Before pricing crew labor, name the confined-space entry program, ladder safety program and excavation protective system the work requires. An estimator knows the scope, the quantities and how many people will swing tools. What the estimate often leaves out is how much of each shift goes to safety work that has to happen before a task can start. On confined-space entry, ladder work and excavation, that work is not overhead you can absorb later. It is a set of programs the crew has to have in place, and each one changes how many hours the job takes.
Before you price labor, ask a plain question: which safety programs does this crew have to name and run? If the answer is vague, the labor number will be vague too. A permit system adds time to every entry into a space. A ladder routine adds minutes at the start of each shift. A trench that needs an engineered protective system adds design and paperwork before anyone digs, and that can push back the start date and leave the crew waiting.
The lens for this post is labor hours. A program that is named in the bid but not priced is still a gap, because the crew will spend time on it either way. Start with the contract's safety requirements and the drawings, and mark every task that touches a confined space, a ladder or a trench. For each one, write down what the crew does, how often it happens, and who does it. Those three answers are the labor build-up the rest of this post walks through.
This post covers three programs that come up again and again on this kind of work:
- The confined-space entry program
- The ladder safety program
- The excavation protective system
Each one gets its own section below, in the order I would work through them on a bid. For each one I point to the official text behind the requirement and say what it means for labor hours. Where I quote a rule, the link goes to the page the quote came from. Where I describe general practice, I say so, because general practice is not a rule, and your contract or your local regulator may ask for more.
A note on sources. The confined-space guidance comes from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. The ladder guidance comes from Oregon OSHA, and the excavation rule is a Washington administrative rule issued under state statute. These are different agencies in different places, and their requirements do not carry over to your job on their own. Read them to see what a requirement looks like and what it asks of a crew. Then confirm the text that governs the site you are bidding, and price from that text.
1. Name the confined-space entry program
Start by deciding which spaces the crew will enter. Whether a given space counts depends on the definition in the rule that governs the site, so the first task is a walk-through that lists every space by name and every entry the schedule calls for. That list is the input to every labor line that follows.
In the field, the steps run in order. The permit is opened, the space is checked, the crew is briefed, the entrants go in, the work is done, and the permit is closed. Each step has a labor cost, and any step can stop the job if a check fails. An estimate that puts all of that under one line called confined space can hide the time each step takes.
The CCOHS confined-space program page says that "to manage the risks associated with working in confined spaces, employers must develop and implement a confined space hazard assessment and control program." That is the document a bid should name. Treat the hazard assessment as a document that should be finished before the job starts, not one the crew writes on the first morning. If the assessment is not finished when you price the job, the estimate should carry a line for it, with the hours and the person who will do it.
Next is the entry permit. The same page calls for "the establishment of an entry permit system for each entry into a confined space." The phrase that matters for pricing is each entry. The permit is not a one-time paperwork task for the project. A crew that goes into a tank four times a shift runs the permit process four times. Include the time to fill it out, to check the conditions the program requires, to brief the entrants, to hold the attendant position, to take any atmospheric readings the program calls for, and to close the permit when the entry is over. Multiply that by the number of entries in the schedule, not by the number of working days.
In general, many entry programs assign an attendant outside the space, and that person cannot be doing other work during the entry. Price the attendant as a full crew member for the length of each entry, and show the role in the bid, so the crew size is not a surprise on the first day. The same goes for any standby or rescue role the program assigns to a crew member.
Then there is the review. The same CCOHS page says the program needs a "program review whenever there is a change in circumstances or at least annually, to identify program weaknesses and make any necessary changes to the program." On a short job, that may be one review at the start. For estimating, allow supervisor and safety time for reviews and changes to permits. Put review hours in overhead for any job that runs past a year, and in change-order language for jobs where the scope may shift.
Ask the owner or general contractor how the program handles rescue, too. Confirm the rescue arrangement for your job before pricing it. A crew with trained rescuers on site carries that cost in labor hours. A crew that relies on an outside service carries it in a different line, and the bid should say which one it has assumed. Naming the program in the bid means naming the spaces, the entry count, the review plan and the rescue arrangement, so the labor number can be checked against each of them.
2. Name the ladder safety program
Ladder work looks simple, which is why it is easy to price as if it takes no time at all. The Oregon OSHA ladder page sets out where the risk actually sits: "most falls happen because workers select the wrong type of ladder for their job or they set up the ladder improperly and the ladder shifts or slips unexpectedly." Two parts of that sentence are labor. Selecting the right ladder takes time, and setting it up correctly takes time. Both belong in the bid.
