Estimating

Our Approach

Your entire project team can be confident of DOC's ability to provide accurate estimates. Our estimating staff is deeply experienced in determining costs for all types of academic facilities. We know the construction market because we are constantly working in it as CMs and as general contractors.

Participants in Estimating

• Approval and Accountability — Dennis Fitzpatrick, President of Daniel O'Connell's Sons, personally reviews and approves all major estimates and bids.
• Estimating Staff and Director — All estimating services are provided by DOC's in-house estimating group under the direction of our Chief Estimator, Philip Torrey.
• Project Team Input — We also involve our project managers, superintendents and other project team members in the estimating process. We gain the benefit of their understanding construction management to establish a basis for their accountability to keep actual construction costs within budget.
• Trade Contractor Input — DOC maintains active working relations with local and regional trade contractors who offer direct understanding of the scope and cost of this kind of work. DOC incorporates input from these contractors and suppliers into our preliminary estimates. We do so in a manner that does not compromise our ability to obtain competitive bids for all components of the work.

Preparing the GMP

When preparing the GMP for all work, DOC will competitively bid as much work as practicable with not less than three prequalified subcontractors for each trade or bid package. These bids will provide the basis for the Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) once project scope, quality, quantities, and schedule can be set with some degree of finality.

In order to minimize risk for our clients, DOC believes the GMP should be based upon actual bid prices. We supplement such “actual cost” data with our own in-house estimates in order to provide the most accurate GMP possible. We review the proposed GMP with the project team to ensure mutual understanding of all cost related issues and to establish appropriate contingency levels.

Since each project offers different challenges, we constantly modify our approach to establish the GMP.

History of Preconstruction

Budgeting

Daniel O'Connell's Sons takes great pride in the accuracy of our long range cost estimating. Our historical database is invaluable in translating conceptual ideas into solidly defined costs. Our clients should expect the highest level of confidence in our cost projections. We are confident in our work and hope that you will find some level of comfort in the following statements:

Of our last 23 CM projects, Daniel O'Connell's Sons' cost estimating accuracy from Initial (Schematic) Budgets to creation of the GMP has averaged less than one-half percent (-0.43%) below the competitively bid Guaranteed Maximum Price.