What we need from you to prepare a cost estimate

People often hold off getting an estimate because they think they do not have enough to send. Usually they do. The more useful question is not whether you have enough, but how tight a number the information you have can support.

Drawings, at whatever stage

Drawings are the starting point. Concept sketches are enough for an early budget figure. Developed or consented drawings support a detailed elemental estimate or a full schedule of quantities.

Send what exists rather than waiting for the set to be finished. An estimate against concept drawings, clearly labelled as such, is more useful than no estimate at all, and it tells you whether finishing the design is money well spent.

Specifications

Drawings show what goes where. Specifications say what it is made of, and that is where a lot of the money lives. The difference between a mid range and a high end finish on the same floor plan can move a residential build by a substantial margin without a single line on the drawing changing.

If there is no written specification yet, tell us the intended standard in plain language. That is enough to work from and to state as an assumption.

Geotech reports

Ground conditions are the single most common source of nasty surprises. A geotech report tells us what the foundations actually have to do. Without one, foundations get priced on an assumption, and that assumption is exactly the sort of thing that moves a budget after you are committed.

In parts of Canterbury this matters more than most places in the country. If a report exists, send it.

Consent conditions

Resource and building consent conditions can carry real cost. Traffic management, acoustic treatment, stormwater detention, staging restrictions and hours of work all show up as money, and none of them are visible on an architectural drawing. Guidance on the consenting framework sits with MBIE Building Performance.

Programme and procurement intent

How you intend to build affects what it costs. A negotiated contract with an early contractor engagement prices differently from an open tender. A staged handover prices differently from a single completion. Fast tracking costs money. Tell us what you are planning and the estimate reflects reality rather than a generic assumption.

What happens if something is missing

Nothing stops. We price it as an assumption, write the assumption down, and flag it as a risk item with a range attached. You then know precisely which unknowns are carrying the most cost risk, which is often the most useful output of an early estimate.

The worst outcome is not a missing document. It is an assumption that was made silently and never written down, because that is the one that surfaces as an argument later.

The short version

Send the drawings you have, plus any specification, geotech report and consent conditions that exist, and a line about how you intend to procure and stage the work. If some of that does not exist yet, send what does.

We will come back with a fee proposal and tell you what can sensibly be produced from it. Call Adam on 021 701 664.