How to Classify Hard Costs in Construction
Hard Costs are tangible assets that you need to acquire to complete your construction project. Usually, hard costs are easily quantifiable and can be determined with such certainty that usually they are detailed by an experienced estimator. In general, hard costs represent any part of the work or costs associated with the actual project and as a good rule of thumb, hard costs could be around 70% of your total construction cost.
Hard Costs Components on a Construction Project
These costs are normally related to the engineering and design process and are subject to change depending on the AE decision, so that is another way of differentiating between soft costs and hard costs.
Below is a list of common construction hard costs.
Building structure
Hard costs associated with the structure. This category includes all labor and material required to complete the whole building or structure. Everything that is quantifiable and can be estimated must form part of the hard costs.
Site
The difference from the first one to this is that this category includes all utilities underground, aerial, water systems, drains, fire, paving, grading, etc. As explained above, site piping, a material used for paving, sewers, and site work is also part of the hard costs.
Landscape
Hard costs related to landscaping works, including lawns, mulch, fertilizer, and every other material included in the construction of the projects based on the architectural drawings, an amount that you can measure, it can be estimated from historical data between a five and ten percent of the total project costs for new projects and between 10 and 20 percent for remodeling projects.
Change orders
Change orders might be included in the building structure item in the hard costs. Some builders separate this item from building a structure, for the accountability process, but it also includes all additional expenses related to the construction of the project. Insurance costs are normally not included as hard costs and the owner might ask you to submit those as separate line items.
Overhead
Normally everything that is rolled under the general conditions is classified as hard costs. These are the costs associated with doing business, like the management, temp facilities, utilities, tools, and safety and security costs. It is important to understand that all permits and insurance costs are also considered hard costs.
How to Estimate Hard Costs
Now that you know that hard costs can be estimated or quantifiable, it is now time to understand the process of estimating these costs. The first step in project planning is to provide a conceptual estimate. Conceptual estimates are preliminary estimates ranging between 30% and 50% accurate and sometimes are developed doing parametric estimating or using a model. During this phase, contingency can be as high as 50%.
The second stage of the estimating process is when the preliminary budget is developed, providing a range of accuracy between 15 and 30 percent.
This estimate is completed using historical information, bids, proposals, and contingency is now reduced to 20%. Once the project is being designed, the estimator will review the information received and a definitive hard cost estimate will be developed.
Now estimated and hard costs will be ranging between 5% and 15% accurate and are normally developed when the design is at 75 or 100% completed. During this phase contingency is at 15% as more details emerge from the construction drawings and bids are received, general conditions have been determined and escalation costs are also built-in in the estimate.
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