Cost, Wage & Bid Databases: What's Available and How to Use Them

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Hello, and welcome. This is Super Structures General Contractors — a national general contractor headquartered in Powhatan, Virginia — here to help you and your clients build something that lasts. We're glad you're with us, and we look forward to connecting with you.

Alright, Cost, Wage & Bid Databases: What's Available and How to Use Them. Don't let the plain title fool you. Cut through everything, and it's this: Published cost databases get you a defensible number when you have no history; your own job-cost history beats them every time — and the wage, index, and bid databases tell you what the work must pay and where the work is. Get comfortable here and you'll never price in the dark.

Estimators and PMs lean on several kinds of databases. Know what each is for and what it isn't.

Published unit-cost databases

• RSMeans Data (Gordian) — the best-known: unit costs for labor, material, and equipment by CSI line, crews and daily output, assemblies and square-foot models, with city cost indexes to adjust to your location. Available in print and online subscription. Great for conceptual estimates, checking sub numbers, and change-order pricing on public work; too generic to bid self-performed labor on its own.
• Craftsman Book Company — the National Construction Estimator, National Building Cost Manual, and trade-specific titles (electrical, plumbing, repair and remodeling); residential and light-commercial oriented, with the National Estimator software.
• BNi Building News — general and specialty cost books, including public works and facilities maintenance.
• Trade and supplier pricing feeds — Trade Service (electrical and plumbing material pricing), supplier price lists integrated into MEP estimating systems.
• Marshall & Swift (CoreLogic) — valuation and replacement cost data used more by appraisers and insurers.
• 1build and similar newer services — localized material and labor cost data delivered by API and into estimating tools.

Wage databases

• Davis-Bacon wage determinations (federal prevailing wages) at SAM.gov, required on federally funded work; state prevailing wage schedules from each state's labor department.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data by metro area for market wage checks.
• Union collective bargaining agreements for signatory contractors.

Cost indexes and escalation

• ENR Construction Cost Index and Building Cost Index — the long-running national benchmarks.
• Turner Building Cost Index, Rider Levett Bucknall, and Mortenson indexes — quarterly commercial-construction cost trends.
• Producer Price Index (BLS) for materials like steel, lumber, and copper — the source for escalation clauses and forecasts.

Equipment rate data

• EquipmentWatch (Blue Book) rental rates and ownership/operating costs — the standard reference for change orders and claims.
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers EP 1110-1-8 equipment ownership and operating expense schedule — the federal reference.

Bid and lead databases (where the work is)

• Dodge Construction Network and ConstructConnect — the major private project-lead and plan-room services.
• BuildingConnected (Autodesk) and Procore's bid management — GC-to-sub bid invitations and the networks around them.
• SAM.gov (federal), state and local procurement portals, PlanHub, BidClerk, and The Blue Book Network for finding bids and subs.

Going Deeper (Intermediate)

Published data is average. It doesn't know your crews, your market's current labor shortage, or that your supplier gave you a bad quote last month. Use it to check, to price changes when the contract references it, and to fill gaps. Adjust with the location factor and then with your own judgment, and say in the estimate which source you used.

For public work, read the specification: it often names RSMeans or a state unit-price book as the basis for pricing change orders, and names the wage determination you must pay. Price it right the first time.

Advanced / Pro-Level

The best database is the one you build. Pros capture actual unit costs and production rates from job cost by cost code at every job close, store them with the job's conditions (building type, size, location, season, crew), and feed them into the estimating system as company assemblies. Over a few years that history out-predicts any published book. They refresh material prices by supplier feed or monthly quotes on the top 20 commodities, and they track escalation with the PPI so long-duration bids carry an explicit escalation line instead of hidden contingency.

They also treat bid databases strategically: tracking competitors and their bid results by project type and owner to calibrate markup, and mining plan rooms for the owners and architects whose work fits the company best.

Practice Challenge

A public owner's change order asks you to add 400 linear feet of 6-inch ductile iron water main. The contract says changes are priced per RSMeans with the local city cost index. How do you build the price? (Answer: find the RSMeans line for the pipe size and class, take the labor, material, and equipment unit costs and the crew daily output, multiply by 400 LF, apply the city cost index for your location, add the overhead and profit percentages the contract specifies, and attach the RSMeans pages — then compare to what your crew would actually cost and note any difference as a negotiating point.)

In Practice

An estimator with ten years of job-cost history in the estimating database prices self-performed work within a few percent. An estimator working only from a cost book prices the market average and wonders why they win the jobs that lose money.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Bidding self-performed labor straight from a cost book
• Ignoring the location factor and the publication date
• Not reading which database and wage determination the contract requires
• Never capturing your own actuals, so the company's best data is lost at every job close

Takeaway: Published cost databases get you a defensible number when you have no history; your own job-cost history beats them every time — and the wage, index, and bid databases tell you what the work must pay and where the work is.

Educational content. Software products, features, ownership, and pricing change often — verify current details with each vendor before you buy. Product names are the trademarks of their owners; no endorsement is implied.