Glossary
Construction estimating glossary
The words that come up in takeoff, earthwork, labor pricing and bidding, each explained in plain language with a short example.
- Assembly
- An assembly is a group of items that together build one unit of work, such as a wall type, so one measurement drives every quantity in it.
- Bid bond
- A bid bond is a surety's guarantee that a contractor will sign the contract at its bid price and provide the required bonds if it is awarded the job.
- Bond premium
- The bond premium, or bond fee, is what a contractor pays its surety for the performance and payment bonds on an awarded contract. It is the Bond line in a bid summary.
- CSI division
- A CSI division is one of the numbered groups of work in MasterFormat, the standard used to organize construction specifications and estimates.
- Cut and fill
- Cut is earth removed where existing ground is above finished grade; fill is earth placed where it is below, both measured in cubic yards.
- Davis-Bacon Act
- The Davis-Bacon Act is the federal law requiring locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits on federal construction contracts over $2,000.
- Fringe benefits
- Fringe benefits are the part of a worker's pay package beyond the base wage, such as health insurance, pension and training, often set per hour.
- General conditions
- General conditions are the job-site costs of running a project that are not part of any one trade, such as supervision, the field office and temporary facilities.
- Labor burden
- Labor burden is the cost an employer pays on top of an hourly wage, such as payroll taxes, workers' compensation and insurance.
- Markup
- Markup is the amount added to the cost of work to reach the selling price, stated as a percentage of cost.
- Performance and payment bonds
- Performance and payment bonds are surety guarantees, provided after award, that a contractor will finish the work and pay the people who supply labor and material to it.
- Prevailing wage
- Prevailing wage is the minimum hourly pay, base rate plus fringe benefits, that government sets for each trade on public works in an area.
- Quantity takeoff
- A quantity takeoff is the itemized list of measured quantities for a job, each with its unit of measure, ready to be priced.
- Shrink factor
- Shrink factor is the loss of volume when soil is placed and compacted as fill, from bank cubic yards to compacted cubic yards.
- Swell factor
- Swell factor is the increase in volume when soil is excavated, from bank cubic yards in the ground to loose cubic yards in the truck.
- Takeoff
- A takeoff is the part of estimating where you read the drawings and specs and list every piece of work the job needs, so it can be priced.
- TIN surface
- A TIN (triangulated irregular network) surface models the ground as a mesh of flat triangles joined at points of known elevation.
- Unit price
- A unit price is the cost or price for one unit of work, such as one square foot, linear foot, cubic yard or each, including labor, material and equipment.
Bring your next bid set.
Upload the drawings, set the scale and measure your first item in the same sitting. Your projects live in the cloud, so the whole team opens the same set from any computer.
Start your free trial. No card required.