davis.mia•1mo agoMost Upvoted

Overheard a GC on the phone saying he pads his material estimates by 15%

I was picking up lumber at the yard yesterday and heard a general contractor talking to his office. He flat out said he adds 15% to every material quote for "unforeseen waste" but pays his subs off the original count. That means guys like us are getting shorted or having to eat the overage ourselves. Made me think about how often we just trust their numbers without checking. Any other drafters ever catch a GC doing something shady with takeoffs?

2 comments

2 Comments

sage_park61mo ago

My buddy ran into this exact thing last year on a 40 unit apartment job. The GCs takeoff said 350 sheets of plywood for the sheathing, but my guys laid it out for 410 actual sheets needed after all the cuts and waste. Turns out the GC was padding his bid by 15% like you heard, but then he paid us based on his original number and told us we needed to "manage our material better." I dont think the 15% padding is always malicious though, sometimes guys just do it to cover their own ass from the suppliers who gouge them on last minute orders. But if hes paying subs off the lower count while pocketing the overage, thats shady as hell and borderline stealing from the crews who actually build his jobs.

kaib181mo ago

Yeah I actually saw a thread about this on another forum where some drywall finishers were saying the same thing. The GC was using their own takeoff numbers that were way lower than what the subs needed, and then acting like the subs were just bad at estimating. It's wild how common this seems to be.