For Property Managers and Property Professionals working with Property Groups and Property Management firms, the budgeting season is a hectic period. Typically, building owners and strata prepare next year’s budget in the fall. The two key items are operating expenses and capital expenditures. Invariably, this means reaching out to numerous contractors, renovators, and maintenance companies to gather numbers that can be presented to owners and strata. We encounter four common pain points from our property manager and property group customers when it comes to budgeting season: they are very busy, gathering budgets feels like herding cats, owners expect accurate numbers, timelines are tight, and prices for building restoration projects vary wildly! Quite a challenge — what to do.
We put together a webshop to help: Budgeting Season Simplified. In this one-hour, interactive session, we discussed:
- A clear approach to budgeting for building restoration and renewal projects
- Unit pricing for common scopes like painting, concrete repairs, and membranes
- A tool to calculate square footage from your desk!
- AI prompting to build budgets for common projects
- And we transferred downloadable templates and tools to help with the process
Clearly, we hit the nail on the head (pardon the pun) with the topic, as the webshop was lively and interactive with lots of questions. Here’s a quick look at some of the questions from the Property Manager and Property Group audience and our answers:
Question: What is the best time of year to ask for budget prices for building restoration and renewal projects?
Answer: The best time of year is mid to late fall. Most building renewal and restoration contractors will have a little more time on hand at that stage, and they will have a good feel for material and labor pricing for the upcoming season. Not to mention, fall is the typical budgeting season for stratas and property groups.
Question: How do you view the use of drones for building exterior inspections in terms of accuracy and cost-effectiveness compared to traditional drop methods?
Answer: Drones are becoming more common, and they have their place. A perfect use case for a drone would be high-rise inspections. Drones allow safe, quick access to scanning entire buildings. The keyword is scanning. Although the technology is rapidly improving, drones cannot yet access some areas of a building — for instance, the inside or pedestrian side of balconies, or tight building returns.
Of note, the assumption is that drone inspections will be less expensive than rope access. This may not be the case, as drone operators require a spotter and, in some cases, traffic control for safety — all added costs. So, pros and cons to drone use for inspection. In the coming years, as technology improves, we do feel drone inspections will become the standard for high-rises and industrial buildings.
Question: Are there apps to measure the building?
Answer: Yes, there are. The best tool, in our opinion, is Google Earth. With Google Earth, you can easily measure linear and square footage of items like building walls, decks, roofs, windows… The vast majority of buildings in a given region show nicely on the platform. Bonus — Google Earth works well on both desktop and mobile.
In addition, there are a number of lidar scanners on the market, like Polycam. These apps work by scanning a building and completing quantity surveys as they scan. However, they work best for interior areas. No doubt, in the coming years, technology will improve, allowing accurate scans of building exteriors.
Question: What is the contingency fund for, and how much should it be?
Answer: Since unseen problems are a major risk in building restoration projects, we recommend stakeholders budget a 10%–20% contingency fund.
Question: How should we allocate for a sudden increase in material costs?
Answer: With market volatility, it is common to question how the budget will accommodate fluctuations in the price of materials and labour. The best way to mitigate price fluctuation is to tender the project close to the period of production. Remember, your budget pricing is just that — a budget (typically received the year prior to actual production). You will then tender your project in the year of production to review accurate and multiple quotes.
Question: How much will the project cost per square foot?
Answer: This is a very common question. Owners typically want a quick ballpark price, but restoration costs vary widely depending on:
- Scope of work (concrete repair, coating, waterproofing, painting, sealant, etc.)
- Level of access (swing stages, boom lifts, scaffolding)
- Building design and exposure
- Hidden damage discovered during work (unforeseen circumstances)
As a starting point, and to give you an idea of a typical concrete restoration project:
- Concrete spalling repairs range from $300–$600 per square foot
- Concrete crack repairs range from $12–$22 per linear foot
- Deck membrane replacement ranges from $25–$35 per square foot
- Painting ranges from $4–$8 per square foot
Question: What factors most affect the price?
Answer: For building restoration and renewal projects, areas and items that typically affect cost include:
- Extent of concrete spalling or sealant failure
- Access equipment and safety setup
- Weather window (seasonal pricing)
- Material systems (premium vs. standard coating/membrane)
- Engineering scope and testing requirements
Question: What do you think about using AI to help budget for a building restoration or renewal project?
Answer: AI can be a great starting point to get a feel for market and unit pricing. A well-drafted prompt can yield a great starting point. Here’s an example of a couple of prompts you could use to get the process started. The more detail you provide, the better answer you will receive from AI:
Prompt 1: I am a property manager preparing for budget season.
The building is a [X]-story [material] structure, approx. [X] sq. ft. I need to estimate costs for [scope of work]. What are the rough unit costs and considerations?
Prompt 2: I have a warehouse in Vancouver that has 90,000 sq. ft. of wall space, four stories high. I need a budgetary price to paint the warehouse, including typical preparation with two coats of paint. Include the cost to supply labour, materials, and a boom lift. These are just a few of the great questions our attendees asked. If you would like to learn more about managing your busy budgeting season and requesting quotes for building restoration, renewal, and painting projects, you can reach out to us at 604.420.5552 or email us at [email protected].