Start with selection. A job that uses one step ladder for every task is cheap to plan. A job that uses step ladders, extension ladders, platforms and fixed ladders, each for a different reach or load, needs someone to decide which tool goes where, and the crew has to move the right ones to the right places. Build that time into the first hour of each shift, or into the setup for each work area, depending on how the work is split. A selection step that is never written down tends to get skipped on busy days, and then the labor estimate was too low from the start.
Then comes setup. A ladder placed on firm, level footing and secured as its labels direct takes longer than one leaned against a wall. Estimate the setup for each location: the walk to the spot, the check of the ground, the placement, and the check that the ladder is secure before anyone climbs. Multiply that by the number of relocations the work needs. That number is easy to undercount when the drawings show a single work area, because a crew moves a ladder every time the task moves a few feet.
Ground conditions change setup time too. Wet, sloped or soft ground takes more time to prepare than a dry, level floor, and a crew working outdoors may need to re-check placement after rain. Put a note in the setup line for the site conditions the bid assumes. For related estimating checks, see ladder setup figures for crew hours.
Inspection is the next line. In general, ladder programs include a check of each ladder before use, and some require a record of it. A ladder that fails the check comes out of service, so on longer jobs the replacement cost and the time to swap the ladder belong in the estimate too.
Training is the other labor line. Workers who select and set up ladders need to know the ladder types on the job, how to read the labels, and how to spot a damaged rung or a worn foot. That training usually happens before the work starts, and a bid that prices only the work itself will miss it. Whether the training is done in house or by an outside trainer changes the cost, so name the source in the bid.
The same Oregon OSHA ladder page covers two cases that can come up on jobs like this. It states the agency's position on whether fall protection requirements apply to fixed ladders used only for emergency evacuations. It also clarifies how one standard applies to manhole steps, both where employees use steps in walls and where they use them in the conical top sections of manholes. If the job includes those cases, read the relevant sections before you price fall protection.
Name the ladder program in the bid as a short list: the ladder types on the job, the selection step, the setup routine for each location, the pre-use check, and the replacement plan. That is the form a labor estimate can be checked against once the crew is on site.
3. Name the excavation protective system
Excavation is where safety programs can change the schedule as well as the cost. The Washington State rule on sloping and benching is specific about approvals. It says that "sloping and benching systems not utilizing Option 1 or Option 2 or Option 3 under subsection (2) of this section must be approved by a registered professional engineer." For an estimator, the test is a plain comparison. Does the crew's planned system match one of the listed options? When engineering approval is required, carry its cost and lead time separately from the labor rate. Put it in its own line and build the schedule around it.
Approval time is a schedule item. If the planned system needs an engineer's approval, the bid should show when the design is requested, how long the review is expected to take, and what the crew does while it waits. Crews can often start site work that does not depend on the design, such as access and spoil areas, so the labor can be spread across the wait. That only works if the schedule says so.
The same rule also has a section on the "design of support systems, shield systems, and other protective systems." That means the design of whatever the crew uses is part of the rule, not an afterthought on the day of the dig. The bid should name the system in use: a sloped cut, a bench, a shield, or a support system. Each one has a different set of labor tasks. A shield needs to be placed and moved, and a support system needs to be installed and removed in a sequence. A sloped cut needs to be checked as the work goes down. Naming the system tells the crew lead what to plan for. For the quantity side, see trench takeoff before pricing shoring.
The protective system is planned for the ground the crew expects to find. In general, soil that is wetter, looser or more layered than the plan assumed can change what the crew has to do, and that is a reason to stop and check the plan with whoever approved it. For the bid, that means a line for a supervisor to check the cut at the start of each shift and after any rain, plus a contingency for a redesign if the plan no longer fits the ground.
Spoil and access also take labor. Material dug out of a trench has to be placed where it will not load the edge or block the crew, and the protective system often limits where equipment can work. The bid should show how far spoil is moved or stacked, and whether the layout forces hand work at the edge.
The rule also sets a document requirement. It says: "You must maintain at least one copy of the tabulated data which identifies the registered professional engineer who approved the data at the job site during construction of the protective system." For pricing, that means a document-control task for the supervisor, a check each shift that the copy is in place, and a cost to replace it if the weather or the work damages it. These hours are small, but they are real, and they are easy to leave out.
The Washington rule is the reference here, and other places set their own approval paths and their own options. Check the approval and document requirements that govern your site before carrying them into the bid.
Put the three programs in the bid together. For confined-space work, list the spaces, the entries, the review plan and the rescue arrangement. For ladder work, list the ladder types, the selection and setup routine, the pre-use check and the replacement plan. For excavation, list the protective system, the approval, and the location of the data. Price each item as its own hour line, and keep outside costs such as engineering approval in their own column. A labor number that names these programs can be checked on site. A labor number that does not name them is a guess.
General information, not legal or tax advice.
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