What an estimator needs before a price

Most enquiries that sit on the desk are not sitting there because the job is hard. They are waiting 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 lines

1. Material, grade and thickness. “6 mm S275” is a price. “Some plate” is a phone call.
2. Quantity, and whether it repeats. Forty of a thing is not forty times one of a thing. The set-up is the same either way, so the fortieth is cheaper than the first.
3. Finish. Self colour, primed, powder coated (with a RAL number) or galvanised. Galvanising is a fixed three-day turn and it goes on the lead time, not inside it.
4. Holes and connections. Bolted or welded, and who is supplying the fixings. This is the single biggest swing in a fabrication price.
5. Where it is going. Delivered, collected or fitted. If it is going up a stair or through a door, say so now rather than on the day.
6. When you need it. Not the ideal date: the date after which it becomes a problem.

The two that cause re-prices

Unstated tolerances. A drawing with no tolerance block gets priced to BS EN ISO 13920 class B. If the part has to meet something tighter, it costs more, and finding that out after the price has gone is how quotes get re-issued.

Finish on the wrong line. “Painted” can mean a primer coat at £1.80 a part or a two-coat exterior powder system at five times that. Name the system, or tell us where the part will live and let us name it.

The fastest route

Send a DXF for flat parts or a STEP for folded ones, with the six lines in the email. Or use the quote form, which asks for exactly those things and gives you a rough band before you send it.