Does anyone have a good feel for sheetpiling unit costs? I am estimating for about 200-300 LF. I have H pile cost information but not sheetpiling. Thanks!
Price depends on a number of factors, none of which you have given. A low sheet pile wall, 200 - 300 feet long, may not have many total square feet of sheet piling. Mobilization costs therefore may be a huge factor in the unit price. Is the wall temporary or permanent? Does the contractor own the sheets or have to buy them?
If you want a meaningfull price, call a local pile driving contractor and ask for a budget price or maybe even a firm price.
Is this for excavation support or barrier wall? Typical installed costs we use for cantilevered sheeting for excavations less than 15 ft is $40/LF. Anything greater, you need to add additional costs for bracing or tiebacks.
ACh, it's actually about 20 ft in depth. The lenght is approximately 200 ft. Not a big job so I think the setup cost will be a large portion. I received a ballpark from a piling supplier of $1.00/lb installed. He also suggested a $25-30k startup cost for bringing the equipment on site. The piling will be purchased and left in place.
What is 20' deep? The excavation depth or the entire sheet pile length? Make sure that you understand the pay area. Is it the exposed face of the sheeting after excavation or is it the total length of wall times the sheet pile length?
What does $40/LF mean? LF of single sheet pile or LF of wall? LF of sheet pile doesn't mean much if you do not know how wide the sheet pile is or how many sheets you will need to drive.
Is the price to include only the sheet piling or also the bracing or tieback anchors? Tiebacks alone could cost about $10 to $20 per exposed SF of wall face. I would estimate that a wall this small could easily cost $30 (not tiebacks or braces) to $70 (tied or braced) per SF of exposed wall face.
If you don't want to think about the required scope of work, try looking up unit prices in Means Cost Guide. I would not go with a sheet pile supplier's estimated price. The sheet pile weight could vary greatly but the installation cost, mobilization cost, and tieback or bracing cost might not vary as much as the weight could. It could cost as much to install a 22 psf sheet as it would to install a 27 or 35 psf sheet. At $1.00/lb, the price could vary from $22 to $35 per sf of steel area.
You need to gather and price all of the pieces of work scope or get a guesstimate from a local contractor after you give him more information.
$40/LF of wall is what I meant. This is a good staring point. We additionally will add line items for bracing or tiebacks seperately if needed. You can also use $1000/ton for the steel and get the installation costs from means. Figure you can conservatively drive 10 pairs per day with a crane mounted pile driver and a crew of 5. Also.....if you are pre-trenching and adding a pile cap....don't forget about those costs. 25-30k seems high for mobilization (I usually have 20k for mob and de-mob). I agree with PEinc that you may not want to go with the supplier's cost. If anything, talk to a contractor who works in your area and installs sheetpiling regularly, they usually are willing to provide a quote pretty quickly.
I agree with most of what you just said. However, if a wall were 20 feet high, at $40 per LF the wall would cost $2.00 per SF of exposed wall face area which is too cheap even if it is for driving only.
