Explore the numerous factors that impact material costs in construction projects, from material availability to packaging size limitations. This article provides a comprehensive guide on each aspect that project managers need to consider to stay within their budget.
Key Insights:
- Material availability and pre-order requirements can significantly affect the timeline and cost of a construction project. Project managers must ensure that the materials required are available for purchase in the necessary format and quantities.
- Delivery costs, often overlooked, must be factored into the overall project budget. This includes not only the cost of transporting materials to the site but also getting them to their precise installation locations.
- Material quote expiration dates and waste factors are crucial in determining the final material costs. Project managers must ensure that the quoted prices are valid for the duration of the project and account for the potential 15% or so waste factor when calculating quantities.
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So let's review some of the factors that can have an impact on material costs. One of these is material availability. Make sure that the materials you need for your project are available when you need them.
Some of them have to be pre-ordered, so be careful, as this may impact the overall duration of the project. Unit or packaging size availability is important. Make sure that the material you're pricing in your estimate can be purchased in the same manner.
It's important to recognize that only certain sizes might be available or are carried in stock. Otherwise, you may have to place special orders, and therefore the cost may go up as well. Material delivery costs.
These are often overlooked. You can get your unit costs right. You could plug them into your total quantities.
But you have to make sure you can get it on site. And not only do you need to bring it on site, but how about getting it to where it needs to be installed? Are you going to provide that cost yourself, or are your subcontractors going to transport and place your drywall throughout the entire project? This would have a serious effect on your labor costs. So make sure that you understand what is included with any material delivery costs.
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Material quote expiration dates. These are vital based on your pricing. So make sure that when you get price quotes for materials, they can be purchased within a reasonable amount of time before the project starts.
You don't typically have enough room on site to bring all the materials in at the beginning and have them all delivered at one time. It might be six months before you can have them delivered. Make sure that your price quote is good for that period of time.
Material factors such as waste require different quantities compared to labor. This is vital. A good example would be drywall on each side of a 250 linear foot wall, 8 feet high, which equals 4,000 square feet.
The material waste factor could be 15% or so, and that would be 4,600 square feet of drywall being required versus the 4,000 square feet. So this would have an effect only on the material, but the labor would be priced out at 4,000 feet. We'll talk more about waste later on in the course.
Guidelines for pricing materials: Define the total takeoff quantity. Calculate for any waste.
Make sure that you confirm the material size desired for the installation and its availability. Confirm if all the material can be delivered at one time. Does the price include stocking, or will you need to stock it using your own labor? If using your own labor, stocking equipment may be required.
Does your supplier quote have an expiration date?
