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Unit: Planning and costing

LMFFL3001A: Plan and cost flooring technology work

Section 4: Estimating costs

Material costs


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Audio for slide 1 (mp3 |6|KB)

To estimate material costs, you need to start with the following information from your site assessment documents:

  • floor covering type and quantity

  • underlay type and quantity

  • hardware and trims.

Then you multiply the unit price for each of these items by the quantity required.

Finally, you add an allowance for consumable items, such as blades, nails, glue, joining tape, and so on.

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Audio for slide 2 (mp3 |6|KB)

An example

Say you had a carpet installation that required the items and quantities set out below:

     
Carpet

100% nylon high-low pattern - 3660 mm: 17.6 lineal metres

Underlay

foam - 1830 mm

Trims

T capping - gold

Carpet gripper     

Smooth edge pre-nailed concrete

The best way to set out the cost calculations is to use a table format, like the one below. This allows you to see the individual figures easily and double-check all your sums.

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MaterialUnit priceQuantityTotal
Carpet - 100% nylon high-low (3.66 m)$45.00 l/m17.6 l/m792.00
Foam underlay (1.83 m)$8.35 l/m35.2 l/m293.92
Gold trims$2.00 l/m2.5 l/m5.00
Smooth edge pre-nailed carpet gripper$1.45 each4159.45
Consumables (blades, joining tape, etc.)$15.00
Total material costs$1165.37


Learning activity

Audio 3 (mp3 |6|KB)

You have completed a site assessment and measure-up for a flooring installation at Sunnyvale. The materials required to complete the job are shown below.

Work out the total cost of materials, setting out your calculations in a table format.

For the purposes of this exercise, we'll say that all prices exclude GST. We will talk more about GST later in this section.

Product

Price (exc. GST)

Quantity

Vinyl planks 'Beech' finish

$35 per m2

9 boxes (2.5 m2 per box)

Ardit K15 smoothing compound      

$67.55 per 20 kg bag

3 bags

Anchor-weld UF1 adhesive

$57.40 per 15 L drum      

1 drum

Consumables

$20 allowance

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