Spon’s Estimating Costs Guide to Plumbing and Heating Fourth edition By Bryan Spain

Spon’s Estimating Costs Guide to  Plumbing and Heating Fourth edition By Bryan Spain

Contents:

Part One:  Unit rates

Part Two:  Project costs

Part Three: Business matters

Part Four: General data

Preface:

Small plumbing and heating businesses operating in today’s commercial world needs all  the help they can get. The pressure of obtaining work, carrying it out efficiently and  ensuring that full payment is made on time is the responsibility of the firms’ senior staff  or owners. Any source of information that can help in saving time must be welcome and  this book aims to fulfil this need. 

Plumbers and heating engineers have had access to price books for many years but  they were always obliged to prepare their own quantities and extract the relevant priced  items from the books in order to prepare an estimate. This procedure is time-consuming  and it is particularly galling when the contractor suspects that the enquiry is not genuine  but merely a ruse to check a previously accepted estimate. So a saving in the time spent  on frivolous enquiries must benefit the overall efficiency of firms in their pursuit of full  order books and profitability.  This book provides detailed costs of projects in addition to setting out analytical unit  rates. It is accepted that it is unlikely that the projects selected will be identical in size to  those received in actual enquiries but the range of projects covered should enable a  contractor to provide a quick and accurate response to an enquiry by making slight  adjustments to the examples provided.  A detailed quotation could then be prepared if the client showed interest in the  estimate. This should make an appreciable saving in the one commodity that all  contractors are short of…time!  I have received a great deal of support in the research necessary for this type of book  and I am grateful to those individuals and firms who have provided the cost data and  other information. In particular, I am indebted to Mark Loughrey of Loughrey & Co.,  Chartered Accountants of Hoylake (tel: 0151–632 3298 or http://www.yesl.uk.com/) who  are specialists in advising small businesses. Their research for the information in the  business section is based on tax legislation in force in February 2008.  Although every care has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the  publishers nor I can accept any responsibility for the use of the information provided by  any firm or individual. Finally, I would welcome any constructive criticism of the book’s contents and suggestions that could be incorporated into future editions.