Cost of design services per prepared drawing

[AraEng]

Hello friends,
I have a question regarding cost of design services for typical industrial construction in US. Is there any rough number for the cost of design services based on number of drawings issued for construction? I personally don't like this approach at all, but I've been told that some contractors have numbers in mind for such a measure when it comes to evaluation of proposals. Thanks.

 

[dik]

For most typical projects we have about 40 hours to 50 hours per drawing (not normal, but, we've encountered 60 hours or more per sheet), with about 15 hours of engineering time included. This assumes minor changes during document preparation. I use comprehensive drawing notes and the preparation of these is approx 15 hours to 20 hours per sheet(nearly all engineering time) and with most projects, there can be 3 or 4 sheets of drawing notes (these replace specifications).

Dik

 

[GroovyGuy]

Howdy Era,
40-50 man-hours per D-Size dwg is close to what we use as well (on average). Some dwgs can be a lot less, and some are a lot more.
Another sanity check that I use is the total engineering cost (for a typical industrial project) is usually in the 6% of the project's TIC. For a $100M industrial project the fee, for detailed engineering, should be in the ballpark of $6M. perhaps a bit higher if you are procuring equipment as well (ie as in the EP portion of EPC type contact).
GG


"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)

 

[dik]

GroovyGuy... I should have stipulated the drawing size... I try to pack as much stuff on a sheet to minimise the number of drawings...

Dik

 

[GroovyGuy]

Howdy dik,
I should have stated that the 6% value that I stipulated earlier was for a multi-discipline industrial project. My forte is electrical design, and we typically execute that portion for approx. 1% of TIC.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)