Estimating Final Project (Clemson Lee Hall Expansion/Renovation)

Final Project Sample Documents
Final Project Specification Compilation


During my Fall semester of my junior year at Purdue I took the required estimating course.  A partner and myself were assigned to do a semester long compilation of several different disciplines of work for a brand new 50,000SF School of Architecture at Clemson University (Lee Hall).  We acted as the general contractor that would be bidding on the job.  We were focused on bidding specific areas of the work, doing spec analysis's, creating a simple schedule and created and maintaining an Excel file that would encompass all our materials.


Throughout the semester we would be assigned 2-3 week projects that would build into our final project.  The last few weeks of the semester we were assigned a final segment of the job and were asked to compile all of our work and turn it in as an official bid before the deadline.  I have attached a file that shows part of what we did for our final project.  The attachment only includes our summary sheet, recap sheet, concrete take off, concrete reinforcing take off, and our finishes take off.  If you are interested in the complete file I would be more than happy to get you a copy of it, but due to its large file size I have only posted parts of our project.  I have also attached our final specification compilation that we were assigned to do.

During this course I was able to strengthen my skills in the areas of plan reading, Microsoft Excel, reading of specifications and my problem solving skills.  On top of that I also became very good at using RS Means as a reference for manpower production and pricing in different areas of the country.  Another software I was able to use was OnScreen Take-off to assist in our estimates.  The last reference tool that we all had access to thanks to Holder Construction was their BIM model of the building they created for the job.  Having this as a tool was very beneficial for two reasons for me.  One, the industry is heading in the direction of utilizing BIM software on most all jobs and secondly, I am minoring in Computer Graphics Technology (CGT) and use this software daily.


I will be posting at the end of this semester more about the Clemson Lee Hall project because I am currently in the scheduling course here at Purdue and we are using the Clemson job as our project.