Piping cost estimates (pt 7)

With this month's presentation of labour cost data for the field fabrication of butt welds, we reach the end - in every sense - of our long-running series on estimating the costs of pipework. Starting back in September 1999, the seven-part series has embraced every aspect of undertaking a piping project, from preliminary bidding through to detailed estimation of labour costs for the various types of pipework fabrication required on or off site.

To recap briefly, the series has touched on area correction factors such as height and congestion; labour correction factors, with special emphasis on the need to take account of varying levels of workforce efficiency; and on to the graphical presentations of fabrication costs for the different modes of cutting, threading, jointing and welding a wide range of pipe sizes in a variety of materials of construction.

We finish off the series with just such a set of graphs. Figures 17-19 show the manhours required for the field fabrication of butt welds under all the major schedules (sch 20 through 160), together with data (Fig 20) for standard pipe and extra strong pipe of respective thicknesses of 3/8in and 1/2in.

For those of you who keep file copies of PE, the other six parts of the series appeared in September, October and November 1999, continuing in January, February and April this year. If anyone requires missing sections - or, indeed, the whole series - please fax the Editor on 020 7970 4191. If there is sufficient demand we will consider reprinting the entire series as a separate document. PE

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