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Construction Estimating

Price a job on last year's rates and you'll lose it, or win it and regret it

My Project Estimating  ·  Construction Estimating

You've got a rate in your head for concrete, for labour, for a metre of blockwork. It's the rate from the last job you priced. Trouble is, that job was ten months ago, and prices haven't sat still since.

Price too high on old rates and you lose the job to someone sharper. Price too low and you win it, then watch the margin disappear the moment you place an order and see what materials actually cost this month.

Rates move faster than your last job

Material costs shift job to job, sometimes month to month. Labour rates in one region aren't the same as another. A subcontractor package that cost you a certain figure last winter isn't the same figure now. If your pricing is built on a rate card you last updated a while back, you're not pricing the job in front of you, you're pricing a job that no longer exists.

Price against current UK numbers, not memory

The way round this is straightforward: price against current rates for the region and trade you're actually working in, not whatever's sitting in an old spreadsheet. That means checking material costs close to the date you're pricing, and checking labour and subcontractor rates for where the job actually is, not a national average that doesn't reflect it.

We build our pricing from current UK rates, checked against the region and trade on your job, backed by 25+ years contractor-side. When we price a bill of quantities for you, the rates in it are the rates that reflect what things cost now, not what they cost when you last looked.

Bid the number the job actually costs today

Every job you price is a snapshot of a market that's already moving. Price it against current numbers and you stand a chance of winning it at a margin you can actually keep.

Send your drawings and we'll price the whole job against current UK rates. See a sample estimate to see how the pricing is laid out.

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