The Book, Contract Scaffolding: Estimating Strategy

Rickyt28 said:
Greetings from Sydney, Australia!

So I've been scaffolding here in Australia for a while now and have been thinking long and hard about setting up my own business.

I really, really want to read the book, Contract Scaffolding: Estimating Strategy by Robert E. Bartlett, but I can not find it for sale ANYWHERE!

It is a little old now (1999) but I'm sure someone must have it somewhere in this world?!

If anyone has it and is willing to part with it or knows anywhere I can buy it, I would be most grateful!

I have tried all the usual places, amazon, eBay, book depository, etc, etc. But I'm in Australia and I wondered if someone in the UK might have more luck finding it in stock in an online book shop perhaps?

Cheers in advance :D

Rik
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What's it about ?
 
dangeruss said:
What's it about ?
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F**k knows to be honest mate.. lol. But I'm guessing its about Estimating Strategies for Contract Scaffolding? :weird:

Did you not get that from the title? :D

---------- Post added at 07:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:35 PM ----------
allscaff said:
I have the book - **** that reads double dutch to me but this guy knows profit margins , a book full of graphs and no pictures

Actually got 2
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Fancy sending one to Australia mate? :nuts:
 
From what I remember of this book It went very in-depth on the costing dynamics of the large scaffolding companies of the 1980/90's. He was a regional manager for SGB in the midlands and spent a lot of time analysing the trade as it was then. Many companies today would give their 'eye teeth' to be able to replicate the returns of that time as illustrated in the book. I too would be interested to see the results of an updated version.
 
Binthere said:
From what I remember of this book It went very in-depth on the costing dynamics of the large scaffolding companies of the 1980/90's. He was a regional manager for SGB in the midlands and spent a lot of time analysing the trade as it was then. Many companies today would give their 'eye teeth' to be able to replicate the returns of that time as illustrated in the book. I too would be interested to see the results of an updated version.
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That's what I was presuming the book covered.. Call me boring but I think it will be an interesting read!:toung:
 
this book is out of date move forward with the times and simply buy an estimating format you can have a choice of case or cad step design by the time you have read this book an estimating format downloaded onto your internet provider will save you shyte loads of time theres even an help line to guide you along with your labour rates weekly hire per job hope this info helps you many thanks scc
 
steelcitycowboy said:
this book is out of date move forward with the times and simply buy an estimating format you can have a choice of case or cad step design by the time you have read this book an estimating format downloaded onto your internet provider will save you shyte loads of time theres even an help line to guide you along with your labour rates weekly hire per job hope this info helps you many thanks scc
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Any websites in particular you can suggest? I'm in Australia so I don't think the weekly rates will apply to me as you say. As said in the earlier posts, the author is bringing out an updated version as we speak..


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Rickyt28 said:
Any websites in particular you can suggest? I'm in Australia so I don't think the weekly rates will apply to me as you say. As said in the earlier posts, the author is bringing out an updated version as we speak..


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Updated version ? I'd have thought apart from sg4 handrails there isn't much that's changed in estimating for about 250 years.
 
steelcitycowboy said:
this book is out of date move forward with the times and simply buy an estimating format you can have a choice of case or cad step design by the time you have read this book an estimating format downloaded onto your internet provider will save you shyte loads of time theres even an help line to guide you along with your labour rates weekly hire per job hope this info helps you many thanks scc
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Yeah but the software is bloody expensive isn't it?
I don't see how estimating techniques can be much out of date, people such as dangeruss still agree that estimating can't have changed much in a long time, so i don't see why it wouldn't be handy..

dangeruss said:
Updated version ? I'd have thought apart from sg4 handrails there isn't much that's changed in estimating for about 250 years.
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I suppose 'updated' wasn't the best choice of word, Here is a quote from the first email Bob sent to me,

"It's true I have been re-writing my book for a considerable time with the main objective of simplifying it and as a result it has evolved into something quite different which I think the trade will find useful and easier to understand."
 
The book your looking for is out of date is no good I paid 750 on the estimating course and it's all ******** there are plenty of formula's out there
 
Hi steelcitycowboy, Thanks for your complimentary post of 13th December.


Fortunately it doesn't agree with the reviews of successful company directors that can be seen on Amazon for the 2nd edition if you search... Books > Contract Scaffolding Estimating Strategy 2014 OR in the director comment at the bottom of the Home page on the book website http://www.scaffolding-consultant.co.uk/insite/

I would be interested to learn why you think its 'out of date' and 'no good'.
 
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Extra information for steelcitycowboy
It is worth adding that, although it explains the different estimating formulas being used in the market place, the book is not primarily about these or the £rates they produce hence the statement on the 1st page of the book that:

'This book does not set out to provide a ‘Schedule of Rates’ for the scaffolding trade. Its objective is to identify some of the more important factors in terms of cost and capacity to trade which underlie pricing and job selection in competitive markets....’

If you look up the thread 'Scaffolding book' my post of 6 days ago gave a simple example of this to another Forum user which he found useful.

A more detailed account of the book content can be seen at http://www.scaffolding-consultant.co.uk/insite/trade.html

As previously stated I look forward to learning the reasons for your negative comments and I'm sure other Forum users will be interested as well.
 
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Question for steelcitycowboy..... Director reviews on the Amazon and book web sites state that the book is ‘really valuable' and ‘worth its weight in gold’ but you said above that ‘The book your looking for is out of date is no good I paid 750 on the estimating course and it's all ******** there are plenty of formula's out there’

Your lack of response to my question as to the reasons why you said what you did indicates that that you were making slanderous comments about a book you had not read. This appears to be because you are not involved in the commercial side of the scaffolding business and do not need to understand the factors that I discuss.

Your comments might be damaging for the trade as they might deter potential readers, especially the less experienced ones, from increasing their understanding of scaffolding markets and being more able to achieve maximum T/O and Profit within their trading capacities.

Why did you waste your own and reader’s time posting your comments?
 
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I have a fairly young company and got this book last year and found it very useful. To start with I used the concept on a portion of our jobs and the margins worked out a lot better.
Now I just use the methods described and seem to be doing ok so far.
I think that if like me you're making the transition from being employed as a scaff with limited knowledge of the commercial side to going it alone then this book can only help.
 
It's not cheap but it'll get your money back and more.
Bob knows his business.
 
You can learn from the people who went before you or learn from your own mistakes. If a few hundred pounds spent on good advice now saves thousands in the future where's the problem?
 
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