Product Review

Estimating excavation can be hard since the material you're dealing with is largely hidden from view. Also you're dependent on costly machines, and operators whose performance can change from day to day.

This book shows you how to calculate the amount of dirt you ll have to move and the cost of owning and operating the machines you ll do it with, and how to assign bid prices to each part of the job.

Detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to read read plans, estimate labor and equipment costs, evaluate a site, determine undercuts, figure factors for swell and shrinkage and much more. Also explains the best ways to set up an organized and logical estimating system, take off from contour maps, estimate quantities in irregular areas, and figure your overhead.