Bidfident for demolition contractors
Estimating software for demolition and soft strip
Soft strip and demolition tenders come down to square metres, gang hours and plant time. In Bidfident you price ceilings, partitions and floor finishes by the m², give the 360 excavator or floor grinder its own hours apart from the operatives, carry skips and haulage as a subcontract, and let the site manager's weeks follow the programme. The bond and insurance land on a summary exact to the penny.
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Sound familiar?
The excavator charged for every gang hour
On an annex demolition the operator is there all day, but the shears only work part of it. A spreadsheet row usually charges the machine for every gang hour. In Bidfident the excavator gets its own hours per unit, so it's charged only for the time it runs.
Skip and haulage quotes on scraps of paper
Three waste contractors, three prices, and the comparison is on a notepad by the phone. In Bidfident the quotes sit side by side on the Subcontractors tab, the lowest is flagged and carried, and you can pick another if you'd rather.
Thousands of square metres, one missed row
Ceilings, partitions and floor finishes over several floors make a long sheet, and a sum that stops one row short goes unnoticed. In Bidfident the totals always include every line that's switched on, and lines to check flags anything with no quantity or hours with a zero rate.
How Bidfident fits your work
Shears and grinders priced for their own hours
Give the 360 with shears or the floor grinder its own hours per unit. It's charged for the hours it runs, while the operatives are charged for theirs.
Operatives and plant operators at their own rates
Set a rate for demolition operatives and another for plant operators. Each line takes its trade's rate from your library, and a line with no trade uses the fallback rate.
Skips and haulage compared
Enter each waste contractor's quote for skips, haulage and recycling. The lowest is flagged and carried unless you pick another, and declined quotes are ignored.
Every floor and the annex subtotalled
Tag lines with a floor, a wing or the annex, group the sheet by it, and collapse the groups to see the whole job on one screen.
Site manager and hoarding in the prelims
Put the site manager in by the week and dust suppression and hoarding as a lump sum. Change the programme from 7 weeks to 8 and the weekly items follow.
Contingency for what's behind the walls
Carry a contingency for what turns up behind walls and ceilings, then overheads and profit, with the bond and insurance on the subtotal after them. VAT is shown separately for reference, and the tender total is before tax.
Worked example: soft strip and annex demolition at an office building
A made-up job, priced in Bidfident: 28 lines of your own work, 4 subcontract packages and 6 preliminaries items over a 7-week programme. The 4 lines this page talks about are listed one by one, and the rest are added up in one row. It's the same job you can open as an example project in Bidfident, so every figure below matches it.
To open this job in Bidfident: sign in and set up your company in the UK, then on the Projects screen, under Example project, pick "Demolition and asbestos removal" and "Demolition and soft strip" and press Add example project.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Strip out suspended ceilings, grid and tiles, 3,600 m2
| £5,184.00 |
Strip out metal stud partitions and plasterboard, 2,200 m2
| £4,752.00 |
Take up floor finishes and grind off adhesive, 3,600 m2
| £5,400.00 |
Demolish single-storey annex, 650 m2
| £13,260.00 |
24 more lines of your own work
| £51,667.90 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Waste removal and recycling, skips and haulage
| £21,200.00 |
Electrical isolation and temporary lighting
| £4,730.00 |
Diamond sawing at annex junction
| £2,310.00 |
Unforeseen buried foundations, allowance
| £3,500.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Supervision, site manager
| £8,750.00 |
Dust suppression and hoarding
| £3,800.00 |
Contracts manager, part time
| £2,310.00 |
Small tools, saws and consumables
| £847.00 |
Demolition notice and building control fees
| £900.00 |
Mobilisation and demobilisation
| £2,090.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Own work
| £80,263.90 |
| Excluded lines, not counted | £1,080.00 |
| Subcontractors | £31,740.00 |
Preliminaries
| £18,697.00 |
Direct cost
| £130,700.90 |
Contingency
| £9,149.06 |
Overheads and profit
| £16,782.00 |
| Subtotal before the bond | £156,631.96 |
Bond
| £2,349.48 |
Insurance
| £1,566.32 |
Tender total
| £160,547.76 |
VAT, for reference
| £32,109.55 |
See it in Bidfident
Coming soon Ask your estimate anything. Claude first, ChatGPT to follow. See how it will work
Questions
Can the excavator run fewer hours than the gang?
Yes. Give the line's plant its own hours per unit. Leave it blank and the machine runs for the gang's hours.
Can I price the soft strip floor by floor?
Yes. Tag each line with an area or location, such as a floor or the annex, and group the sheet by it with subtotals.
Can I price taking down the annex as an option?
Yes. Switch the line off as an alternate. It stays on the sheet struck through, and its cost before markups is shown beside the totals, but it isn't in the tender.
Does it measure areas from the drawings?
No. Bidfident doesn't read quantities from drawings or plans. You type or paste the square metres into the sheet yourself.
Can I carry skips and haulage before the waste contractors quote?
Yes. Carry an allowance for the waste subcontract, then enter each quote as it comes in and carry the lowest or the one you pick.
Can operatives and plant operators have different rates?
Yes. Set a rate for each trade in your library and each line takes its trade's rate. A line can also carry its own rate, marked in purple, for night work or a premium.
Does Bidfident work with Claude or ChatGPT?
Not yet, but it's coming. You'll be able to connect Bidfident to your own Claude or ChatGPT account and ask about your estimates in plain English. The answers will come from Bidfident's own figures, so they match the estimate. It will use the account you already have: Claude first, ChatGPT to follow.
Price your next demolition tender in Bidfident
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