# Estimating Excavation



## poloski (Feb 5, 2008)

I am still in college majoring in Management of Construction and Land Development and will be interning with a large construction firm this summer doing cost estimation. I have alot of interest in excavation and have always wanted to build ponds, etc. My question is, is there such a job where you can have your own business simply estimating excavation? Or does the person actually doing the excavation do the estimating themselves? Thanks for your help, Paul


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## Blas (Jan 29, 2008)

Yes, this person is called a consultant and is usually some sort of enginerd.(civil engineer for the lay people) I have thought about this as a business.
The only problem with this is, that it is hard to judge market unless your in it. Costs vary greatly across regions and it would be difficult to really nail down good unit prices. Besides that most large out fits employ full time estimators and use them as project managers as well. So this type of business, in my opinion would be very difficult to be competitive. Not to mention owners in small businesses are really the ones who make the decisions on what they want to take gambles on. But that's just my opinion so don't get discouraged.:whistling:thumbsup:


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## rino1494 (Jan 31, 2006)

How can you estimate if you have never done the work. One thing that you do is take-offs.


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## poloski (Feb 5, 2008)

I have done construction work. Also they train you how they want you to learn cost estimating.


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## Blas (Jan 29, 2008)

What Rino is trying to say is that learning the processes in excavating take onsite experience with excavation specific training, which I don't care where you go to school they can not teach you. Cost estimating for excavation is much more difficult than cost estimation for general building construction. I have no Idea what your onsite experience is, but when I got out of college The experience I had from working out in the field was invaluable. The construction management program that I went through did not prepare me at all for the actual Job and I went to the "best program available for construction management" in Minnesota....I hope you can keep your mind open to the concept of field training being just as important as school. College will give you the tools and Field experience will get you jobs.. Good luck in the future man it's gonna be a bright one.:thumbsup:


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