100 Things You Should Know About Cost Engineers

Thread Content

This post was last edited by “Hasty Passerby” on December 24, 2018, at 14:10.
100 things a cost engineer should know:
1. Ventilation holes in insulated flat roofs.
2. Embedded iron parts in stair railings.
3. Scaffolding used for painting and coating applications.
4. Concrete for prefabricated slab beams: concrete used for sealing the ends of slab beams, as well as transportation and installation procedures.
5. Bored cast-in-place piles: drilling to reach rock layers (there is a significant difference between municipal and highway-related quotas regarding this item). Click to download numerous engineering-related materials for free.
6. It’s easy to overlook purging procedures during indoor piping installation.
7. Extra charges applicable to outdoor piping installation at elevated heights.
8. Fabrication, installation, and material costs associated with angle steel.
9. The coefficient for single-side soil disposal during trench excavation is often overlooked.
10. The labor coefficient for transporting excavated soil is sometimes forgotten.
11. Lists of cables and wires only provide net quantities; additional lengths must be added during cost estimation to account for allowances, bends, and losses.
12. Base steel components are frequently omitted from lists related to distribution panel installation.
13. Casing pipes are often left out of lists concerning water supply and drainage piping installation.
14. Sealing procedures required when air ducts pass through walls.
15. Fabrication and installation of temporary short pipes used for pressure testing and flushing of control valves. 16. Amortization of equipment installation lifting tools. 17. The bolts used for flange installation in process piping installation are materials not included in the pricing. 18. Installation portion: Surcharge for high-rise buildings. The basis for calculation includes all labor costs for buildings with 6 floors or a height of 20 meters or less. When a high-rise building meets the conditions for super-high construction as well, the additional fee for high-rise buildings and the additional fee for super-high height are calculated in addition to each other. Click to freely download a vast amount of engineering materials. 19. Ridge lines, cover plates! It’s mainly spare parts! 20. The concrete for some scattered, small components is prone to being overlooked in calculations ； 21. For roof joints, especially when there is an air-insulated layer, the cement mortar leveling layer has joints, and joints should also be created on the insulation panels ； 22. Some regulatory requirements can also lead to omissions; for example, structural columns must be added when the wall length exceeds 5 meters, and compression beams must be added when the wall height exceeds 4 meters ； 3. Placing shims during equipment installation; fabricating, installing, painting, and anti-corrosion treatment of supports during pipe installation ； 24. Canvas joints for ventilation duct installation ； 25. Full-height scaffolding at the top level of the stairwell, expansion joints on the roof, construction requirements specified in the design description, and various miscellaneous indoor and outdoor components. 26. There are corresponding quota items for the grouting and sealing of exterior walls; depending on the materials used, the appropriate items should be applied. 27. It’s easy to overlook the distribution of negative reinforcement in slabs, as this isn’t indicated in the drawings at all. There’s no other way but to go and take a look at the construction site. 28. In earthwork projects, the current pricing schedule does not include the cost of pumping out wet soil (this was included in the previous standards); it is now classified under the measure items, specifically in Chapter 21: Construction Drainage, Dewatering, and Deep Foundation Support. Don’t forget when preparing it! 29. Expansion joints in various types of buildings: joints in roof panels, asphalt fillers at the junction between exterior walls and aprons ； 30. Protruding parts of structural columns ； 31. Cast-in-place joints between precast slabs ； 32. For driving precast piles, including pile caps, pile joints, and pile driving. 33. For drilling and punching piles, the steel casing, additional costs for penetration into rock, the operating platform, and the concrete are all poured using underwater concrete pouring methods. 34. Sub-items for driving and pulling out steel sheet piles, as well as coefficients for work inside the foundation pit and work on top of the pit. 35. There are no detailed layout drawings, but the items mentioned in the drawing specifications. Such as structural columns in infill walls, masonry reinforcement, etc. 36. Cost for temperature monitoring of mass concrete under measure items. 37. The civil engineering work involves the preparation of prefabricated components for secondary installation. 38. When applying the comprehensive quota to manhole and septic tank projects in civil engineering, do not overlook the corresponding measure items, such as costs for draining wet soil, dewatering of excavation pits, as well as costs for scaffolding and formwork. 39. Items that are prone to being overlooked in HVAC projects: 1) Insulation for air handling duct valves, static pressure boxes, and return air boxes of fan-coil units ； 2) Flanges in the connection between the equipment body and pipelines ； 3) Civil engineering supports in the roof water system pipes ； 4) Vibration reduction measures adopted by the end devices. 40. Contract documents are not just a single piece of paper; they include bid documents as well. The construction organization plan has a direct impact on the composition of the cost associated with various measures, and carrying out construction in accordance with relevant standards is part of the contract requirements. For example, when bidding, if 24-hour continuous construction is assumed, costs related to night-time construction must be taken into account; likewise, environmental protection costs such as those related to noise cannot be replaced by simple rate calculations. Another example: the design drawings specify the use of PE water pipes, but do not indicate what measures should be taken for the roof area. According to the standards, PE pipes must not be exposed to direct sunlight and require protective measures, which should be taken into account when preparing the quote. Furthermore, when the quota does not conform to the standards, the standards should take precedence, as acceptance is based on those standards. 