The business of Construction Management consists of professionals from a variety of disciplines. Whether they’re life-long tradesmen, engineers, architects, PMP-certified project managers or business professionals, construction managers are ultimately responsible for the same end result. Because of this, they must have a diverse skillset with a variety of abilities. The prospect of relying on one skill in particular makes a lot of people nervous – math. Does construction management require math? In this article, we’re discussing the five ways that math is needed in C.M.!
Do You Need To Be Good At Math To Work In Construction Management?
In short: no, you do not need to be an expert in math to work in Construction Management. But you do need to have some basic skills.
In 2019, we have tools and software that can do the majority of the math we’ll discuss here. That said, it’s important to understand the basics.
The 5 Ways Math Is Required In Construction Management
In summary, below is a list of five ways that math is required in Construction Management:
- Estimating
- Budgeting
- Productivity
- Accounting
- Dimensioning-Scaling
All of these tasks can be accomplished using addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and basic geometry. Let’s go through a couple examples of each!
Read Next:
- The Difference Between Construction Managers And General Contractors
- How To Estimate Construction Costs: Our Comprehensive Guide
- How Do You Read Blueprints? Our Step-By-Step Guide With Examples!
Estimating In Construction Management
One common part of construction management that requires math is estimating.
There’s a science behind allocating enough resources to a construction project to actually do the job, without going overboard. In either scenario, money or opportunities are being left on the table.
For example, let’s say a wall must be built – it’s a basic concrete wall with a brick veneer. It’s 100-ft long, 10-ft high and 1ft thick (8″ concrete + 4″ brick). The bricks are 8-in long (0.67ft) x 3-in high (0.25ft). How much material is needed?
Here’s how this would be calculated:
- Concrete – 100ft L x 10ft H x 0.67ft T = 670 Cu. Feet / 27 = 25 Cu. Yards
- Brick – 100ft L x 10ft H = 1,000 Sq. Feet / (0.67ft x 0.25ft) = 5,970 Bricks
There’s a lot more to the process of estimating when it comes to construction, but the math isn’t any more complicated in most cases.
Budgeting In Construction Management
Another essential math skill in construction management is budgeting. Without a good budget, the project will not be profitable.
Budgeting for a construction project requires math, for sure, but it requires more than math to create a sound budget.
The process of construction budgeting requires comprehension of the work taking place, understanding what is vs what is not included in the scope of work, having proper pricing and yes, some math.
Let’s stick with the brick/concrete wall example above. What would the budget be for doing the work?
- Labor: 4 Workers x $500/Day x 10 Days = $20,000
- Material: $1,500 Bricks, $12,000 Concrete, $1,000 Rebar, $1,000 Misc. = $15,500
- Equipment: Mixer, Excavator, Etc. = $5,000
- Design, Permits, Misc., Etc: $3,000
- TOTAL: $43,500
Again, this is grossly oversimplified, but you can see that the math involved with budgeting is not overly complicated.
Productivity In Construction Management
Time is money – in life and construction management alike. Tracking productivity and percentage of completion is essential for the bottom line – but it requires some math.
Without tracking productivity, we won’t really know how the project goes financially until it’s done. No one wants a negative surprise in this manner.
Sticking with the wall project from earlier, here’s what the productivity would look like:
- Concrete:
- Poured To-Date = 15 Cubic Yards (CY)
- Manpower Used = 10 Man-Days (MD)
- Productivity = 15 CY / 10 MD = 1.5 Cu. Yards/Man-Day
- % Complete = 15 CY Poured / 25 CY Total = 60% Complete
- Brick:
- Laid To-Date = 2,000 Bricks
- Manpower Used = 7 Man-Days
- Productivity = 2,000 Bricks / 7 MD = 286 Bricks Per Man-Day
- % Complete = 2,000 Bricks Laid / 5,970 Total = 33.5% Complete
Depending on what’s in the budget, you can then determine how well the project is REALLY going once the production rates have been calculated.
Accounting In Construction Management
Arguably the most important math-related skill in construction management is…..project accounting.
Project accounting consists of many subcategories, including client billing, vendor payments, subcontractor invoices, revenue collected, etc. For this article, let’s break it down into two categories:
- Money coming in (billings & revenue)
- Money going out (costs & payments)
Construction managers must be able to account for productivity and profitability (see earlier sections) in order to properly bill the client. They must also track profitability.
Construction managers must also know how much has been spent and how much will be spent to complete the project. This includes accounting for payments being made to vendors and subcontractors along with any upcoming costs in these arenas.
While this can be an involved and lengthy process, it really isn’t math-heavy stuff.
PROMOTION
Dimensioning-Scaling In Construction Management
Construction projects exist on paper first. Throughout the construction process, drawings are constantly referred to. In some instances, construction managers must calculate dimensions based on these drawings using scales.
Dimensions on drawings are important for estimating quantities, site surveying, onsite coordination and a ton of other project-specific reasons. When it comes to the math, though, it doesn’t get more complicated than basic geometry and multiplication.
Let’s say that, for some weird reason, the concrete and brick wall is drawn without dimensions. The drawing DOES show a scale of 1″ = 10ft, meaning 1″ measured on the drawing is equal to 10ft of actual wall in real life.
We measure the drawing – the wall is drawn as 10″ long and 1″ high. Given our scale, the actual length and height are calculated by:
- 10″ x 10ft / 1in = 100ft length of wall
- 1″ x 10ft / 1in = 10ft height of wall
Again, these are grossly simplified, but the math involved in dimensioning/scaling is not any more complicated than multiplication and geometry.
So Does Construction Management Require Math?
Do construction managers need to have some math skills? Yes.
Are those math skills relatively basic? Yes.
Do you need to be REALLY good at math to work in construction management? No.
If this is something that’s been worrying you – at least you can breathe a sigh of relief! If you get the basics down, you’ll be fine.
Thanks a lot for reading!
