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Cost Day

Know where the number comes from.

A construction price has three working parts. There is what goes in, what each piece costs, and what is added on top. CostDay takes them one at a time, with steps you can follow before a bid goes out.

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The four parts of a price

  1. Takeoffs Counting what the drawings show, whether that is a length, an area, a count or a volume. Covers naming sheets and marking what you could not see.
  2. Unit costs The price of one foot, one hour or one piece. Covers what a unit cost holds, what it leaves out, and how to date a quote so an old price is not used twice.
  3. Markup and margin The sums for adding overhead and profit, and why markup on cost is not margin on price. No typical percent is given, because none fits every job.
  4. Software One task at a time in an estimating tool, in the maker's own words, with the inputs and arithmetic shown. These pages do not rank tools.

Takeoff cost

Newest posts

Posts, newest first
Post Topic Date
Payroll backup retention: 3 IRS record windows Three IRS record windows help estimators and contractor owners decide how long to keep payroll backup behind a labor burden figure. Unit costs 11 min read
Ohio notice of furnishing: 7 claim review steps Review Ohio's notice of furnishing in 7 steps: confirm the claim route, count the look-back window, sort dated billing and keep proof of service. Markup and margin 9 min read
Markup and margin: 2 bases for a clearer bid Markup uses cost; margin uses price. Compare the formulas, follow a symbolic bid, and name each base so clients can check overhead and profit. Markup and margin 11 min read
Job material cost: 3 inventory accounts it passes through Trace a job's material cost through three inventory accounts: raw materials, work in process, and finished goods. See where estimators can check it. Unit costs 12 min read
Idle facility or idle capacity in an overhead rate: 7 steps Split idle facility and idle capacity costs in 7 steps before you add overhead to a bid, using the federal cost rule as a reference. Markup and margin 13 min read

Five steps from the sources to your screen

  1. Name the sources. Every post lists the pages it leans on, such as manuals, agency pages and the help pages of estimating tools.
  2. Write with AI. An AI tool writes each post, and the text is not rewritten by hand.
  3. Trace each figure. Code checks every figure against one of the listed pages.
  4. Read it once more. A checker model from another AI maker reads the figures before the post goes up.
  5. Mark the examples. Where a post works a sum, the numbers are invented and the post says so.

If a post gets something wrong, read how corrections are handled. The full route is set out in the editorial standards.

Who it is for, and who it is not

CostDay is for estimators who build a price, and for owners who have to judge one.

A post starts from a takeoff, a unit cost or a markup and ends at a total you can check by hand.

It does not cover running a site once work has begun, sending trucks or crews, or setting the fee for an accounting job.

All of it is general reading. It is not advice on law or on money, and it is not an estimate for your project.

What you get from a post

A total to check
The sums run from the first input to a result that you can redo with a pencil.
Sources at the foot
Each figure traces to a page named under the post, so you can open it and look.
A name and a date
The team name, the day the post went up and a reading time sit right under the title.
A next read
Links under each post lead on to more reading.

Newest post: Payroll backup retention: 3 IRS record windows

Construction quantities and price steps

CostDay Editorial Team is the name on every post. It is a group label, not the signature of an estimator, an engineer or a licensed contractor.

To reach the team, write through contact. Mail is the only way in, and there is no form.

CostDay scope and method