We spoke to Matt Fisk, of East Coasts Group, based in Woodbridge, Suffolk, who runs the company alongside his wife and fellow Director, Jodie Fisk, about how he uses estimating services to work more efficiently.
We set up East Coasts Group in 2015. I’m an electrician by trade but after a while I wanted to do something different. I started doing general building and converted an outbuilding into two holiday apartments for some customers called Chris and Diane. We struck up a great relationship and, after the job was complete, we thought “why don’t we do this again?” and East Coasts was born.
We’re a small developer working mostly on new builds in the Coastal areas of Suffolk. Typically, we buy the land, build the home and then sell it on. However, as I’m sure other builders-turned-developers are finding right now, land prices have gone up so much that we’re doing more custom build-type projects where customers buy the land and work with us to build their property.
When I first made the move from electrics to general building, and for some years after, I was estimating projects myself. While I’d plan a job in stages, I would easily spend at least a full day working out materials needed, costing them and trying to build some sort of schedule.
I’d then have to repeat that at different stages of the build, as well as make sure we had what we needed on site, ordering it from the merchant etc. And usually, we have two builds on the go at once, so it was double the work at the same time.
Doing it all myself was taking me away from running the sites and when any of the team were off or ill, for example, I couldn’t just jump on the tools, and I would need to pay for extra labour.
New approach to new builds
I heard about Build Aviator from my merchant, and thought I’d give it a try. I’ve used the company’s estimating services over 20 times now. It basically involves me giving them the plans for the project and then I have a chat with Ian Stacey our estimator and he does the rest. I get back a report for me which has a bill of quantities, build schedule and costs, which are personalised to our labour rates and terms.
I also get a customer report with less detail, but has a breakdown of costs, invoicing schedule and timelines. We’re now a Build Aviator Business class customer too so we get a report with our branding that looks really impressive. Now we’re doing more customer-facing projects, it’s great to take this report, sit down with the customer and talk through the timescales and costs. It really helps with the relationship and having good communication.
Smoother sailing
Where Build Aviator has really made the difference is time and accuracy. I can now focus on running our sites and business or being on the tools if I need to be. I don’t need to be estimating the next job or scheduling materials because our local branch has a copy of the report too and knows where we are on the job so can order what we need on time and in advance.
That was particularly helpful when materials were in short supply as the merchant had much better idea of lead times than us. While lead times have got a lot better recently, I’m sure other builders are still finding that prices are up and down. Build Aviator helps here too because the reports are based on live material prices. They also have a service called Profit Check where they’ll re-run our original estimate when we start the job. We get a document back that shows any changes in prices line-by-line and then can update the customer or be aware of it in terms of our profits. We’re much more in control.
We now use Build Aviator on every project and have recently used the services for a two-bedroom bungalow we’re building for a customer in Woodbridge. We started on site in December and we’re due to finish it in a few days at the end of May. The estimating service has helped it all go really smoothly and efficiently for us and our customer, which is exactly what you want on a job.
For more information on Build Aviator visit Estimating & Building Services | Build Aviator.
