RateBuild 2: Building a unit rate
Part 2 of the RateBuild series. Build a construction unit rate from scratch: labour, equipment and materials line by line, with formula pricing and wastage, using floor tiling at $143.76 per square metre as the worked example. Everything shown can also be done by asking the Map Metra connector in Claude or ChatGPT.
How to
- 1
Opening the rate breakdown
Double-click the code to open its rate breakdown. The Rate tab shows the result, and it is locked, because it is worked out from the lines on the Resources tab.
- 2
Labour
Choose Add item. Each line has a type, a name, a quantity, a unit and a price.
- 3
Working alongside
Add a labourer the same way, at fifty dollars an hour. Then tick Alongside.
- 4
Equipment
Change the type to Equipment for plant and tools. Here, a wet saw for cutting the tiles runs for the same zero point six seven hours, at three dollars twenty five an hour.
- 5
Materials and formulas
Materials work the same way. Tiles come in boxes, so type the price as a sum, starting with an equals sign.
- 6
Adhesive and grout
Add the adhesive at five and a half kilograms per square metre, priced from a twenty kilogram bag at twenty eight dollars. Then the grout, at zero point four four kilograms, from a five kilogram bag at thirty dollars.
- 7
The Rate tab
Back on the Rate tab, the lines are summed into a labour rate, a material rate and an equipment rate. Together, they make the combined rate of one hundred and forty three dollars seventy six per square metre.
- 8
Saving the rate
Choose Save. In the library, the code now shows its labour, its material and equipment, and its rate, and the Unpriced label has gone.