Glossary
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.
By IntelCost Team ·
General conditions are the costs of running a construction project that do not belong to any one trade: the superintendent, the field office, temporary utilities, cleanup and similar items. They are real job costs, but you cannot measure them on the drawings.
Two meanings
The term is used two ways, and both matter to an estimator:
- In the contract: the General Conditions are the part of the contract documents that set out the rights and duties of the owner, contractor and architect, such as payment, changes, claims and insurance. AIA A201 is a widely used form. Read it before you bid: it often decides which of the costs below the contractor has to carry.
- In the estimate: general conditions are the line items for running the job.
What is usually included
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Staff on the job | Superintendent, project manager time, project engineer |
| Field office | Trailer, furniture, phones, internet, office supplies |
| Temporary facilities | Toilets, temporary power and water, fencing, signs |
| Site services | Dumpsters, daily and final cleanup, small tools |
| Other | Permits the contract assigns to you, testing, safety, as-built drawings |
Firms draw the line differently. Some split time-based staff costs (general conditions) from field items (general requirements). Many follow the spec's Division 01, General Requirements, as a checklist; see CSI division.
How they are priced
Most general conditions are time-based, so they are priced per week or per month and multiplied by the schedule duration. The rest are one-time lump sums.
Example
Say the job runs 8 months (example values throughout):
| Item | Math | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Superintendent | $14,000 per month x 8 | $112,000 |
| Field office trailer | $900 per month x 8 | $7,200 |
| Temporary toilets | $400 per month x 8 | $3,200 |
| Dumpsters | $1,800 per month x 8 | $14,400 |
| Temporary fence | Lump sum | $6,500 |
| Final cleaning | Lump sum | $4,000 |
| Total | $147,300 |
The monthly items add up to $17,100 per month. If the schedule slips by one month, general conditions go up by $17,100. That is why the schedule and the general conditions should be built together.
General conditions vs overhead
General conditions are costs of this job. Home office overhead, such as the main office rent, accounting and estimating staff, is spread across all jobs and is usually covered by markup. Keep them separate: a job with a long schedule needs more general conditions, not more overhead percentage.
In IntelCost's estimating, every measured item is a priced line, general conditions go in as Division 01 lines, and the bid summary takes sales tax on material, overhead, any extra markups, profit and bond on the running subtotal, ending in the bid total. The guide on how to build a bid summary shows where general conditions sit between direct cost and the bid total.