What an estimator needs before a price
Six lines that turn a two-day quote into a two-hour one, and the two that cause almost every re-price.
Most enquiries that sit on the desk are not sitting there because the job is hard. They are sitting there because something has to be asked before anyone can put a number on it, and the answer takes a day to come back.
Here is what we need. It is short.
The six
- Section and grade. 152 × 89 × 16 UB in S275 is a price. “Some beams” is a phone call.
- Quantity, and whether it repeats. Forty of a thing is not forty times one of a thing. The setting is the same either way, so the fortieth is cheaper than the first.
- Finish. Self-colour, primed, or galvanised. Galvanising is a fixed three-day turn and it goes on the lead time, not in it.
- Holes and connections. Bolted or welded, and who is supplying the fittings. This is the single biggest swing in a fabrication price.
- Where it is going. Delivered on our wagon, collected, or erected. If it is going up a stair or through a door, say so now rather than on the day.
- When you need it. Not the ideal date — the date after which it is a problem.
The two that cause the re-prices
Tolerances that were never stated. If nothing is called on the drawing we work to the shop standard, and the shop standard is fine for almost everything. It is not fine for a part that has to line up with somebody else’s holes. That is worth one sentence on the enquiry.
Steel that has to be ordered in. We hold S275 and S355 section, plate to 25 mm, and common sheet. Stainless, aluminium and anything unusual is a next-day call-off, which is not slow, but it is a day nobody had counted.
What you get back
A price, a lead time from drawing approval, and a note of anything we have had to assume. If an assumption is wrong, tell us and the price moves — better then than after the steel is cut.
Two working days, most weeks. Ring the shop if it is urgent and we will tell you honestly whether it is.