Guide
OPCC Meaning in Construction
What an OPCC is, who prepares one, how it differs from an engineer's estimate and a bid, and how owners use it at each design milestone.
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Sitework Estimating Resources
Straight answers on estimating, bidding, and budgeting sitework, written by field estimators who have built the work.
Guides
Estimating Guides
Guide
Takeoff vs. Full Bid Estimate
A quantity takeoff tells you what's on the plans. A full bid tells you what it costs to build. Here's the difference and when each one makes sense.
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How to Read a Geotech Report for Over-Excavation and Earthwork Bids
Where grading bids are won or lost: the sections of a geotechnical report that change your quantities, your equipment, and your price.
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Heavy Civil Infrastructure Estimating: Roads, Utilities and Public Works
Public works and heavy civil bids are won or lost on the unit price schedule. This guide covers how to build the cost, spread it across pay items, and check it before it goes out.
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Bulk Excavation Estimating for Large Building Projects
A deep hole under a big building is a trucking and sequencing problem before it is a digging problem. This guide covers how to quantify it, what drives the cost, and where the risk sits.
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Commercial Sitework Estimating: Retail, Restaurants, Multifamily and Industrial
Commercial sitework is bid to a general contractor against four or five other subs, off a full plan set, with a scope letter that decides what you are actually on the hook for. This guide walks the scope end to end.
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How to Read a Davis-Bacon Wage Determination
Finding the right determination and modification, reading the rate identifiers, matching the crew to classifications, and turning base plus fringe into a crew rate.
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Prevailing Wage by State
All 50 states and DC: which have a state prevailing wage law, the thresholds, where the rates are published, and how Davis-Bacon stacks on top.
Open the state table →Free Tools
Calculator & Checklists
Calculator
Prevailing Wage Crew Cost Calculator
Build a crew from the wage determination and get the loaded cost per hour, day, week, and unit of production under federal or state overtime rules, with taxes, comp, fringe, per diem, and markup.
Open the calculator →Checklists
Free Bid Checklists (PDF)
Sitework bid scope, prevailing wage bid setup, and geotech report pricing: 850 line items across three printable checklists.
Download the checklists →Reference
Prevailing Wage by State
One table for every state: state law or not, threshold, rate source, and the rules that change the bid.
Open the state table →