Estimator’s Electrical Man-Hour Manual by Joun S. Pace AND Jm G. Nation GULF PUBLISHING COMPANY Houston, Texas— [oe = ‘To all Electrical Estimators who have spent ‘many hours burning midnight oil and seratch- ing heads trying to estimate reasonable labor “units, we dedicate this manual.PREFACE It is the purpose of this manual to set forth a standardized method and procedure of estimating electrical installation labor in manhours. For a few electrical estimators, this manual will hold very little, but for the majority of estimators engaged in this field there is a fortune in good electrical labor estimating on the following pages. ‘Too many times we have heard highly technical and complex explanations of electrical operations and installations. While these are in all probability true, still they tend to confuse and scare the ordinary electrical estimator. In many cases this causes the estimator to add to his estimate to be sure that he has covered all the items. As a result, we have seen as much as a $1,000, 000 spread in electrical estimates. This is ridiculous inasmuch as it takes just so much of various types of materials to complete aproject, fand labor and material is worth just so much money in a given area or Jocation. There is jus: so much conduit, wire, motors, equipment, etc. , in 2 project no matter how complicated it may seem to be, and it is worth just 50 much money. Don't let it scare you or price you out of the picture. In this age of rockets and sputniks, electricity is in its infancy; however, there is no reason why the present knowledge we now have cannot be standardized as far as labor operations are concerned. In this manual, you will find no technical explanation as to what electricity is, why we have It or how it is used. ‘The manual is strictly forthe estima- tion of direct labor in manhours. Neither will you find reference to the cost of materials, fabrication shop set-up, small tools, equipment, overhead or profit. If a material take-off is available, this price can be obtained from Yendor's who will furnish the materials. Fabricating shop set-up,equipment Usage, small tools and overhead can readily be obtained by agood estimator who can visualize and consider the project schedule, size and location. Profit or fee is management's responsibility and should be left solely to management. These are items that can and must be considered for the individual project. ‘The method used in obtaining the following manhour tables is that of many hundreds of time-and-method studies coupled with actual labor cost of various operations, both in the shop and field, on many projects located throughout the country, ranging in cost from $10, 000 to $2, 000,000. From careful analysis of these many reports we found that we had an average productivity rate of seventy (70) percent, The manhours compiled through ‘out this manual are based on this percentage. vil