Speci@lEST

Stewart Thompson, a veteran in the electrical and mechanical services industries, responded to growing demand for professional estimating engineers with the establishment of SpecialEST in 2004. The company was founded espousing the aim to "provide our customers with a fast, reliable, professional and cost-effective estimating solution." Ever since they have been providing unparalleled estimating and bidding services for electrical and mechanical building services contractors. Helping them to win work at the correct market value. They have been able to do this for local companies and larger national contractors because of the combined experience of their team of over 125 years, commitment to using only the latest technology, and complete service with aspects not provided elsewhere such as attendance of pre- and post contract meetings and site surveys. 

A comprehensive overview of their services follows, but in brief: 

• Electrical Estimating 
• Mechanical Estimating 
• Takeoff Only
• Bills of Quantities
• Contractors Preliminary Design
• Quantified Schedules of Rates 
• Variation Management
• Site Surveys
• Pre and Post Contract Meetings

Estimates are calculated using the latest software systems - Luckins Software Toolcase and Barnes Computing - that list over 500,000 products with all prices updated on a weekly basis. Enquiries are made to your specified suppliers and subcontractors to produce the most accurate estimate possible. The estimate systems use known and custom scales to calculate a total tender price taking into account your labour rate prelims and mark-ups, industry standard labour timings - or your custom timings - and discounts. The systems can export the estimates in a host of document formats, the most popular being Microsoft Word and Excel, and Adobe PDF. 

Local collection and delivery is available, as well as first class post and courier service national delivery.  

Estimating

SpecialEST was established in 2004 to meet the burgeoning demand in the electrical building services industry for professional and experienced estimating engineers. Since then we have put together a team that have a combined experience of over 125 years in electrical and mechanical services. When preparing an estimate they will bring all of this expereince to the project, whether it is a full takeoff,  electrical or mechanical, or just to supply a material takeoff for you to price in-house. The team can also combine electrical and mechanical estimates.

Bills of Quantities

Bills of Quantities have been the service of choice for our Scottish clients for some time. Through extended use of this format we have become very proficient at producing full Bills of Quantity estimates, that can be prepared from a QS pre-determined BoQ.

Contractors Preliminary Design

We specialise in carrying out preliminary cost effective designs for us to be able to prepare a tender. If this design is successfully submitted for tender, we are able to further enhance the design for build.

Quantified Schedules Of Rates

As soon as a tender has been successful we are able to provide you with a Quantified Schedule of Rates in various file formats, such as Microsoft Word and Excel and Adobe PDF, to suit your requirements.

Variation Management

With your contract secured and all the preliminary designs and Quantified Schedule of Rates previously submitted, we can now make any required variations, by agreeing and logging them directly with the client/QS. With all the variations in place we will re-calculate and constantly monitor the projected final account figure, thereby avoiding shortfalls in payments and ensuring a true final account value.

Site Surveys

If a site survey is required during the tender process we will be happy to arrange for this to take place with a full report, including digital images, to be submitted along with our tender.

Pre & Post Contract Meetings

All of the work we carry out draws on our wealth of experience and knowledge. We are happy to lend our expertise to your client or contractor in order to clarify any points they may raise in pre- or post-contract meetings, relating to the tender prepared. This is a very useful aspect of our service, as we find clients and contractors value the extra reassurance that our input at these meetings can bring.

Technology

We always use the most up to date software to produce our estimates. These systems -  Luckins Software Toolcase and Estimation Enterprise - incorporate the latest advancements in measurements and scales such as electronic digitisers which use known and calibrated scales efficiently to produce accurate estimates. 

These estimating systems give us access to over 500,000 products, with all the prices updated on a weekly basis. Furthermore, we will send enquiries to your specified manufacturers, suppliers and subcontractors for their pricing estimates.

We will then calculate your final tender costing taking into account discounts and labour installation times, where we use the industry standard, but can apply your timings. Our estimate documents can be locally collected, or delivered electronically or by first class post, courier or locally by a member of our team, in a multitude of formats. The most popular being Electronic Estimate format, Microsoft Word and Excel (2007), Adobe PDF (2009) and AutoCAD (2009).