DeWALT Electrical Estimating Professional Reference is the perfect resource to help you successfully bid on contracting jobs anywhere. This book covers the traditional methods of estimating, as well as the "hurry up" methods, while explaining how and when to use them both. If knowing material and labor costs, in addition to overhead and profit margins, are important to your business, then Electrical Estimating Professional Reference is the right tool for you.

From the Preface
Electrical estimating is a critical skill for anyone who charges for an electrical job. Knowing how to install wiring is a nice skill to have, but charging for the use of this skill requires a knowledge of estimating. Unfortunately, very few of us are taught this skill in apprenticeship school.

For a long time there has been a need for a short book in electrical estimating that explains the process in clear, plain language. Our primary goal in putting this book together was that it should be written so that any electrician could pick it up, understand it, and use it. Actually that is how all electrical books should be written, but for some reason estimating books tend to be especially difficult.

Chapter One of this book covers itemized estimating. This is the standard method of electrical estimating, and the only one that works for every type of job. If you had to understand only one type of electrical estimating, this would be the one. Itemized estimating is the basic method of estimating and all other forms require you to understand this first.

Chapter Two covers unit pricing, which is a good estimating technique for residential and small commercial projects. Unit pricing can save you time on these types of estimates, if you use it correctly.

Chapters Three and Four cover communication and electronic installations. These projects are unique in that they require an unusual amount of interconnection. A programmable controller, for example, may be fairly easy to install by itself, but interconnecting it with the devices it controls could take anywhere from one hour to several days. We have devoted a section of this book to the most common types of high-tech installations.

Finally, Chapter Five covers algebraic estimating. This will be of use primarily to full-time estimators. But those who learn the process will be able to estimate it at unheard of speeds.

Electrical estimating takes time and effort, but the basic process is certainly not too much for a competent electrician.