41. A complete understanding of the connection between list items and the associated quota sub-items is lacking (including rules for calculating quantities and job contents, etc.). There are calculation rules for quotas and those for lists, and the two must be consistent. For example, the pipe supports and wall penetration sleeves that have been mentioned several times earlier are supposed to be included in the cost according to the schedule; however, the rates for indoor pipe installation usually already cover such supports and sleeves (with variations depending on local regulations), so calculating them again would be redundant. 42. Grooving is prone to omissions when working on the stone steps of stairs; proper handling of joints in different decorative materials used for wall decoration is also easy to overlook, and the sealing around ceiling panels is frequently missed. 43. In civil engineering: there is a coefficient for the cooperation between humans and machinery in digging, and there is also a coefficient for wet soil. -Moisture barrier at position 0.06. 44. Another item that is easily forgotten in civil engineering work is the stirrups used to support rebar; in actual construction, these also represent a significant cost and pose quite a hassle. 45. Soil classification and transportation distance ； 46. Labor costs for lighting work in caves, basements, and similar locations increase by 40% ； 47. Calculation of concrete for formwork of structural column ring beams ； 48. Calculation of the concrete in the core of pipe piles, driving of the piles, and test piles; the length of pipe piles should include the length of the pile tip ； 49. For brick parapets with a thickness of 1/4 or 1/2, the quota is calculated based on 900; any increase or decrease in labor, materials, and machinery requires adjustments ； 50. Apply anti-rust paint to core round steel plates, embedded iron parts, etc ； 51. Additional labor costs for uneven wall plastering, installing wire mesh on walls, etc ； 52. Adjustment of plaster thickness when the vertical height of wall plastering is too great ； 53. There are discrepancies in the calculation of the quantities for electrical shaft cable trays; the original design did not provide specific installation details, so the budgeting staff determined the installation method based on their experience. 54. Costs of scaffolding used for the installation in tall industrial buildings. Generally, scaffolding is not used for steel structures. 55. Can shims used in rebar work be considered part of the rebar work? (According to local conditions). 56. The wire mesh used in the plastering work has its own separate line item in Shandong Province’s 2006 version of the consumption standards, and it is included in the direct project costs. 57. The cost of scaffolding shall be calculated in accordance with the methods specified in the approved construction organization plan. 58. Special hardware for doors in decoration, especially fire doors. 59. It’s easy to overlook plastering the underside of outdoor stairs.
60. It’s easy to miss the metal heat-conducting pipes installed within mass concrete.
61. Quick-fix closing nets are used when pouring concrete of different grades.
62. When carrying out decoration work, most items listed in the bill of quantities are calculated based on the finished surface. Many projects appear to be complete, but without careful examination of the design drawings, construction specifications, and tender documents, it is easy to make omissions, resulting in an unreasonable pricing for the bill of quantities. 63. Treatment of the substrate for screeds to prevent moisture, fire, and insects; moisture protection for stones; detailed processing such as edge grinding and grooving for stones and polished tiles; for floors made of light-colored stones, white cement is often used. Support measures and protection for higher ceiling joists, as well as losses resulting from material cutting when assembling special decorative elements according to design requirements. 64. Tie bolts for walls when the beam height exceeds 700 MM ； 65. Masonry reinforcement for the frame column section ； 66. Basic full-house scaffolding; 67. Additional scaffolding required for beams, slabs, and walls; 68. The task of filling gaps in the exterior wall plastering – something that is often easily overlooked. 69. The cost associated with using paint brushes and putty in scaffolding projects is often overlooked. 70. Treatment of aerated block walls. 71. In concrete works (such as stairs and balconies) calculated based on projected area, the concrete content that is higher than the specified amount in the standards must be adjusted. 72. In the interface section between piping and automatic control disciplines, the cost of source components may be overestimated. 73. It is easy to overlook items related to the setup and dismantling of scaffolding. 74. The extra costs associated with installing lighting fixtures in high locations, as well as the costs related to system debugging, are often forgotten. 75. For the topmost section of stairwells, the cost of scaffolding required is different from that for lower sections. 76. Adjustment of the thickness of the additional layer of waterproof materials. 77. Sealing of grout joints with oil-based paste 78. Embedded components for stairs ； 79. The concrete overhangs on walls such as those in bathrooms (of course, this relates to classification issues; the unaccounted portions are often included within the wall structure, but it is a noticeable issue when preparing the bill of quantities) ； 80. Lighting costs in basement construction ； 81. Asphalt hemp for deformation joints in parapets 82. Embedded iron components 83. Chimneys extending outside the roof 84. Rainwater pipes at balconies 85. Embedded iron components on prefabricated elements, when these elements are priced per unit in tender quotations 86. Excavation and transportation of soil for backfilling ； 87. Transport of soil during excavation (ditching or digging holes) ； 88. Foundation cushion ； 89、Paint for wood ； 90. Moisture barrier for brick foundations 91. Difficulty factor for manual cleaning of the foundation bed with soil removal ； 92. Scaffold costs during the installation of outdoor process pipelines ； 93. Non-destructive testing costs for steel structure welding ； 94. Sealing of wall sleeves for process pipelines ； 95. Rebar ends at settlement observation points and associated labor costs. 96. Treatment of aerated block walls. 96. Adjustment of labor costs. 97. Anti-corrosion treatment for the top surface of the basic spread footings. 98. Adjustment of concrete strength in fine aggregate concrete floors. 99. Paint and hardware in doors and windows. 100. Prices of main materials in installation projects.