What We Do

Mulford Cost Management, LLC is a company that provides professional cost estimating services to the construction community in North Carolina.

We have been involved in cost estimating for over 30 years. In the last 5 years we have completed over 400 estimates on projects ranging in size from below $1 m to over $100 m.

We are pleased to report that our results are excellent. Even when estimating from preliminary design information we are able to be very accurate in predicting costs. This is due to the experience gained from estimating many different projects over a number of years under varying market conditions.

Our knowledge of construction costs is often utilized by our clients at the very beginning of a project when only conceptual design information is available. Being able to provide accurate cost advice at such an early stage of design can provide early detection of cost overruns and help avoid wasted design input. Throughout the design phase we are also able to provide value engineering suggestions, cost analysis of different design approaches or building components which allow the design team to make decisions on how best to fulfill the client’s program requirements within the available funds.

How We Go About Performing a Cost Estimate

During the initial stages of a project we strive to gather as much information about the project as we can. This may take the form of drawings, sketches, photographs, written descriptions of design systems. Face to face meetings, conference telephone calls along with on line presentations are some of the other techniques that can be used to communicate the design scope of work. Our goal is to understand as much as we can about the design intent even if the information is not currently indicated on drawings.

We always advise our clients that the first cost estimate is the most important one as it sets the parameters for the rest of the project. It is also the one with the least amount of available information. However, by using our construction and estimating knowledge gained over many years we are still able to provide a detailed and very useful estimate from which major decisions can be made. We feel the extra effort spent at the beginning of a project is well spent and gets the project moving on the correct path.