estimating and Job Order Contracting. Please respond to this initial blog if you are interested in being on the recipient list. I am looking forward to building on our relationship that we started in the classroom or through business and keeping on top of things together. Happy 2012 to all of you!
Rory Woolsey’s Construction Estimating Blog ©2012 by Rory Woolsey MBA http://woolseyestimating.blogspot.com/ Email: rory@woolzee.com
