Construction estimating services in Utah

Wasatch Front bench ground and Washington County caliche often require over-excavation, engineered fill and deeper footings. We take off those quantities from the geotech recommendation in your set, not from a standard detail. If the report is not issued yet, we carry a stated allowance and flag it so you know the number can move. Foundation changes move the estimate more than finish upgrades, so it is worth resolving early.

Utah adopts the IBC and IRC on a statewide cycle, but local jurisdictions amend and administer them differently, and the edition in force may not be the one you priced from last year. Snow-load, seismic and energy provisions drive structural and envelope quantities. Confirm the adopted edition and any local amendments with the authority having jurisdiction before you lock a number, and note the edition on your estimate cover sheet.

Yes. Material and labor pricing is ZIP-code adjusted, so a Salt Lake City address and a Cedar City address do not carry the same unit rates. We use RSMeans data as the base and apply the location factor for the project ZIP. That keeps your per-unit comparisons honest when you build the same plan in multiple cities along the Wasatch Front or in Washington County.

Turnaround is 24–48 hours for most projects, with rush available when a bid date moves up. The clock starts when we have the plan set and your scope notes. Larger multifamily and tech-campus packages may take longer, and we will tell you the schedule before we start. Deliverables are Excel and PDF, organized by CSI MasterFormat division, with marked-up plan sets.

Send the plan set, specifications, geotech report if available, and the scope you want priced. Tell us the project ZIP code, the bid date, and any wage determination that applies. If you have a preferred division breakdown or a prior estimate format, send it and we will match it. The more of that you provide up front, the fewer assumptions sit in the final number.

Davis-Bacon applies to federally funded work, and Utah has its own prevailing-wage requirements on certain public projects. We list labor burden and the applicable wage determination as separate lines rather than blending them into a general conditions percentage. Verify the wage determination attached to your solicitation, because the rate that applies depends on the funding source and the project location.

Yes. For owners and developers budgeting before design is complete, we work from schematic sets and deliver a division-level budget with stated assumptions and allowances. Quantities are less precise at that stage, so we mark which lines are measured and which are allowances. That lets you compare options and set a contingency without treating a schematic budget as a bid.

Permit and impact fee schedules are set city by city and county by county, and they are frequently updated. We carry them as a separate cost line with the schedule date noted, rather than blending them into general conditions. Confirm current amounts with the issuing building department before you submit a bid, because a per-unit impact fee in one city can differ materially from the adjacent one.

The permit figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, annual place-level data, and count new privately-owned residential units only. They do not represent total construction, commercial activity or project counts. We use them to show where residential bid opportunities are concentrated and how the single-family and multifamily mix is shifting across the 25 Utah cities we cover.

We cover projects statewide, including St. George, Cedar City, Logan and Tooele. Outlying sites carry real mobilization and freight cost, so we price travel time for crews and delivery windows for material as separate lines. Southern Utah also brings caliche and collapsible soils into the foundation scope. Send the project ZIP code and we will adjust material and labor pricing accordingly.