Metal Estimating Challenges:
Structural Steel and Metal Prices vary widely, even just from day to day. Considering the fact that Major Construction Projects require several months or even years to complete, the risk of the budget and the entire project being thrown into a tailspin is large especially if the potential fluctuations across the proposed project’s timespan are not accounted for.
Competitive Bidding and Winning Major Projects require good and accurate estimates, but fluctuating Steel and Metal Prices can whittle away at your bottom-line at the end of the road, thus devaluing any win to your own bottom-line.
Since steel prices constantly fluctuate sometimes from month to month, steel suppliers always put a qualification that their quote is only good for a month or so.
Similarly steel fabricators when quoting to general contractors also limit their bid to match the suppliers. Due to the fact that steel is sold in pounds, a price increase of a few cents a pound can quickly add up to tens of thousands of dollars.
In addition to steel price fluctuations, scrap factor also affects the cost of steel fabrications. For example suppose the structural plans require 8 inch diameter standard pipe for a column that is 14 feet long. The steel supplier sells the pipe in 30 feet length or 25 ft, this means the fabricator will have to add 11 to 16 feet to as scrap or waste.
We offer our partners the opportunity to leverage accurate structural steel takeoff services. By utilizing top of the line digital software and industry techniques, we’ll generate nothing short of accurate structural steel takeoffs.
Our Detailed Estimates will make sure that:
- Minimum Costs are Incurred
- Site’s Storage Space is Reduced
- Project stays on Schedule
We provide the following Services:
| Cold Formed Metal Framing | Ornamental Metals | Metal Joints | Meta Decking |
| Expansion Control | Hydraulic Structures | Metal Materials | Metal Fabrications |
| Metal Fastening | Sheet Metal Fabrication | Structural Steel |
Metal Estimating Services – Structural Steel Cost Estimation
We manage a team of professional structural steel estimators ready to put their years of experience to use. Better control your costs by mitigating waste and streamlining productivity. Never worry about material takeoffs again. Our team will help you with everything from structural steel to decking, stairs, railing, grating, castings, and trusses.
Our Steel Estimating Services Include:
- Detailed and accurate steel takeoffs and estimates ranging from budget, the order of magnitude, design, and bid estimate.
- Precast estimation
- Cold-form steel estimation
- Steel frames takeoffs
- Rebar estimation
- Structural steel takeoffs
- Bar bending schedules
- Change order management
- Rebar project management
- CPM scheduling
- Conflict Resolution
- Consultancy on smartly filing bids
For Quick Quote On Your Project:
Call Us At +1-703-659-8010
Besides offering manual material take-off, we also utilize high tech StruM.I.S structural steel estimating software and provide material takeoff with full extensions (weight, length, surface area, etc), and price material based on your local service centers and apply labor based on your labor rates to determine accurate steel construction costs.
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What we offer
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We will arrange your take off by grouping steel by their grade.
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Group your material per section or member type.
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Continue grouping by method of tied connection.
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Group structural steel by their location on the project.
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Retain sequence of take off by columns and details.
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Indicate the beams and details per floor.
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Take off quantities for bracing and flooring under a separate area.
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Remember to estimate the quantities of plates, connectors and accessories.
This first step is providing us with a purchase order, architectural, and structural drawings. You must specify delivery dates. Sometimes we will not be able to meet your delivery dates, so it is important that you clearly specify the delivery time.
We convert the architectural and structural PDF files into Autocad files. The converted CAD files are inserted into Tekla model as a reference model.
All major connections are implemented(at extra cost). Bolt grades are not checked. We check material section and grade to make sure they match what is specified in the drawing. For members where no section is nominated, we put them as dummy members. Once modeling is completed, we export the Tekla model into 3D PDF and Tekla BIM Sight model. We do not provide the Tekla model as one of the deliverables.
You might consider listing the materials in your design on a table like the one provided below. Complete the table with the type of section, quantity used, length of pieces, the total length required for each particular section, and weight per linear feet. Once completed, the last column will give you a sum estimate of how many pounds of steel are necessary for your project.
Computing Structural Steel Weight
| Section | Number | Length(ft) | Total Length | Wt/Ft | Total Wt(Pounds) |
| W 14 X 132 | 1 | 20 | 20 | 132 | 2740 |
| W 14 X 120 | 1 | 30 | 30 | 120 | 3700 |
| W 16 X 40 | 5 | 20 | 100 | 40 | 4200 |
| W 27 X 94 | 1 | 30 | 30 | 94 | 2950 |
| W 18 X 50 | 2 | 30 | 60 | 50 | 3200 |
| W 14 X 43 | 1 | 20 | 20 | 43 | 920 |
| W 18 X 84 | 3 | 15 | 45 | 84 | 3900 |
| W 14 X 109 | 8 | 15 | 120 | 109 | 13200 |
| W 24 X 68 | 1 | 34 | 34 | 68 | 2450 |
| W 16 X 26 | 1 | 25 | 25 | 26 | 750 |