Academic Hall Renovation & Addition In Adrian, Michigan

Siena Heights University Academic Hall Renovation & Addition

Q: Is this a budgetary estimate or something more precise?

It is a Class 2 estimate — tighter than a rough budget number and built for competitive bidding rather than early planning. Quantities came straight from the drawing set.

Q: Can the spreadsheet be handed straight to subcontractors?

Yes. It is built buyout-ready from the start, cross-referenced against the PDF summary, so there is no reformatting step before it goes out for sub pricing.

When the general contractor needed bid-day numbers for a renovation inside one of Siena Heights University’s century-old academic halls, there wasn’t room for guesswork. With old drawings, older walls, a tight RFP deadline, it was the kind of project where one missed quantity turns into a change order nobody wants.
NEDES built a full multi-trade estimate from architectural and structural drawings in under a week. We covered everything from sitework to final finishes, giving the GC a number they could stand behind at the table.

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Higher

Ed Project

Located

In Adrian, MI

Trades Scope

6 Days

Turnaround Time

Project Brief

Founded in 1919, Siena Heights sits on a 140-acre campus in Adrian, Michigan, where Gothic stonework shares space with newer construction, across roughly 42,000 square feet of academic space slated for renovation. Old buildings hide surprises. Field-verified dimensions rarely match the as-builts exactly, and contingency math matters more than any template ever could.
Our quantity takeoff team logged 1,460 individual line items across structural, mechanical, electrical, and finish scopes. Every quantity was cross-checked against the latest drawing set before it reached the estimate (twice, in most cases). The result was a Class 2 estimate, accurate enough for competitive bidding, delivered six business days after we received the files.
We don’t ballpark structural quantities on buildings this old, and we don’t average them either. A missed beam line on a 1920s academic hall costs far more to fix in the field than it does on paper, so every steel and concrete quantity ran through a second estimator before sign-off. That’s the trade-off contractors are actually buying: not just numbers, but numbers somebody is willing to defend in a room full of subs.

1919

Campus Founded

140 ac

Campus Founded

42,000 sf

Academic Space in Scope

Scope of Work

Every trade the GC needed, priced and ready for buyout.

Every trade the GC needed was priced, quantified, and ready for buyout. Moreover, all of them were delivered as a single buyout-ready spreadsheet, cross-referenced against the PDF summary above.

Structural Steel & Framing

Beams, joists, connections

Drywall & Framing

Partitions, ceilings, soffits

Roofing & Waterproofing

Membrane, flashing, insulation

Flooring & Finishes

Tile, carpet, resilient

Openings

Doors, windows, storefront systems

Painting & Specialties

Coatings, signage, accessories

Sitework & Earthwork

Grading, utilities, erosion control

Mechanical (HVAC)

Ductwork, equipment, controls

Concrete & Foundations

Footings, slabs, retaining walls

Electrical

Power, lighting, low-voltage

Masonry & CMU

Veneer, block, repointing

Plumbing

Fixtures, piping, water heaters

Process

How We Got There

From drawing set to finished estimate, here’s how the six days moved at our construction estimating company.

DAY 1

Drawing Review

Plans, specs, and addenda logged and scoped against the RFP.

DAY 2–4

Quantity Takeoff

Every trade measured off the current drawing set, then checked again.

DAY 5

Pricing & Cost Analysis

Unit costs applied from current regional material and labor data.

DAY 6

Estimate Delivery

Final package reviewed, packaged as a PDF, and sent out for bid.

Need Numbers This Solid On Your Next Bid?

Send over your drawing set (architectural or partial) and get a full trade-by-trade estimate back, typically within a week.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why did the estimate take six days instead of two or three?

Older buildings rarely match their drawings exactly. Six days gave the team room to cross-check structural and mechanical quantities twice before anything went out, which is the whole point of a bid-day number you can defend.

Is this a budgetary estimate or something more precise?

It’s a Class 2 estimate. That means it is tighter than a rough budget number, built for competitive bidding rather than early planning. Quantities came straight from the drawing set.

What happens if the drawings are incomplete or outdated?

It happens often on campus buildings this age. Estimators flag discrepancies against the latest addenda rather than guessing, and contingency gets sized around what’s actually unclear, not a flat percentage pulled from habit.

Do you only work on university or institutional projects?

No. Siena Heights happens to be academic, but the same process runs on commercial, multifamily, and renovation work generally.

Can the spreadsheet be handed straight to subcontractors?

Yes. It’s built buyout-ready from the start, cross-referenced against the PDF summary, so there’s no reformatting step before it goes out for sub pricing.