Estimate erection: hours, crew and trucks

You work for [your company name], a construction company in [city, province], with the TektonAI tools connected to this conversation.

What the TektonAI tools do:
- Scaffold prepares 3D scaffold plans from the dimensions of the structure, or from the architect's IFC model or PDF drawing: dimensioned A3 PDF plan, calculation note, bill of materials in Excel and CSV, 3D model (STEP) and CAD plan (DXF). It revises an existing plan from its drawing number.
- My Equipment is our company's parts library: references, dimensions and weights. It imports our parts list.
- Scaffold plans use the parts of our library in My Equipment when we ask.
- Fencing draws the site fence plan from the perimeter, or around a Scaffold scaffold along a street, with the public walkway: PDF plan, bill of materials in Excel and CSV, and the site's wind per NBC 2020.
- Parts & Materials keeps the catalogue of common building materials (drywall, lumber, insulation, hardware…) with our own items, and produces PDF and Excel catalogues from it. When I ask for a family, give only that family; accessories only when I ask for them.
- Codes gives the exact text of Québec and Canadian construction codes and regulations (NBC, Construction Code, CSTC, LSST…), with its edition and citation.

How to work with me:
- Answer in English, in plain words and site terms. Produce documents (plans, calculation notes, catalogues) in English.
- Use the TektonAI tools for every plan, quantity or weight. Never make up a dimension, a quantity or a weight.
- Produce the plan directly, without asking me to approve it: we correct it later with a revision if needed. If a piece of data is missing, let the tool ask me its questions in its form; do not ask them yourself.
- When a tool asks me a question through a form, let me answer it myself. Never choose the duty class (light, intermediate or heavy) for me.
- Leave plans at the “PRELIMINARY” status until I give you the names of the person who checked the plan and the person who approved it.
- For an import into My Equipment, show me the preview, then import the list and give me the summary.
- Remind me that plans are preliminary: a competent person must check them before erection.

To prepare a bid, you need quantities: how many hours, how many people, how many trucks. Scaffold works them out from the plan’s bill of materials. It gives no prices: you apply your own rates.

Julie Exemple, of Entreprise Démo TektonAI, is preparing the bid for the 3-storey sixplex in Montréal. Her plan is ECH-261029-E16A: the street façade, 453 parts.

What you need

• A Scaffold plan. See Create a 3D scaffold plan.
• Your own rates, if you have them: the crew size, the hours per day and your truck’s load. Without them, Scaffold uses its reference rates and says so.

Step 1: ask for the estimate

Estimate the erection of scaffold ECH-261029-E16A: the hours, the crew and the trucks.

Scaffold answers:

Erection estimate · plan ECH-261029-E16A rev. A · Sixplex de 3 étages, façade sur rue

Result	Value
Erection	19.1 person-hours
Dismantling	11.4 person-hours
Crews and people	1 × 4 = 4
Erection / dismantling days	1 / 1
Time on site	2 days
Trucks (delivery trips)	2
Weight counted / heaviest trip	3662 kg / 3000 kg

Julie reads:

• 19.1 person-hours to erect and 11.4 to dismantle;
• a crew of 4 people: 1 day to erect, then 1 day to dismantle;
• 2 days on site;
• 2 truck trips, the heaviest carrying 3,000 kg (6,614 lb).

The answer also breaks the hours and weights down by part category: bases, structure, bracing, platforms, access, guardrails and toeboards, and ties.

It worked when: The estimate gives the erection and dismantling person-hours, and the number of trucks.

Step 2: read the assumptions

Before you put the figures in your bid, read the assumptions:

Assumptions:

• Durations calculated with the tool’s reference rates (crew of 4 people, 8.0 h per day, dismantling at 0.60 times the erection, 3000 kg truck, a single crew); a faster or slower crew changes these durations in proportion.
• Reference rate: person-minutes of fitting per part according to its category, plus 0.04 minute per kg of part when its weight is known.
• The return at dismantling follows the same truck trips.
• Quantities and weights: bill of materials of plan ECH-261029-E16A, revision A.
• Days are rounded up to whole days; the time on site adds erection and dismantling.

Julie did not give her rates: the estimate uses the tool’s. If your crew has 3 people, or your truck carries more, say so in the request.

Then read the points to note:

Points to note:

• Volume per trip not counted: the packing dimensions of the parts are not provided.
• Lifting equipment capacity not provided: suitability not assessed (heaviest part: Hatch deck 10’, 33.2 kg).

It worked when: You know which rates the estimate used, and what it does not count.

Step 3: the estimate files

Scaffold delivers the estimate as a PDF, on 1 A3 sheet, and as Excel. The PDF shows the results, the breakdown by part category and the truck trips:

Trip	Parts	Weight (kg)
1	254	2999.8
2	199	662.6

Like the plans, the estimate carries a TektonAI reference you can check. See Check that a TektonAI plan is authentic.

It worked when: You have the estimate's PDF and Excel file.

Good to know

• No tool gives prices.
• The quantities and weights come from the plan’s bill of materials. The weights are indicative.
• A revision of the plan changes the bill of materials: ask for a new estimate for the new revision.