National Construction Estimator [With CDROM]

2007 National Construction Estimator I've been using these manuals for 15 years and they are an accurate way to estimate any constuction job you are looking to do. Used in conjunction with your own experience, they make for a good double check on your prices.

I purchased this book for a very good reason: I was starting at a new workplace and needed to figure some estimates quickly for materials and labor take-off. Wonder of wonders: This book delivered as promised! Additionally, the more experienced co-workers there checked out the book and started borrowing it regularly. So regularly, in fact, that my senior is using it for a major project we're handling nearby! You want something that works? Get this!

I have been using the National Construction Estimators for about 30 years now. I've found that their information is amazingly accurate. I first started using NCE for residential construction as a small contractor in the 1970s. During the 1980s and 1990s I used the latest revision for job costing at major government facilities. Since 2000 I have used the latest edition to cost out repairs and upgrades to apartment buildings, and steel structure warehouses. Each year they get the latest prices and revise the book. This year is no exception, the 54th edition is full of facts, figures, rules of thumb, detailed material costs, and everything you need to figure construction work from the smallest job to the largest. Whether you want to add up each spike and yard of concrete, or figure estimated complete subcontract work, this book gives you the tools. Residential, multifamily, commercial, or government, it's all here. Over the years I've found the NCE to be more accurate than construction estimating guides selling for far more, and worth buying a new edition every year.

2003 National Construction Estimator is a specialized resource for the professional construction industry. It is packed from cover to cover with tables listing prices for equipment and materials; estimates for labor and other costs involved in given construction chores; and other matters directly relevant to quickly calculating and recording an accurate estimate. An enclosed CD-ROM contains an easy-to-use program for putting the information of the text to quick and easy use thereby allowing a contractor to arrive upon a useful estimate in just seconds. The 2003 National Construction Estimator is an essential tool and very highly recommended for professionals having to quickly gauge construction costs for residential, commercial, and/or industrial projects.

With the increasing price of Marshal & Swift books, it is nice to have an affordable source of cost data like Ogershok's books. While updates are not quarterly, I find this tiny difference is not a factor in the typical appraiser's practice. I was also surprised to find that insurance adjusters often use this series of manuals instead of M & S or M & S/Boeckh. A claims adjuster told me that many in the insurance industry relied upon the Craftsman databases and avoided M & S products.The price is right and the product works well for estimating both repairs and new construction. I have switched from M & S / Boeckh to Craftsman and Means books almost exclusively.tls