What do you use for a back end metric (based off past projects) to apply in assemblies for cabinet estimating?
Post from: Jason Armstrong
This one has been troubling me for a while. We are a GC who does spec homes. We have our own shop that builds all of our cabinets, interior doors, and trim packages. These usually run around 1.3M per project. The final cabinet designs are generally developed and the numbers put together during course of construction. In my attempts to develop a metric, based off of past work, I’ve tried multiple ways to find a relationship between the work done and the pricing. I’ve done linear foot pricing, face area, and volume. None of these seem to produce a result that correlates well. As I need to develop a reasonable number for a budget placeholder before the cabinets are designed I’m at a loss. I’m currently using % of total project cost which is somewhat consistent from project to project. This doesn’t really work but it is the best I have currently. Any suggestions from the hive mind here?
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Best answer by BloomBuilt
Hey Jason,
What I did for my cabinetry budgeting numbers took a little leg work at first, but has proved to be a good solution that can be applied to simple Linear measurements from plans without taking off all of the parts required to build the cabinets each plan.
1. Identify the types of cabinets you build most regularly and make a list. Such as : Base cabinets types: 1. 36” tall 3 drawers stack 2. 36” tall Single drawer with two doors below, 3. Dishwasher Box .
2. Create a Unit Cost in Excel for each type. You will do this by performing a stick takeoff of all the parts required to build that cabinet type and then divide the total of that cost by LF, which you can measure on the plan. So example is 36” Tall Base Cabinet that is 3 Ft long parts add up to $300. Divide that by 3 LF and put in you item catalog $100/LF for Base Cabinets with 3 Drawers.
3. You will have to go back to the excel sheet from time to time to update the price for plywood, drawer guides, ect as often as you like, but it's simple to update and you don't have to rethink what it takes to build it, just plug in new material price and then update the item in your catalog on stack.
Once you build out the main types and have your unit cost for each type, you will easily be able to measure straight from then plan and apply your unit cost. By building these miniature cabinets on paper and extrapolating the LF pricing you can measure large quantities of cabinets and apply the unit cost and know you are close. I include waste and escalation in my excel sheets so that I know I am covered and have a budget I can meet or beat.
From: CBC-MN
Jason Armstrong wrote:
Dave, this is exactly what i’m trying to avoid. I would agree that this would be an adequate solution. Because we build all of these cabinets in our own shop, that data is plenty granular enough to do this. Perhaps one day I’ll write the Mother of All Assemblies to attack this. If any of you don’t know Dave, he is the Obi-Wan Kenobi of Stack training!
@Jason Armstrong
If I am understanding correctly you are trying to find a more simple way of doing a takeoff for cabinets that can output a budget for cost for the shop?
I'm not sure if this will be helpful or not but I have developed a method for doing something similar with metal wall framing. My realization was that sometimes its just not worth getting into the trenches of counting every part of the assembly every time I do a takeoff.
For stud walls it is a little different because stud spacing changes often and so does height which adds a lot of costs but I found a method that works well for our pricing by picking the easiest thing to measure (in my case its LF of wall) and then I input stud spacing and height which I use to calculate LF of material to be installed. I have found that I can pretty much use one number for every height of wall and design of system and it gets me extremely close to my labor number.
What I would do in your shoes for that issues is figure out what is the average size of an upper box and lower box, take that as your 2 coefficients and just make 1 assembly where you select either upper or lower. Then add another user input for difficulty and its just a 1-10 list that adds a multiplier onto takeoff output.
Not sure if this long winded explanation helped or not but hopefully it did haha!
From: Jason Armstrong
@CBC-MN Thank you for this suggestion. This may be an option. Here is a link to some pics. https://ccnaples.com/project/yellowstone-lot-49/?portfolioCats=31
https://ccnaples.com/project/lot-429/?portfolioCats=31
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