Bni cost workbooks
freyr_design
| Posted in General Questions on
Does anyone on here regularly or have you ever used the bni cost workbooks? Do they seem to be fairly accurate? And do they have any relevant data to high efficiency builds? Ie using double stud, air tight construction etc.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Search and download construction details
Replies
freyr-design,
I haven't so this is just speculation: My experience it that the quotes I get for any work vary quite widely, and when you add in the volatility of material prices, I struggle to see how they can give accurate estimates that don't need constantly amending. But maybe the ball park price is enough to give you a rough idea what you are looking at?
Yes that has been my experience as well. I’m more interesting in finding a source for fairly accurate material pricing and possibly labor to sync with my BIM program and use it for a more iterative approach, as getting actual bids is not realistic for multiple iterations on a design. And the BIM software is already generating all the other data, I just need to link it to very ballpark pricing. I get that it’s not going to be super accurate, but if it could give me a little more data at the early design stage it would be nice.
And square footage is a terrible indicator in my experience
freyr-design,
That makes sense. No idea how accurate it is.
"And square footage is a terrible indicator in my experience"
Yeah - and I'm surprised at how many builders around here quote based on it.
In the past I've used RSMeans. I thought it was the industry standard so I assume it is fairly accurate but I don't really know. I believe it gets updated every year, or at least new versions come out every year although you have to pay for the new ones each year I'm sure but I believe there are subscriptions available as well.