What belongs in general conditions
General conditions are the cost of running this jobsite. A useful test: if the project didn’t exist, would you still pay this cost? If not, and it isn’t part of a trade’s scope, it’s a general condition. Typical categories:
- Project staff: project manager (often a share of their time), superintendent, assistant superintendent, project engineer, with burden.
- Temporary facilities: office trailer and its setup, storage containers, fencing, signage, barricades.
- Temporary utilities: power, water, internet and phones, temporary heat or cooling.
- Safety and cleanup: toilets, dumpsters, daily and final cleaning, safety supplies and signage.
- Equipment: forklifts, telehandlers, hoists and small equipment used by the GC rather than a trade.
- Permits, insurance and bonds: builder’s risk, job-specific permits, and bond premiums when carried here.
How the estimator works
Each line has a quantity, a unit and a rate.
- Per month and per week lines run for the project duration unless you enter a shorter duration for that line (in months or weeks). An assistant superintendent who’s on site for six months of a ten-month job gets a duration of 6.
- Each lines are quantity × rate, for items like dumpster pulls.
- Lump sum lines are fixed, for items like trailer delivery and removal or a final clean.
The estimator totals each category, shows general conditions as a percentage of construction cost, and divides the total by the duration to get an average cost per month.
Cost of delay adds up only the time-based lines at their monthly rate. It’s what each extra month would cost if the schedule slipped.
A worked example
A GC is estimating a two-story, 24,000 sq ft medical office building with $5.6 million of construction cost and a 10-month schedule.
| Category | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Project staff | $256,500 | 69.6% |
| Safety and cleanup | $38,000 | 10.3% |
| Equipment | $23,000 | 6.2% |
| Temporary facilities | $22,700 | 6.2% |
| Temporary utilities | $14,500 | 3.9% |
| Permits, insurance and bonds | $14,000 | 3.8% |
| Total | $368,700 | 100% |
The project staff line includes half of a project manager’s time at $14,500 a month, a full-time superintendent at $13,000, and an assistant superintendent at $9,000 for six months. Safety and cleanup includes 38 dumpster pulls at $575 each and a $7,200 final clean.
General conditions come to 6.58% of construction cost, an average of $36,870 a month. The monthly and weekly lines add up to $24,545 for every month the job runs over. A two-month delay would add about $49,000 before any claim for extended overhead.
Supervision is almost always the largest line. If your general conditions look light, check that every person is on for the full time they’ll really be needed, including closeout and punch list.
Common misses
- Closeout time. Supervision and the trailer rarely leave the day of substantial completion. Add a month for punch list and closeout on most jobs.
- Mobilization and demobilization. Trailer delivery, setup, utility hookups and removal are often forgotten because they aren’t monthly.
- Winter and weather. Temporary heat, enclosures and snow removal can be significant on a winter schedule.
- Owner requirements. Check Division 01 for field offices for the owner’s representative, progress photography, as-built documentation and special cleaning requirements.
Related tools
General conditions sit inside your estimate. Company-wide costs belong in your markup, which you can find with the overhead and markup planner. To compare the trade bids that make up the rest of the estimate, use the bid leveling matrix, and to see how the job’s billing and retainage affect your cash, try the cash flow forecaster.