The key to any successful electrical assessment is organization and preparation! You need to develop a system for how you take off, and how you collect your data. Before doing anything else, read the plans and specifications for coverage. When you read, pay attention to the elements that have a special influence on the electrical area on a separate sheet, and record the corresponding passage directly in the specification documents. I usually mark special requirements, especially strange ones, directly on the appropriate sheet of the plan, before I even begin to consider anything! The absence of a restrictive note in the specifications can be disastrous.
The next step is to develop a “Cheat Sheet” to ensure that you do not miss any items or phases that should be included. For most types of ratings, this can be as simple as a complete or incomplete list of CSI codes. List the phases that are relevant to your particular situation, or create a master list, and then turn around from there. Treat it as a report description, similar to what you probably did in high school. For example:
General terms
a) Temporary electric power
i Temp Service & Panel with cable and wiring, switches
ii Temp Outlets with conduit and wiring, devices
b) Temporary lighting
c) Trailer site
Site work
a) Excavation and shading
i Equipment rental
ii trucking
b) Underground pipeline
i Transformer for CT cabinet
c) Specific room
You get the idea. Remember that there is no such person. The goal is to accurately determine all expected costs. The cheat sheet should be as detailed as possible to act as a "memory gap" and ensure that you do not leave a potentially expensive part of the work that you are later responsible for completing the work in your pocket! Here, a commercial electrical appraisal program can be invaluable. The entire program acts as your cheat list. While expensive, the best of them will save you enough time to quickly recover your purchase price. For links to our top picks, see our website below.
Take-off should be carried out in stages, following the layout of your cheat list. The key trick that I use is to hang all the plan sheets containing graphs, riser diagrams, installation notes, etc. On the wall in front of my evaluation table. This can take up a lot of space, but I highly recommend it, since many times the planning sheets will link to or overlap each other, and you should be able to quickly and clearly visualize cross-connections. If you do not have that luxury, consider copying key sections of documents at your local copy center.
Once again, a commercial electrical rating program is worth its weight in gold for your takeoffs. Alternatively, you can use a spreadsheet, but you need to have work experience and project prospectus entries so you can create it. A few examples are available on our website to give you an idea of what you need. If you want to learn more about electrical ratings, go to our website and subscribe to the full series on electricity.
