System and method for estimating construction project costs and schedules based on historical data

A method of estimating construction project costs, comprising the steps of:

• accessing a historical construction job database that stores construction job data including, for a plurality of previously completed construction jobs and construction job portions, factual labor time quantity data, and factual project pictures;
• entering project definition parameters that define portions of a user specified project for which a cost estimate is needed, and displaying images, the displayed images including pictures of previously completed construction jobs and construction job portions for which factual labor time quantity data is stored in the historical construction database;
• presenting to the user project pictures from the historical construction job database for ones of the previously completed construction jobs and job portions consistent with the project definition parameters entered by the user;
• prompting the user to select one or more of the previously completed construction jobs and job portions that are most consistent with the user specified project based on a comparison by the user of the presented project pictures with what the user expects the user specified project to look like;
• and
• retrieving the factual labor time quantity data in the historical construction job database for the one or more user selected previously completed construction jobs and computing an initial job cost estimate and an initial job duration estimate for the user specified project in accordance with the entered project definition parameters and the retrieved factual labor time quantity data in the historical construction job database for the one or more user selected previously completed construction jobs and presenting the initial job duration estimate to the user;
• wherein when the user selects more than one previously completed construction job, the estimate computing step combines the retrieved factual labor time quantity data for the user selected construction jobs to generate average labor time quantity data for use when computing the initial job cost estimate and initial job duration estimate.

A computer program product for generating construction job cost and duration estimates, the program product comprising:

• a recording medium readable by a computer, comprising a historical construction job database that stores historical construction job data including, for a plurality of previously completed construction jobs and construction job portions, factual labor time quantity data, and factual project pictures;
• best historical construction job selection means for presenting on a user interface project pictures from the historical construction job database for ones of the previously completed construction jobs and job portions consistent with the project definition parameters entered by a user via the user interface, and for prompting the user to select one or more of the previously completed construction jobs and job portions that are most consistent with the user specified project based on a comparison by the user of the presented project pictures with what the user expects the user specified project to look like;
• and
• estimate computation means for retrieving the factual labor time quantity data in the historical construction job database for the one or more user selected previously completed construction jobs and computing an initial job cost estimate and an initial job duration estimate for the user specified project in accordance with the entered project definition parameters and the factual labor time quantity data in the historical construction job database for the one or more user selected previously completed construction jobs;
• wherein when the user selects more than one previously completed construction job, the estimate computation means combines the retrieved factual labor time quantity data for the user selected construction jobs to generate average labor time quantity data for use when computing the initial job cost estimate and initial job duration estimate.